Nursery packed lunches - allergens list feels overwhelming!

[Querious]

Hi all, NC’d for this one! Never thought I’d be this kind of person to question an allergy policy in schools as I have lots of friends and family both currently and in childhood with dietary requirements like coeliac/ severe nut allergies/ vegan etc which I’ve always tried my best to accommodate when hosting them at mine or going out places to eat. However, my DC’s nursery have created such an exhaustive list of banned food in packed lunches that I’m really struggling to put together something healthy ish that a 3 year old will eat! Not allowed:

• egg (incl mayo and as an ingredient)
• nuts (incl coconut)
• seeds
• fish
• Chocolate
• sweets

I try to cook/ bake most things we consume and keep mainly low UPF but I’m not a zealot about it. Because of this however, the teachers are routinely removing things from my child’s lunchbox for fear of causing a reaction. In the short return after Christmas this has included greek yoghurt with strawberries blended into it (questioned the seeds so replaced with a packaged yoghurt), a sandwich made with wholemeal bread (seeds), a sandwich made from white focaccia (had some black flecks in - pepper, but they couldn’t be sure), hummus (homemade with no nuts but they couldn’t be sure!!), beetroot brownies (too much chocolate), sausage rolls (queried egg glaze, it was actually milk) and a piece of cake (as cakes are made with egg).

Genuinely tearing my hair out to figure out what I can put in a lunchbox that ticks all the nursery’s boxes plus my own lower UPF plus my DC’s picky habits - plus isn’t the same thing every day! For ex DC won’t reliably eat white bread, probably because we don’t buy it, prefers the hardest crustiest uncut bread you can buy 😂 I can’t afford school lunches and the menus aren’t great from a UPF perspective. Help! AIBU to think this is really difficult?

Nope. It was a list of food refused by nursery on suspicion even when it wasn't breaking the rules. The OP confirmed this interpretation in one of the updates.

Hummus didn't contains sesame paste - but might have.
The whole meal bread was oat crusted, not seeds crusted.
The cake didn't contain egg, but got banned because everyone knows cakes are made with eggs.
The brownies contain only a little chocolate, was coloured by beetroot.

The nursery just would prefer packaged food and have issue interpreting their own rules (supporting kitkat).

Agree re hummus and bread but the brownie did have some chocolate and I can’t see where OP says she didn’t put any egg in the cake? I don’t think she said that?
Most cakes do have eggs except vegan ones, but I don’t think OP has said she’s vegan. She did mention trying out vegan cakes on occasion (but they had seeds in them).

I think one of the issues is that the nursery doesn’t list all possible foods that contain the things they have banned. So they said eggs weren’t allowed, but didn’t mention things like mayo or cakes specifically.

The Kitkat thing is bizarre if they don’t want chocolate 🤔

Actually she said the bread had seeds in it, the cake had egg in it and then later said she didn’t always remember to check labels so might have sent other things too. Some of the other stuff is crazy but she has forgotten at least twice, possibly more if they noticed something else. It’s just a bad system all round.

Hummus is made from tahini which is sesame seeds so it probably that rather than the possibility of nuts which caused an issue there.

I agree the note could be a good idea. I understand that they have to be very cautious but hopefully if you provide written confirmation there are none of the banned allergens in the lunch that will reassure them.

A child who doesn’t eat cheese and gets his protein from nuts, humus and eggs would.Crisps and Kit Kats are not healthy foods but UPFs. Chocolate is banned. And again what does one put in said sandwiches if said child can’t eat cheese?

We provide food and prefer parents not to send in packed lunches because we have children with allergies and it becomes another chore to have to check the food is safe and follows allergy guidelines.

Children of nursery age and younger can make a lot of mess with foods and it is hard to prevent an allergy child making contact with something they shouldn’t. We know what is in the foods we provide and everything is carefully monitored for allergens in ingredients.

We would have to provide a similar list of forbidden ingredients as we do have children in younger rooms with EpiPens.

No pasta. Pasta has egg in it.

I didn’t realise anything other than nuts could cause an airborne reaction, perhaps I’m naive. Unless the other children are eating your child’s food, I don’t see how any of those things could affect them.

Only the nice pasta. Regular shelf pasta doesn’t.

Most dried pasta doesn’t.

😂 fresh pasta might. But 99% of dried pasta doesn't.

Messy eaters at that age. Food gets on hands, face, hair, clothing. And kids are in very close proximity when they play at that age too.
As pp said, sneezing in someone’s face, kissing or biting.

I think that’s why the guidelines are different for nursery-stage children.

But that goes back to trusting that parents know what pasta does and doesn't contain egg and how on earth staff inspecting lunch boxes tell whether the pasta contains egg or not

That's not a long list. You could easily accommodate it

I would be fuming over this. No to beetroot brownies because of chocolate content but yes to kitkats? Doesn’t give me masses of confidence in them!

The unicorn child that cant eat cheese, and for some reason only eats nuts, hummus and eggs... Can have their egg, nuts, cheese and hummus protein for breakfast and dinner that day... And get their protein from other sources, can't they and could have have something with lentils, beans, bread, quinoa, peas, spinach, buckwheat, edamame, tofu....

All good enough sources of protein.

So, still plenty of decent choices for 1 small meal a day...

But even if the child will ONLY eat eggs, hummus , nuts and cheese and refuses every other single source of protein on the planet.... Including all grains, vegetables, pulses, beans and peas, soya, milk etc then the child would still be fine with a protein free meal for 5 out if 21 meals they had that week.

The bread itself .... The butter....

I reread the OP before I posted and she doesn’t say she did those things, she said those are the reasons the nursery gave, I.e. “query egg wash” it wasn’t as it was milk, and “too much chocolate” for the brownie,but she said it was beetroot so I wouldn’t expect it to contain chocolate- cocoa powder maybe, but not necessarily and that isn’t the same as chocolate (necessarily) for an allergens perspective.

@Querious has later said she did, but I did read the op and you are extrapolating so no need to have a go.

Yanbu at all, and tbh I would be moving my child to a different nursery. They appear to be actively discouraging home-made low UPF food and want you to only send in expensive highly processed packet foods so they can check the ingredients.

Their list of allergens to avoid is ridiculous and doesn't even cover all the most common allergies in children. Really they need a better management strategy that doesn't put the work onto the parents of non-allergic children but instead protects the allergic children from coming into contact with any home-made food.

If you don't find a different nursery then I agree with PP that adding notes and labels confirming that the foods are free from all the allergens and are low sugar etc is the way to go.

You can make a good egg-free mayo-like substance at home using chickpea water if mayo is a normal part of any favourite lunches for your DC. Only worth doing if the staff will believe your notes confirming that the lunch is following the rules.

"Their list of allergens to avoid is ridiculous"

What, nuts seeds and egg? Yea they're fairly common allergens...

That's not a ridiculous list.

What's ridiculous is that they can't tell an oat from a seed...

Totally this, really made me laugh

Lots of choice = cheddar, red leicester, wensleydale, edam.......

Oh come on it’s hardly an exhaustive list! YABU.

Where do you get the food from that is provided to the children, is it home made in the nursery?

My son could never go in coffee shops when he was wee as he reacted to the milk being steamed in the air.