to be upset over nutella

[lemonadesparkle]

DC 3(so not pfb) has just started Yr R and stayed for lunch at school today for the first time. DC is allergic to many things including nuts and has epipens (2 at school, one in the bag that goes everywhere and 2 at home - so basically covered at all times). School are aware of all the allergies and what this might mean and have reassured me that the dinner staff have all been informed and that school is nut free anyway.

So, mummies had been asked to accompany their children for lunch today as part of the settling in period. There was a brief talk at the beginning reitterating what was and wasn't allowed in packed lunches and then we all sat down to eat. The mummies chatted and amongst other things discussed the non permissable foods only for one parent whose dc was sat next to mine announce that her child was having nutella sandwiches Surely the clue is in the name "NUTella" !!!!! I tried not to be overconcerned and moved dc further down the table to try and prevent contamination but I am extremely worried that had I not been there dc could have had an anapylactic reaction on the very first day having lunch at school

AIBU to be upset about this and perhaps speak to school again and request that they send out a letter clearly stating that nuts are incredibly dangerous for my child and that includes Nutella?

Just to point out that it wasn't my request that school was nut free, school assured me that it was when we initally accepted the place, as they already have another nut allergic child.

Dc has never ingested nuts - the first anaphylactic reaction to them occurred when holding some to hand feed a bird. Therefore the risk is not just in the possibility of dc taking a bite of someone elses sandwich (which I can't ever see happening tbh) but the possibility that young children being messy eaters means dc may come into contact with the nuts inadvertantly or through skin to skin contact.

And yes the school had previously issued a list of non-permissable foods (including no sweets, fizzy drinks, yogurts in tubes etc all of which have nothing to do with me)

agree about vegan kids katiestar, ds2 is intolerant to egg/dairy and we are vegetarian so nuts are a very important part of his diet.

i don't think children with allergies should have to sit apart, tat';s not very fair on them, but i do think they should be supervised while they are young, to make sure they only eat their own food

My dd often has peanut butter on toast for breakfast, sometimes on the way to school if we are running late. I don't generallt clean her up after but after reading your comment need to make more of an effort too.

The whole school should not have to suffer a ban because one child is allergic. This is not the way forward. There has to be other ways of managing these children.

I don't get this. For some children an allergic reaction to nuts does not mean a skin rash. It means anapylactic shock, using an epipen and hoping it works. It could mean serious illness or even death.

Surely it is not to much to ask, that the ohter children do not each nuts for the 6 or 7 hours that they are in school?

They can eat nuts till they are coming out of their ears before and after school. Even vegans/vegetarians can survive a school day without nuts.

You should have said something.

I always keep in mind that everything should be nut free when sending in my dd's lunch, but I would have thought 'chocolate' about Nutella and might well have sent her with Nutella sandwiches. Could have been a genuine error by a mum who means to follow the rules.

But squishabelle the ban isn't because one child is allergic. The ban was already in place, and the OP, having an allergic child obviously felt reassured by it.

i know more children with nut allergies than vegan children

anyhoo, i don;t think that it is causing suffering to ban children from having nut prodcuts in their school lunches

surely any suffering it could cause is to teh children who could become seriously ill?

Thats the whole point, the OP had a falses sense of security which is the point the Anaphylaxis Campaign is making.

I think it´s the principal of banning the majority from having something.

how about a brief note home to all families in the class pointing out that there is a dc in the class whose allergic reaction to nuts could have this very drastic reaction. For this reason dp are asked not to include nuts in the lunchbox. The note can also point out that the chocolate spread Nutella also includes nuts and dp are asked not to use it either.

Something like that. It wouldn't be necessary to name the dc but I think if I knew there was a dc with this kind of risk in the class, I would be more vigilant about what I pack. If nuts was just one item in a long list that included junk food like sweets, crisps, fizzy drinks I may not have registered it tbh.

Yes, I understood the point the campaign is making. But I'm assuming that she's saying her child is only four years old - would you really trust EVERY four year old to resist the temptation of a chocolate spread sandwich if it came their way? Really? Enough to take a gamble with their life if it came to it?

f course they can survive the day, and my veggie/vegan kids will abide by our school rules and not take nuts.

however, my point is that plenty of children will have been eating nutsbefore school.

if the OP's child has a severe contact allergy then banning nuts in pakced lunches isn't going to stop the child reacting when he holds hands with someone who has peanut butter on them

i knwo it's about reducing the risk. but bearing that in mind, and the advice from anaphylaxis campaign it does seem a little silly,

Yes but I mean what happens if you get different children with, say, nut, dairy and strawberry allergies . Do you ban everything for everyone? I do think its unreasonable to ban stuff for the majority. As someone else suggested, closer supervision of the affected children seems to be a good solution.

yes i've neverncome acrossa dairy-feeeschool

presumably cos that would be too much effort

scuse typing nak

But what about kids who have had nutella for breakfast.What happens after school in the playground when the child meets a child eating a Snickers bar or touches something which still has traces of nuts on.What happens when the child goes to a birthday party , a soft play a cafe ?
Surely the only answer is supervision and hygiene.
Interestingly the parents of the only nut allergic child in our school admit to keeping nuts in the house to eat when he has gone to bed.

There was a boy in DDs small school with a severe nut allergy- he wasn't even to sit near a child eating nuts his allergy was so bad.

I didn't see it as a hardship or a sacrifice to not give my children nuts, it was a good opportunity for them to learn about thinking of the needs of others before themselves.

Also, Nutella, while delicious, is a treat food and shouldn't be in a lunchbox as the 'main course' anyway imo.

ZZzzen made a good suggestion. A note explaining that a child in the class has a serious allergy and pointing out the dangers of nuts to this child.

I guess that the UK schools are similar to here, we get so much bumpf at the beginning of the school year, it would be easy to overlook the nut policy in the school.

Dairy allergies are not contact allergies, afaik. That is why they will not be banned in schools.

it can be mmelindt

in fact there was a poster on here not that long agpo whose ds got milk splashed on him in the supermarket and he sdwelled up and puked evertywhere iirc

and not all nut-allergic children have a reaction on contact. so that argument doesn't relly stick

Really? I have never heard of that. Poor child.

I guess that I am an "err on the side of caution" kind of a person when it comes to things like nut allergies.

It is not something that is a real hardship for children NOT to have in school, and if it keeps a child with allergies safe (and stops the mum from worrying herself sick at home) then I think it is not too much to ask.

YAnbu

Speak to the school again, ask them to send out a letter specifying things like nutella.

OMG I am completely shocked by some of the responses on this thread. Do you people not know how serious nut allergies can be?!?!?!

My cousin is allergic to nuts and can have a serious reaction just from breathing in the air around someone eating nuts. He once had to use his epi-pen on a bus because someone at the back had opened a bag of peanuts.

If a school says it is nut free then it needs to be nut free.

Dairy allergies are different, they don't cause anaphylictic shock or a reaction unless actually ingested.

no, i agree, and if my child had a life-threatening allergy i'd prob be the same

but, i can see the other side of the argument as well, and i do agree that the children need to learn to be very responsible very early on, which is difficult of course, and not very fair on them

ds1 is 4.5 and super-vigilant when he sdees his little brother being offered anything, i often hear him yelling at people that ds2 can't have this that and the other, or asking if rthings contain m ilk bless him

hard to know if he'd be as responsible if it was him with the limjited diet though!

out thisisyestersday, that is a scary dairy allergy! I didn't know that could happen.