Schoolboy who suffered two heart attacks after being given a chocolate by teacher

[AuntieMaggie]

I don't have children yet but this really made me cry here

I hope the poor boy recovers soon :(

Very upsetting.

Absolutely gutted when I heard this.

Ds1 is allergic to peanuts. His school are v. good but I do worry about him having a substitute teacher/ teacher that doesn't know him (it is a big school).

Thing is ds1 would do just what this boy did - ask the teacher if it was safe then trust what they said.

How awful. Poor boy. And poor teacher, going to work and almost killing a boy.

Completely appalling for the boy and his family. Not sure about "poor teacher" though. For allergic children, nuts are lethal. It's not rocket science and there's no excuse for carelessness with our children's lives.

I also feel sorry for the teacher tbh.

I know there were pictures up, but I also think that 7yrs is old enough to take some responsibility.

I always thought that chocolate should be avoided in case it had been "contaminated"?

He did ask if he was allowed it - surely that is taking responsibility?

Very upsetting for all concerned. Hope he makes a full recovery.

Does make you nervy as a teacher, but as a supply teacher you would be extra wary, no? Fortunately re this instance I teach secondary where the emphasis has to be on pupils with allergies taking responsibility for themselves much more. With such a severe allergy, is 7 too young to self-police?

Sounds like sheer bad luck rather than wilful neglect or irresponsibility. I've seen the list at my son's school of the many various allergies that children suffer from, the instructions that go with each one, and feel very sorry for teachers that have to cope with it all.

This is why our school is completely nut-free. If you have a child that reacts that badly (and we have 3 that are that bad iirc) you can't risk it. Best thing is just not have any products with nuts in on the premises.

Hope he recovers soon

My children ask if they are allowed chocolate as it's a treat.

MrsDimitri unfortunately you cannot ensure that the world is nut free so I agree with Kangerooculprit that it is better to teach the children themselves about their allergies.

"He did ask if he was allowed it - surely that is taking responsibility?"

I didn´t see where it said that.

Unfortunately, the teacher might have thought it was a general enquiry-not specifically related to his allergy.

But shouldn´t he avoid all chocolate?

The boy did take responsibility: he asked a person in loco parentis whether he was allowed the sweet. What he meant - and what the teacher would have understood had she been doing her job as a responsible professional adult - was, "is it safe for me because (as you know, because you are my teacher and I trust you to keep me safe) if it contains nut it may kill me?"
A nut allergic child of 7 wouldn't know that a quality street might contain a nut - remember that he won't be eating them at home!
And there won't just have been "pictures up". The information about the boys allergy will have been on the school register, which she should have checked before she went in to teach. The school should also have made sure that, as a supply teacher, she knew whether any children in the class had anaphylaxia and if so, what the trigger allergens were. This child had 2 heart attacks and a respiratory arrest. He (and the teacher) are very, very lucky that he survived.

If parents and small children can't rely on teachers to check for nut allergies, those children can't safely be sent to school. That would be absurd, because the necessary precautions are neither difficult nor expensive. Schools should have 'no nut' policies, but where they don't, teachers who bring chocolate in and take the risk must realise that the buck stops with them. I'm sorry, but this is basic stuff.

As someone with a small child with a nut allergy this horrifies me :(. He is 3. Is he supposed to be responsible for it himself if someone gives him something containing nuts at pre-school?

Yes we do everything we can to make sure that he is aware of his allergies and what he can and can't have but I think it's a bit harsh to say to a small child (and 7 is still a small child IMO), sorry you nearly died but it's your own fault because you should have known that someone you trusted could give you something that could kill you.

Clearly something has gone wrong with the system of communication. Weefriend, try not to worry, these cases are very unusal which is why it's front page news.

Having said that, my ds's creche gave him kiwi knowing he was allergic. He was one year old at the time. Fortunately like most allergies it was not a serious reaction, but I was up all night with him scratching.

7 is still very young IMO too and teachers should check before taking chocolates like this into a class if there are any children that might not be allowed them for what ever reason.

In his 7 year old brain he asked if he was allowed it, that he hadn't made his question clear isn't his responsibility IMO.

