Teacher eating peanuts

[Trillian]

In DS2s class there is a child with a sever nut allergy. The class teacher is off sick so they have had stand in teachers.
Yesterday the teacher they had decided to sit in the class and eat a pack of peanuts we are a nut free school so surley someone should have told the teacher this before letting her lose on a class of children including one who could die from just the dust off of a peanut

" A child that allergic should be home schooled"

An allergy is a special need. Imagine the uproar if that was said about a child with autism.

Our school has a high number of food allergy children. They have banned peanut products at school and have stringent plans in place in the event of a reaction. They don't want a child having an anaphylactic reaction at school and they don't want the other children to witness it as it is horrific to see.

A group of parents got together and spoke to the principal about being told what their kids can and can't eat and the allergy children should be home schooled. He told them they were welcome to home school their own children as our school community does not support such an ignorant attitude!!

I would never send peanut products to school. I don't want to be potentially responsible for the death of a child. My dc can live without peanuts for one meal.

I think when someone's allergy (or special need) starts to infringe on someone else homelife that is the point when home education should be looked at.

But we do things fpr others all the time don't we? Isn't it natural to show compassion?
If someone came to me tomorrow and said one of DCs gorgeous little friends had something wrong wiht them that meant we couldn't eat x or do Y or that child would have to be excluded from life. It would have to be something very fundemental to existence for me to say no.

Sorry, I know this is a serious thread but whenever it appears in active-convos it makes me laugh because I read it as 'teacher-eating peanuts' and picture large salty objects devouring screaming teachers as pupils look on, wide-eyed.

Sorry.

Thanks Litchik - I would hope most people feel like that.

It is hardly a major infringement though is it, Morloth??

If I can give you some insight into life with a severely allergic child....

No social event is without stress, preparing food to take with you then watching out for your child, checking where the dangers are, subtly wiping other children's faces/hands, still attempting to enjoy it yourself; food shopping takes approx twice as long, reading all labels thoroughly; holidays involve taking a suitcase full of food, wiping plane tray tables and having cards printed with emergency instructions; home life involves either excluding the potential allergens from the house completely (meaning in our case dairy, egg, wheat, sesame, nuts)or spending your whole life washing surfaces, hands, utensils etc; preparing meals means cooking absolutely everything from scratch, never being able to resort to a frozen pizza or a meal out; going to school means educating hordes of people (your child, teachers, classmates etc) on the dangers without appearing neurotic - they switch off if you do; every single journey out means taking a bag of medication and a charged mobile phone......

In short, if your child is to remain happy, confident but also safe you must tread an almost impossible line in all areas of life -constant vigilance and extra work for you and for the child a life spent being normal as possible, holding your friend's hand in the playground if you want to, still seeing food as a pleasure ...but at the same time knowing that you can never completely relax.

Our problem, you say? Maybe - but if you can alleviate that by simply avoiding nutty cereals before school or brushing teeth afterwards then surely that isn't too much to ask???

I think any infringement on other people's home is unacceptable.

If we start saying people can't eat nutty cereals for breakfast, why not say the also can't eat bananas and strawberries? Someone mentioned pets, no cuddling the dog before school? What about washing powders? There are people allergic to lanolin, so that means no wool and on and on and on.

It must suck HUGELY to have a child with a severe allergy, I have total sympathy for the parents who have to deal with it.

It is unrealistic to expect the entire population of a school to change their homelives to cater to someone else's allergy.

Just a quick comment re the teacher eating in front of the class - I have colleagues (teachers) who do lunch duties so if they didn't eat in front of the class they wouldn't get to eat lunch at all - what are they supposed to do?
So yes obviously eating in lesson time - unprofessional (although I also admit to secretly eating crackers in the cupboard to stave off morning sickness!) but at lunch time??
FWIW I am appalled that any supply teacher would take nuts into school - I wouldn't dream of it. EVER. schools as far as I'm concerned are nut free places.

Morloth - people who are allergic to washing powders are not in a life and death situation.

Most food allergies are not affected by somebody breathing on you if they have eaten a banana or such two hours before.

