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Arts and crafts

Discover knitting, crochet, scrapbooking and art and craft ideas on this forum.

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Original poster

Egg box craft...

16 replies

tassisssss · 25/08/2009 20:28

I was thinking about a spider craft for toddlers at Halloween involving egg boxes and pipe cleaners, but am I right in thinking it's no longer allowed to use egg boxes in crafts with wee ones?

thanks

OP posts:

Original poster

tassisssss · 25/08/2009 22:03

bump

OP posts:

hannahsaunt · 26/08/2009 20:10

??? Why not? Sounds v odd.

Smithagain · 26/08/2009 20:12

I run a toddler craft group and don't use egg boxes unless I'm (a) sure that there is no-one with an egg allergy and (b) confident that the boxes are clean.

But with those provisos, I think it's fine.

ChookKeeper · 26/08/2009 20:13

'tis stuff and nonsense - have a look at this advice from the HSE www.hse.gov.uk/myth/august.htm

Original poster

tassisssss · 26/08/2009 20:24

When planning a craft for a church group last Christmas (egg box mangers i believe) someone who I respect on such matters reckoned they were no longer used in schools for craft and it was to do with salmonella/egg allergy.

Frankly all sounds a bit bonkers to me, but thought I'd check. Can't see anyone in my lovely toddlers objecting. (though FWIW i could get enough egg boxes for 40 kids to make spiders for about £2 on ebay)

Thanks all.

OP posts:

chegirl · 26/08/2009 20:37

Is egg allergy like peanut allergy then? Can you get anaphalaxsis from touching egg residue? Can you get samonella from touching a minute bit of dried out egg? Genuine questions btw.

I remember when preschool stopped accepting loo rolls for hygeine reasons (presumably because they had been in a toilet environment )
I had to laugh because they were still using them in the hospital playroom where my immunosupressed DD was and it wasnt a problem there.

TwoIfBySea · 26/08/2009 20:52

Oh ffs, why don't they just wrap the kids up in cotton wool and stick them in a cupboard till they turn 18 - be done with it! It is getting to the point of ridiculousness. Of all the children in dts two P4 classes not one has an allergy beyond a couple with hayfever! It is so exaggerated.

When my dts were in preschool a few years ago they made egg box caterpillars (which still sit on our bookcase.) A strip of three egg cup bits, painted green, googly eyes and pipe cleaner feelers.

Smithagain · 26/08/2009 20:52

To be honest, I'm not sure. But I know there's at least one child in the church who is allergic to raw egg - and I also know that my husband could not tolerate touching a trace of peanut. So I'm cautious.

But I do still use them, as long as I've checked for cleanliness and the allergic kid is not around. So I guess that might answer the question!

Smithagain · 26/08/2009 20:53

"Of all the children in dts two P4 classes not one has an allergy beyond a couple with hayfever! It is so exaggerated."

I'm very pleased for you Two... But it is so not exaggerated if you have the misfortune to live with someone who is not so lucky.

TwoIfBySea · 26/08/2009 21:03

But it is nonsense that there is a who hoohaa over egg boxes rather than a more realistic way of finding out if there is someone with an allergy and then reacting to help them than ruining all the kids fun on the chance that there "might" be. And one of my dts is one of the hayfever sufferers so I do know what it is like but I wouldn't expect everyone to keep their children indoors because my son has an allergy.

Smithagain · 26/08/2009 21:13

Fair enough! Sorry to over-react - I'm a bit sensitive about any suggestion of allergy being exaggerated. And I agree - risk assessment and proper management are vastly preferable to blanket bans.

tassiss - please make your spiders - they sound cool!

TwoIfBySea · 26/08/2009 22:07

No worries Smithagain you weren't over-reacting, I'd worded my first post wrongly and should have written it better.

hannahsaunt · 27/08/2009 12:50

FWIW they still use egg boxes at our primary school.

Original poster

tassisssss · 27/08/2009 18:03

smithagain, thanks, we'll see what they turn out like!

OP posts:

gingernutlover · 29/08/2009 08:28

can't see why you wouldnt use them for health reasons (unless someone with a severe allergy - but its toddlers so parents will be there wont they?)

We use egg boxes and toilet roll tubes at school no problems

re the spiders, i've done the egg box and pipe cleaners with my recpetion children and it was very very fiddly. The next year we gave them all air drying clay or plasticine (you can get it in black) and got them to stick pipecleaners in and a couple of googly eyes on. It was a lot less fiddly and they looked great. If you thread elastic through while they are still soft they can have bouncy spiders.

Also, if you cant afford plastcicine or clay, you could make black playdough very cheaply and this dries out when you dont store it in a box.

kiwibella · 29/08/2009 13:45

if you are worried about re-using egg boxes... then what about somewhere like Baker Ross? They usually have all sorts of craft supplies which totally does away the need for creativity with junk .

I did a halloween party a few years ago and made pom-pom spiders with kits from BR. Again, like said earlier, they were very fiddly.

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