free fruit in schools. but no nuts allowed

[stitch]

another rant i'm afraid.

dc school has decided that they dont think the chidlren get enough veg and fruit, so will be providing evry child with a free piece of fruit. the school is a state school, in an affluent area, so full of poncy wannabe, organice lentil weaving moms, who frown on jam sandwiches and fruit as being not healthy enough for their lo's. needless to say that ballet lessons and gym memberships are almost derigeur.

but the same school declares itself a nut free zone. yet nuts are an extremely healthy snack. they are full of essential oils. minerals, etc. tiny packets of energy, they will be far better at keeping the kids going, than half an apple, or whatever.almonds are chock full of calcium, essential not only for good bone developement, but boossts immune systems wonderfully. etc etc etc.
the kids come out of class at least twice a week clutching crappy sweets full of artificial flavourings andcolourings becuaes it is someones birthday. a practice theschool positively encourages. and of course, the siblings also get given the artifical crap by the birthday childs mother.
surely a bar of chocolate would be healthier than the crappy chewy maom they come out with?

[bundle]

that's interesting, some nut-allergy stuff I was just reading said that coconut was Ok

[Tinkerbel6]

I have a nut allergy and the symptons are a lot more than having a red face , I don't think schools should provide nuts, its not down to them make sure you child eats healthy its down to the parents. Sometimes someone don't know they have the allergy until something happens, my parents only knew I had it when I was taken to a party as a child and ate a sweet that was in a wrapper than was sitting in a bowl with nuts in, I think a childs safety is worth more than a childs need for a peanut butter sandwich.

[Berrie]

Was child allergic just to coconut? Is it a tree nut then?

[imaginaryfriend]

cupchar, I don't know if you know any children who have had severe anaphylactic shock? It traumatises them. Dd won't eat anything she's not familiar with without asking someone first.

Of course it is impossible to make somewhere utterly nut free but the measures that are taken in schools towards this are life-saving in themselves.

Dd's school has guaranteed nut-free school meals. I was advised to keep dd on school meals and not give her packed lunches as that's when nuts are most likely to appear in children's lunch boxes even if they're 'hidden' in something like bread.

So far, although I'm paranoid to tempt fate, she has never had a reaction at school.

[cocoleBOO]

When my DD was in P1 and girl with severe allergies was in her class. My DD knew to remember the no nut rule and also anything made of rubber she had been bought glittery pencils with rubbers on the end (which she loved), and she never took them to school. Once children are told it could make somone ill they take it seriously and without making a deal about it.

[imaginaryfriend]

And given the amount of foods a child with no allergies can eat, in comparison to the miserable restrictions on a child with food allergies, it seems rather mean to suggest the non-allergic child is somehow 'deprived.'

[cocoleBOO]

The child is allergic to a lot of nuts, I thought nut allergies were just peanuts, but I seem to be coming across more allergies to diffrent nuts.

[bundle]

advice from Cambridge

[bundle]

the child in dd2's class is allergic to treenuts, not peanuts but the mother doesn't mention this to people - in case it makes them confused!

[cupchar]

Imaginary - my dd has a serve allergy (not to nuts) & has had to go to hospital - so I know it's awful. But I just would never be able to trust other parents to check for nuts (if my child was nut allergic)

[bundle]

cashews seem to provoke worst response

[cocoleBOO]

I agree with imaginaryfriend, this girl had to wear a full body suit for PE as she was allergic to the rubber under the mats, she had to sit on a cushion at floor time because she was allergic to the glue sticking the carpet down, she was also allergic to dairy and eggs, and these are just the ones I know about.

[bundle]

cupchar, the mum of the child I'm talking about obviously does trust me (and others) to look after her little girl - I take her welfare as seriously as I would one of my own

[Tinkerbel6]

When I was younger I was allergic to all nuts, I grew out of that but still can't eat brazil nuts, I had a sweet last week that made my mouth raw straight away and had to spit it out, read the wrapper and it said contains nuts but didn't list them.

[ComeOVeneer]

On a totally different point, there is no way a school would provide nuts as a snack, they are way too expensive compared to locally grown apples/carrots etc

[imaginaryfriend]

cupchar when they're at school you don't have to worry about what other parents are doing though do you? If your child doesn't have a packed lunch and they know not to take any sweets given out on someone's birthday until they've checked with a responsible adult first?

I have been told by dd's consultant that I can't leave her at someone's house or at a party until she's at least 12 and can potentially use an epipen herself. So I don't expect people to be diligent in the way I am.

Even if some parents don't take on board the seriousness of allergies, some do, and that could be the difference between life and death.

[MmeTussaudsChmberOfChocHobnobs]

DD has a mild nut allergy, she gets a skin rash. Thankfully she has never had breathing problems, but has once had a very strong reaction after eating a cookie. She was sobbing, her whole body was itching and burnging. Luckily I had a cortisone tablet with me (we were on the ferry to Scotland).

I do not know exactly which nuts she reacts to as we just avoid all nuts.

Even from age 4yo she knew to ask if the cake/biscuit she was offered had nuts in it.

[imaginaryfriend]

Dd is most allergic to peanuts, that's the potential killer for her. She also has an allergic reaction to cashews and sesame seeds but that's not, so far, measured as life-threatening, that might make her swell and wheeze but an epipen would sort it out.

[imaginaryfriend]

Dd always asks when offered something by an adult who's not me or dp, even if it's something she's had a hundred times before.

[cupchar]

Bundle not getting at you but just thinking of the sh*t for brains parents I see at my kids school

[bundle]

cupchar

I admit the mum does seem v relaxed by it all - I was a nervous wreck by the end of the party! Now she's 5 the little girl understands quite well what she can/can't eat.

[imaginaryfriend]

cupchar, one of my close friends the other day offered dd a small chocolate bar which had whole peanuts in it I couldn't believe it. She knew the whole story and has a dd the same age as mine yet she still forgot. She's not irresponsible at all, it just doesn't figure in other parents' minds as it does in your own.

[wannaBe]

haven't read whole thread as suspect it is full of "oh fgs you are unreasonable a nut can kill a child if it so much as thinks about its existance" type posts...

There are several issues here.

Firstly, nuts are far too expensive to provide as a snack to potentially 300 children. A small bag of nuts probably isn't far off £1 whereas you can get a pack of apples/bananas to feed 5/6 children for around the same.

Secondly, if you have no nut alergies in school then the school is just being pretentious in banning them. "oh we're a nut free zone don't you know."

Thirdly, while a lot of schools profess to be nut-free zones, I bet that very, very few of them actually are totally nut free. Because although the obvious nuts such as peanut butter and nutela are easy to ban, it's actually incredibly difficult to ensure that no child ever brings in anything that "may contain traces of nuts." That would mean banning wholemeal bread/cereal bars/most shop bought cakes and biscuits as they have often been prepared in the same areas as nuts. Go look at the packets of things you feed your kids and you'll be surprised just how many of them contain traces of nuts even though they're not sold as products containing nuts.

And wrt people going through children's lunch boxes at schools to ensure they are bringing in the right things, I think it's only a matter of time before someone takes that one to court and proves it to be against children's human rights.

How glad I am that nothing is banned at our school.

[imaginaryfriend]

wannabe and how glad you must be that your children don't have life-threatening allergies.

I think you should take time to read the whole thread as most of the points you made have already been discussed.

[bundle]

wrt "children's human rights"

I would have thought a pretty basic one is for their school to take reasonable measures to protect them against life-threatening situations