NUTS ARE DIFFERENT!!!

You really need to educate yourself on the matter before you comment.

Ds is allergic to lots of things. I chose a nursery for him that provided all food and they agreed to a peanut free menu and to use latex free gloves for all children.

Once he was at kindy the nuts were still banned, lunchboxes were checked and inappropriate food thrown away, a replacement made and a letter home.

Ds is now at school and it's not peanut free, but he has a couple of close friends that he will sit with who don't have peanut butter sandwiches.

I have never thought that I could dictate what children have for breakfast or what teachers eat in the staff room.

But if the school is nut free, it's nut free and that should be enough for a substitute teacher to work out that her snack needs to wait until hometime (or be eaten in her car).

Gmarksthespot - the debate is whether it is ok to be asked/told what to do in your own home, a child with autism in your childs class does not affect what you do at home - so it is not the same thing at all. If you are going to be rude to other people (Mortloth), then I suggest you focus on the debate in hand yourself

Iwillbepositive - a nightmare huh If it would alleviate all that for you, I'd happily not have crunchy nut cereal/peanut butter at breakfast time. Unfortunately it wont, will it. The other thing is, a lot of people cry wolf about a 'peanut allergy'. (One woman even admitted she'd told the nursery school that because she didn't want her daughter to become allergic to nuts - a complete nutter ), so when you have so many people saying it, it does become a realy 'Oh yeah, right' - sadly. I think it's a bit much to ban (or try to) a whole school from eating nuts before school, but it's ok to ask the class of children that a genuinely, seriously allergic child is in. Nut Ban at school no problem at all!

Thirtypence - did you ask the school about making it 'Nut Free'?

Has your DS grown out of the severity of the allergy or are you just more relaxed because he's bigger? Is he still allergic to latex etc or has he grown out of it?

I assume the supply teacher wasn't told it was a Nut Free school - however, I would have thought that most supply teachers these days wouldn't take nuts to school.

So eradicate all nuts/nut products.

Tear down all the silver birch trees - actually all pollen producing plants while we are at it.

Kill all the bees.

Kill all the cats.

Eradicate all dairy products.

Eradicate all prawns - actually all shellfish.

Anything I have missed that potentially causes anaphylaxis? Oh yeah, penicillin,ibuprofen,in fact most medicines too.

Then everyone will be safe.

People have allergies, some have life- threatening ones, yes it's a pain to live with, yes it's a constant struggle,worry and strain. But no I don't dictate what others should do - my problem, my allergy - MY RESPONSIBILITY. Yes you can ask people to be reasonable, yes you can inform people so they can make life easier - but it is not their responsibility.

In reply to the op - supply teacher should have been informed of the school policy and perhaps not eaten in class anyway.

Thanks for the concern chippingin. You are right that it won't alleviate it all, but actually really quite small adjustments make life vastly easier.

If anyone genuinely wants to know how to help then the odd enquiry as to whether to bring an allergy friendly pudding, offering not to have creamy meringues (or the No1 hazard whatever that it) at their party, someone else wiping their own child's hands unprompted - can all be incredibly uplifting.

I personally really value my time when dd is at school and someone else has responsibility for it all - and she absolutely loves being there too. We manage pretty well - she is a very happy, confident child and I have learned to get on with it all. But home education would be a disaster for us - far far too intense. It would send us both mad, I think .

Plus, as someone else has said, nuts are different! They shed more easily and can cause bad reactions with very little contact. My child has awful reactions to dairy (as bad as a severe peanut one) but not if someone breathes on her and fortunately nuts are less of a problem for us.

So it really is the case of just avoiding nutty cereals on behalf of those badly affected. Surely not much to ask??

And I wonder Morloth whether you, or your family, will ever need help from others, for a disability perhaps? It compromises my time management when a bus driver needs to lower a ramp for a wheelchair, but I don't believe wheelchair users should be banned from public transport. That's life, people have stuff to cope with. Let's all try and make it easier.

Gmarksthespot "You really need to educate yourself on the matter before you comment."

