Pesto in lunch box - nut free school

[Franxie]

I’ve got a friend who has twins my kids class, they are reception age. She doesn’t let her kids have school lunches as she doesn’t think they are healthy.

Today I asked her daughters what they had for lunch and they told me a croissant, mum clarified it was a croissant with pesto spread inside, chicken, mozzarella and tomato slices.

The school is nut free so I said oh doesn’t pesto have nuts in it, she said it was fine, I said it’s really not allergies can be deadly and she insisted it was fine, school never pays attention, it’s healthy and if school ever do ask she will say it’s nut free pesto.

WIBU to report this to the school?

Not all. Tesco finest fresh pesto just has pine nuts, and their finest jarred green pesto. Loyd Grossman pesto alla genovese is also just made with pine nuts. I'm sure the poster is capable of reading ingredients to check for cashews...

You do realise there is a vast muiltitude of delcious lunches that don't contian nuts, don't you?

I much prefer sending my children to school with those rather than have some poor child made to sit on their own during lunch time.

Not true, my daughter is allergic to tree nuts , including cashews and has had a pretty serious reaction to pesto made with them.

This is an insane way to think. Allergies can kill, and these are children we're dealing with

Thank goodness dd's school are nut free 🙌

It is telling tales; it’s pesto fgs, she’s not packing a loaded gun in her child's lunchbox.just mind your own business

Not all shop bought pesto contains cashews - the fresh ones generally don’t, and pesto marked “alla Genovese” usually doesn’t (but you have to check the ingredients).

Allergies can also be cured

OP your kid is literally in Reception and we live in an age where friendships are mainly peddled through the mums. Do you really want to cause problems for your daughter by being a busy body and 'reporting' her friend's mother. NO

Yes that’s true, at least not cure necessarily but desensitisation which can work, but the process is very time-consuming and expensive so the NHS rarely offers it.

I wonder whether percentage affects the effects too

The one I usually buy is 4% cashew nuts

I imagine that I'd have a different reaction if I sat and ate a cashew nut

If my child had a life threatening allergy then I would make damn sure they were cured. My previous neighbour was cured of her bee sting allergy via NHS

Maybe you can approach school and ask them to clarify the policy as it is unclear how to classify some food e.g pesto.

Worked at a school with that had a child with a dairy issue.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-48124973

Pesto, depending on the brand can have other nuts in it -report, report, REPORT.

What as in breakfast in their own home, before school?! Who the hell do they think they are?

Peanuts aren't actually nuts either, they're legumes, so people with allergies are probably safe with those too, aren't they? Sigh. Pine nuts can trigger nut allergies, so for the purposes of this policy, they count as nuts.
It's not about whether kids are breathing in nut-fumes from each-other's lunches. The problem is that children can't be trusted not to share with their friends. They also cannot be trusted not to get traces of their food on their hands, clothes, faces, tables, chairs, door handles, and classroom materials. She should just give the kid something less contentious.

Schools need to get their heads. Out of their arses and scrap these ridiculous nut free policies.

the fact that primaries have these policies is one of the major contributing factors in secondary aged children ending up in hospital, because they’ve never had to be. Vigilant, the nuts have just always been removed for them, and so they take stupid risks and often end up paying for them.

More children are allergic to dairy, but if you banned dairy products no parent would abide by it.

Why are you asking what's in your kid's friends' lunchboxes? It sounds like you don't like this woman for thinking the school lunches are unhealthy/making her own and want an excuse to report her.

Cashew nuts are on the nut allergy testing panel, definitely not ok to have pesto containing cashews

One sneeze later and Mrs Jones is muttering to herself 'blue to sky, orange to the leg' whilst Mr Smith and Ms Brown are scooting Key Stage 3 out of the dinner hall pretty sharpish.

This is also the belief of professionals.
Nut gree schools are actually non existent as they can't be "free from"

It is an individuals responsibility to protect themselves. Just as they have to outside of school

Yes! They said that the children in YR and Y1 were very prone to getting too close to each other and with 2 children with severe nut allergies they had no choice but to request no nuts be given before school !

I have no idea if pine nuts or cashews are or aren't nuts.

But now I really want a croissant filled with pesto, chicken, mozzarella and tomato.
Or a panini. That would be even better.

DS2 had a friend at primary school who was allergic to everything. His mum used to pick him up and take him home for lunch as it was easier. DS always thought it was really sad that his friend missed out on most of lunchtime with everyone else. Of course Mum did what was best/easiest, but all the other children missed him for that hour.

My son has a severe cashew nut allergy and has to carry an epipen as had an anaphylactic reaction to pesto when he was four. Luckily he's ok as long as he doesn't touch or eat cashews, he's fine around other people eating them, and he's an adult now but little kids don't always remember not to share their food or touch other peoples' so I think she's being selfish. I'd tell the school.

I know someone whose only allergy is to pine nuts, he can’t eat proper pesto.
Probably not too relevant to the ops question but you shouldn’t make blasé assumptions that seeds are always ok.

Cashews are nuts. My DC is anaphylactic to them