You can have a reaction to nuts from second-hand contact. It's not just a case of not eating things. It can be touching a table another child has touched after eating something with nuts, or holding hands with a friend, or opening a door. At this age a nut-free school environment is far safer than trying to manage the allergy in any other way. By the time they're out in the world by themselves they'll be older and more capable of managing things themselves (probably carrying their own epipens and not having to rely on the reactions of other people to get help)

My 3 and 5 year old are gluten intollerant, obviously this is not as bad as a nut allergy but does cause them some pain. I have taught them to say 'has it got gluten in because it hurts me' if they are offered something. I started off teaching my oldest to say 'I am not allowed' but some one right in front of me told my eldest not to be silly and she was sure his mummy wouldn't mind if he had a lovely treat. I just let rip at her. Though to give her her due she did apologise profusly and said she wouldn't be offering stuff straight to a child again and would ask the parent.

Poor boy and his family, but yes, also, poor teacher.

I don;t think the blame here can be levelled at the supply teacher. I used to supply teach and was never informed about specific children with allergies/asthma/health issues when I went to into a school.

If it was an agency supply teacher she would have most likely turned up just before the start of the school day when every other member of staff is rushed off their feet preparing for their own day. She would have had to familiarise herself with the work set (if there was any set, too often I had 20-30 ins max to plan and resource an entire day's lessons) and find what she needed to be able to teach those lessons before the children arrived.

IME, allergy/children with health issues are not up on the wall in the classrooms because of confidentiality issues, classrooms are too public. They are usually up in staffrooms instead. It should have been the responsibility of a member of the management team to inform the supply teacher of the allergies and if they don't have that kind of policy in place then they ought to.

If you do have an allergic child you should double check with the school exactly what their policy is on informing new/unknown teachers about it. Relying on pictures up on walls isn't a sufficient to ensure everyone who comes into contact with that child is aware.

My DS's nursery is also "nut-free" as you can never be too careful IMO. Surely the school have a responsibility to look after the children in their care and 7 is still very young to take responsibility for something with such serious consequences.

I hope the poor boy makes a full recovery.

Having worked in a choclate factory their is potential for cross contamination of the nuts into any of the chocolate. Sorry but the school should have a no nut policy, our primary school does, my daughter isn't even allowed hazelnut chocolate spread on some of her sandwiches.

*Ranty+, thanks, that's made me think. DS, 8, is anaphylactic to nuts and some other foods. That's a mouthful for a little one so we taught him when he was little to ask us or his nanny whether he was allowed to eat something that he was offered by someone else.

The thing is, children count teachers as among the people they trust, so (although his school's policy is no nuts and they are fairly clued up) he now asks teachers if he's "allowed" something. This news story and your story show that isn't enough.

I think I'll teach him to ask whether it contains nut or the other things that would cause a reaction. Problem is, it's quite a list: there are 5 things that he has to avoid. He's going to feel absurd reeling them off every time...does anyone know whether you can get medic alert bracelets with the list of allergens on them?

The fact is that chocolates containing nuts shouldn't have been on the school premises in the first place, and the person (parent/teacher?) who brought them in should have known better.

The supply teacher should have checked the allergy list for that class and not given the boy any chocolates from the box of Quality Street, even if they had no nuts in them, because of the danger of cross-contamination.

And even though the child is seven, he can't be expected to take full responsibility for his condition. The parents did all they could to ensure his safety, so it's a question of whether the school did enough to communicate the importance of the allergy list to the teacher, or the teacher just failed to exercise any common sense.

I don't imagine, after this awful incident, that the child will be touching any chocolate again unless his mother says it's safe for him to do so.

Lady Damerol Our school has boards in the staff room and boards in every classroom. The boards have a photo of the child concerned along with details of the allergy, the severity and treatment details. There are also bright yellow signs saying the school is nutfree and when you sign into the visitors book it says it on there as well. They don't generally allow parents into classrooms though, so I suppose it's not such an issue with regards to privacy (but I'd imagine the parents would rather their child was safe!)

My school isn't exactly fabulous when it comes to communication (in fact they drive me barmy at times) but this is one thing they are very very hot on.

Just to conflict things, my dcs' school have no such policy on nuts of any kind, perhaps there are no nut allergic children that attend, but it shows how practice varies school-to-school.

"Am I allowed it?" presupposes the person being asked knows they have a nut allergy, as I said before, my children do not but will check with me it's all right especially if it's near meal time. My bf's child asks me the question because she is Hindu and doesn't eat beef, and noting the school is in Bradford, maybe that is what the supply teacher thought he meant.

Schools will obviously learn from this case, it will feature in future staff training. The difficulty will be including supply teachers. Wonder too if parents will have to train children with allergies to say, "I am severely allergic to XX, am I allowed it?" just to cover all eventualities?