I really don't because the allergy is not the issue, the issue is that some people wish to control what other people can do in the privacy of their own home.

I have a vile allergy to paperbark (not such an issue here). My throat swells and my skin goes bright red and occassionally will crack and bleed. My neighbours in Oz have paperbark trees. My allergy is not their problem.

In public we all have to rub along together (hence I have no objection to the banning of nut products in schools), however at home I am under no obligation whatsoever to make anyone's life easier.

I almost feel like there are two conversations going on here.

I am glad that iwillbepositive has acknowledged those people who have suggested that there is an alternative to banning children from having nutty cereals/peanut butter for breakfast.

I agree with Morloth, that I would be cross if the schools started telling me what my boys could and couldn't eat outside school - but if I was asked to make sure that they washed face and hands and cleaned teeth thoroughly before school, that would seem a perfectly reasonable request.

I'd also be more than happy to explain the reason behind this to the boys, and to explain the need to avoid nuts and products containing nuts around a nut-allergic child, as my children all cycle to school by themselves, and can stop at the Coop on the way to buy sweets (unless I manage to empty their pockets of loose change before they go).

oh dear - what did i start with my innocent comment of a child at my dc school being severley allergic to nuts and being breathed on with peanut breath

i still think that schools asking no crunchy nut cerals for breakie isnt a big deal for 5days a week

but

if mums decide to ignore the request then for gods sake brush your childs teeth in the morning before your child MAY kill a child that is seriously allergic

parents of a severley allergic child should be able to know that their child is safe from attacks at school

as often all other places outside from home can be a death trap

something a non allergic person may take for granted, ie going swimming, going for a pizza, cinema , play centre etc is always going to present a risk for the allergic child

I think the school was wrong to tell people that they cannot eat a certain type of food at home for breakfast, they should however be able to ask parents to wash hands/faces/teeth thoroughly if a certain foodtype is consumed at breakfast.

Re the supply teacher - well that is down to the school to tell her that it is nut free zone. And it is a good thing that the class did tell her, shows that they are all aware of the issue.

I have just found out that i am allergic to nuts, not sure which types yet for certain am awaiting my appointment for full allergy testing, i don't expect people not to eat things near me etc etc but i do need to be aware of my surroundings now and what foods are near me. I'm an adult though and i can usually be relied on to look after my own safety, i don't get over excited at playtimes or parties and forget.
Children do though, that's why they need more help from others to remain safe.
It's a minefield, i'd not got a clue really before this happened exactly how much of a nightmare a nut allergy as opposed to a nut intolerance can be.

I work with children i do not eat nuts around them regardless of allergies as there are so many children with a nut allergy I can't believe a person working with children would do that. its common sense

Yes, that's a reasonable compromise, idranktheteaatwork - asking families to modify their children's breakfast on 5 days out of 7 is not.

Very reasonable, idranktheteaatwork.

I must admit that I would baulk at being told what I could or could not eat at breakfast and would have a problem with it.

But I say that in the abstract sense - I don't know anyone with such an allergy and it is all hypothetical to me.

If I/DS did have a friend who suffered from such a severe allergy and I knew how eating x cereal would affect him then I suspect I would be delighted to accommodate him by not eating x cereal. A very easy compromise to make to make someone else's life tolerable.

Once these things become personal I can't imagine anyone saying "my right to eat peanuts is worth more than your right to, say, breathe".

and then what happens if the parents forget to brush their childs teeth - as happened at my dc school

allergic child gets very ill and rushed to hospital

i am not sure if i was a parent of an allergic to nuts child, that i would trust another parent not to forget (like the one did at our school)

Blondeshavemorefun "parents of a severley allergic child should be able to know that their child is safe from attacks at school"

I am not sure this is possible TBH, there are just so many variables and nuts are so prevalent in so many foods.

How on earth would you make it completely safe?

guess its not 100% possible but by not having a nutty cereal for breakfast was def lower the odds

See I would think asking people to do it and assuming that they will remember is more likely to increase the odds of a reaction.

I guess I would approach with the assumption that everyone will be eating nuts for breakfast and act accordingly.