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?

This really annoyed me in primary school. My DS has a severe allergy to cashews and pistachios. The majority of shop-bought pesto contains cashews, because they're cheaper than pine nuts. The mum of one of DS's best friends casually mentioned one day that pesto pasta was a great cheap lunch option. They'd been in school together for years by then, she knew about DS's allergy and she'd never realised that pesto contained nuts.

If you don't want to come across as aggressive by reporting, then do as PPs have suggested and ask for clarification on pesto.

And about the percentage etc. my DS had an allergic reaction after taking a bite of a protein bar that contained a tiny percentage of cashew. Like 1%. Consultant told us that there is currently no treatment for cashew/pistachio allergy or desensitisation programme. They're still conducting studies into desensitisation with peanuts (yes, I know they're not nuts) and won't start on other nuts until they have enough data from the peanuts.

When we asked if DS could undertake a controlled food test in the hospital, the paediatric allergy team looked at his skin prick results and said "no way" because it would be too dangerous for him. So it really is not as simple as "cure your allergy through exposure".

I can't believe some of the comments on here!

It’s rare to be anaphylactic to dairy, though, whereas quite a lot of children are to nuts (normally 1-2 a year severely allergic at my DD’s primary).

@Kilroyonly even where you can get desensitisation immunotherapy it is really prohibitively complicated and difficult to adhere to (a friend researched it for her 2 kids with severe peanut allergies). It involves the child taking a maintenance dose every single day for life under strict conditions, eg. the time the protein dose has to be taken each day. It also only reduces the allergy rather than cures it and it doesn’t always work. Not massively practical. See:
guysandstthomasspecialistcare.co.uk/treatments/palforzia-peanut-allergy-treatment-for-children/

Children can't be expected to keep themselves safe from nuts, they're children!

My dd's school is a nut free school. In the same way that they can't guarantee humans using their own free will to bring nuts in, they can make sure that parents are reprimanded should they be found out to be putting little children in danger

Now we’ve clarified (or not) the pesto being a nut/seed thing can we discuss the pretentiousness of sending a child with a pesto, chicken and mozzarella croissant for their packed lunch 🤣

Now we’ve clarified (or not) the pesto being a nut/seed thing can we discuss the pretentiousness of sending a child with a pesto, chicken and mozzarella croissant for their packed lunch 🤣

factually correct :)

www.anaphylaxis.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Pine-nuts-allergy-factsheet.pdf

Does she buy her pesto?

we always made it from scratch. It was one of the few foods on DD’s safe list at the time and we went through so much of it I grew the basil and bulk ordered the pine nuts. Then kept it frozen in portions.

It's not okay.

DS1 has an anaphylactic allergy to peanuts. I cannot actually believe the cavalier responses here.

One of his teachers has an allergy to all nuts including pinenuts and sesame seeds. A child had hummus and veg sticks one day and the mere fact the child breathed out sent the teacher into anaphylaxis. But all that is by the by- if the school is nut free then the school is nut free. And as many others have said- jarred pesto often contains cashews as the cheaper ingredient.

Some people might shrug and say 'what's the big deal'. For others it is potentially deadly. Now yes you can't neccessarily predict if you are about to encounter someone who is that allergic- but you sure as fuck can adhere to a policy. I am in close contact with our school matron due to DS1's allergies and they actually adapt the policies to cater to the risks presented. Only 600 in the school granted, but there was a year where all dairy was banned as well. For us all nuts and sesame seeds are banned currently.

I do wonder, if someone has an allergy to nuts so severe that a child in the same school as them eating pesto could cause a threat to their life, how on earth do they manage to navigate being in other public places?
How would you know that the packed lunch the family brought to the farm trip on the same day didn’t contain nuts?
What if they were in the cinema and someone had some salted peanuts on the go a few rows back?
Can they ever set foot in a supermarket? Or is it ok as long as they avoid the aisle that sells nuts?

I didn’t read into that that she was patronising you.

Reprimanded how? There's not any real consequences is there?

Also staff can also do what they like.

If you don't have enough child who can actively be trusted to protect themselves the other measures can be taken.

But I still agree with Allergy UK, and other leading professionals that nut free schools are not advised.

So how could anyone argue with the professionals? Surely they're right?

Yes please! My first thought upon reading the OP was “is this one of the most middle class things I have ever read?”
But then my mom used to make us cheese slice sandwiches for our lunch so….

There are other types of pesto. It doesn't have to be made with basil and nuts.

Pine nuts aren’t nuts.

This is really not okay. As others have said, most supermarket pestos are made with cashews. Please report and keep other pupils safe.

I have a nut allergy, and pine nuts are one of my worst nut enemies - I think most nut allergy sufferers that I know are the same. It’s really irritating when people say “that’s not technically a nut” etc. Tell that to my swollen airways!!

The French version pistou doesn't contain pine nuts.

I have lived experience of having a vagina. That doesn't make me a gynaecologist.

I give DD pesto pasta for school lunch all the time. No one else touches her lunch and I'm not stopping unless the school specifically says no pesto.

Someone doesn't know their nuts from Thier seeds and legumes!

Surely no allergy is the ‘usual’ experience or it wouldn’t be an allergy. If everyone or even the majority reacted that way, the substance would be classed as poisonous to humans. The point is that we take precautions to protect people, whether their reactions are ‘usual’ or otherwise.

Someone clearly has no direct experience of food allergies.

Shop bought pesto is literally hiw we found out our child was allergic to nuts...because of the cashews so no it's not ok.

My son is anaphylactic to milk. Can I ask to ban all milk products from the school?

The allergy charities are not in favour of nut free schools.

Usually the nut free allergy people can’t eat seeds either.