Nuts!

[Hughman]

no nuts (http://rockland.villagesoup.com/Education/Story.cfm?StoryID=25376)
The peanut butter sandwich -- that cheap, easy-to-fix, healthy-yet-tasty entrée in many a student lunchbox -- is as deadly to some SAD 40 Miller Elementary School students as kryptonite is to Superman. It will therefore be banned from school grounds for at least the next several years, along with candies, baked goods and other foods that may contain tree-grown nuts or nut residue, school officials announced this week .

One kid allergic to peanuts alters the diet of the entire school community. Am I missing something? :eek:

It's a pretty comprehensive change:


In addition to avoiding nuts, the cafeteria will not prepare or serve food that contains legumes like peas, beans, lentils, soy beans and soy oil products, fruit with pits such as peaches, plums, apricots, cherries and avocados, or seeds such as sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, or sesame seeds. And if anyone harms this kid with food products, is he liable? What are the implications of an accident? :rolleyes:

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

This sounds just plain daft - mind you, practically any prepared food you buy these days has a little notice on the container:"Warning, may contain traces of nuts" on it, so maybe the daftness is spreading.

Frankly, I would have thought that the parents of a child with an allergy to ground nuts should make sure that those who have to do with their child do not feed him or her peanuts, but to stop all children in a school from eating all legumes is PC run mad.

[Mark Van]

Can anybody think of a food product that NOBODY is allergic to? I can't.

[LeeG]

my daughter was a camp counselor this summer and they had a similar dictum handed down,,no one can bring peanut butter snacks to camp. oh well,,call it profiling.

[NormMessinger]

Should the son of my step niece in law be kept out of public school because the next time or the time after that that he is exposed to peanuts he will die? Or would it be enough if they had him eat his lunch alone in a private room? How would you deal with kids with special needs?

[cs]

The school that my daughter went to (K-5) had a kid there that peanut allergies and they also had a teacher there that had latex allergies. No peanut realeted products could be brought to school. They had restrictions on latex products also. In fact the teacher had it so bad that when they got new basketballs in the gym she would have an attack.

Now that the kid goes to a different school she takes a PB&J sandwich everyday, but that is only because we can't afford to feed her shrimp everyday.

Chad

[Domesticated_Mr. Know It All]

Life without peanutbutter would kill me. :D

I'm alergic to pollen should we ban flowers?
achoo!!!!

OK...it may not be killing me but it feels like it.

sniff......honk!!! tongue.gif

[Hughman]

Originally posted by NormMessinger:
Should the son of my step niece in law be kept out of public school because the next time or the time after that that he is exposed to peanuts he will die? Or would it be enough if they had him eat his lunch alone in a private room? How would you deal with kids with special needs?Norm, what would happen if a kid brought a food item to school that caused the death of the allergic child.
Would that kid be held liable? And regardless of legalities, how would the event affect his/her life, knowing he/she stood accused?

That is a sword suspended by a thread.

[NormMessinger]

Are we talking about what a kid might bring to school or what the schools serve knowing there is a child enrolled who has a severe peanut allergy? BIG difference.

[NormMessinger]

I thought it might be instructive to share how my step niece in law handles here son's nut allergies at school. Seems a more effective approach than forcing the school to over react. One thing school officials are good at is using rules in lieu of imagination.

About the Peanut Allergy Thing:
The school that the boys go to has been very helpful with the peanut allergy
issue. This year we are also dealing with Ian's tree nut allergy. When
Dean started kindergarten, (two years ago) I asked for a peanut-free zone
for him (when they ate snacks, I wanted to have each child on both sides of
him to be peanut butter free). The school nurse and powers-that-be
discussed it and decided since his allergy is so severe, to make
kindergarten peanut-free. I was thrilled!! They also incorporated a 511
phone number that if any teacher calls it, it will show up as an emergency
and someone will bring the Epi-Pen from the nurses office to Dean. The
reason they made the room peanut-free is that if a child eats peanut butter
and then gets some on a marker, scissors or anything that Dean would then
use, he would react. We explained the situation to the kids and they have
been very helpful about reminding their parents that peanuts can't be
brought in. I haven't heard any parents complain about the restriction. I
think it is different from many of the allergies because it is
life-threatening and CAN be prevented. When kids are approached with the
idea of helping someone, they want to help (at least at this age). We
don't try and limit the products that are "manufactured on peanut equipment"
or ones that "may contain peanuts" from the other kids because I don't
believe he would react to that small amount that may be present, but we
don't let him eat those products. When Dean went to the lunchroom, we
requested the buffer zone around him again (although they had peanut
allergies in the school, they weren't addressing it since none were as
severe as Dean's). We got a peanut-free table for him and anyone that wants
to sit there can as long as there are no peanuts or nuts in their lunch.
Although he is allergic to other legumes, if doesn't bother him as long as
he isn't eating them so we don't have to worry about them. When I first
asked about the lunchroom, it was suggested that Dean have a separate table
and that he eat alone every day. Not the right way to deal with it. I feel
this is a nice way for everyone. Each child can eat what they want for
lunch and Dean is safe in the classroom. I go to a peanut site sometimes
and read messages from parents who have had to have their child declared
disabled in order to get a peanut-free classroom for them at school. I am
happy with the way the school has handled his allergy. With Ian this year,
there has been no problem, they are asking for snacks without nuts. I also
volunteer and go in and read any food labels the teacher wants and mark the
nut-free products for her. When nut things come in, I replace them with
nut-free snacks. I also keep "emergency snacks" at the school for the days
when something that says "may contain nuts" comes in. Ian had an
autistic child in his class last year and no one seemed to be upset about
the extra things that the kids and the teacher did to help him out with his
issues. He had an alcohol fetal syndrome child in kindergarten that also
had special issues that were addressed. It should be looked at as a
privilege to be able to so easily help prevent a possible death just by
bringing gummy bears for a snack instead of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.

Gummy bears? Now that is extreme. Do they make chocolate gummy bears?

Over and out.

[Hughman]

That seems like a reasonable way to handle the issue.

Making accomodation for handicaps shouldn't deprive entire communities. It becomes the tail wagging the dog.