FOOD ALLERGIES
Yep, the campus has been declared a "nut, milk, and wheat" free campus for the entire year. Not just peanuts... ANY nut. No more PB&J, no milk, no wheat bread... nothing... not allowed. Why? Because some parents have kids that are allergic to these items and they DEMAND that their child be given special status over every other kid in the school.
I find this really annoying. Before long, no food will be served or allowed on campus because there will be some kid somewhere that's allergic to it. Then what's next? Certain dyes? No more blue dyes? No more blue shirts and blue jeans because some child is allergic to blue dye?
Will the TSA be brought in to shake down every student every morning to make sure there's no Planters contraband hidden in a backpack or a box of milk in a girl's purse?
You know, there's reasonable and then there's unreasonable. If your child is deathly allergic to something, wouldn't it be better to have him/her home-schooled where you can control everything instead of asking an entire campus of 1,000 students to make sure your child isn't exposed to a peanut?
What a load of manure.
and the rest of the parents just *take* that dictate?? I wouldn't if my kids' schools tried this. I would live with a peanut free classroom, but not the whole SCHOOL. How is this preparing the one/few students who are allergic to everything about the real world? Will they demand that college be peanut free? Their workplace? Good luck with that. Probably some parent is going to chime in now about how I don't care if their kid dies, but this story is about a teenager who should be able to take ownership of their medical condition, not a kindergartner who might forget and accidentally eat a PB&J. All this does is perpetuate the idea that the allergic kid is a special snowflake, not subject to the concerns of others. Nice job preparing him/her for the real world, mom and dad! (sarcasm full intended) Society (doesn't) thanks you.
ReplyDeleteAhhh..and ignorance rears its ugly head..
ReplyDeleteSigh...
I'm grandmother to a girl with an allergy to peanuts so severe she cannot even attend OUTDOOR functions (like baseball games) where nuts are present.
Three anaphylaxis reactions, and three trips to the ER, before she was 7 years old, are more than enough to convince me that she should never be exposed to a peanut in any way, shape, or form.
If that means YOUR child has to 'suffer' then tough.
He/she will not die if there are no nuts, wheat, milk, et al.
My grandchild, or someone else's child, could die if there were.
I suggest you do some research on the subject. Knowledge is our only defense against ignorance and bias.
My kid is 'allergic' to the freakin SUN. If he were to spend even 10 minutes exposed to sunlight any skin not covered up would sustain second degree burns. We don't know for sure how much exposure it would take to kill him, but the Drs guess is less than 30 minutes. He can not participate in any outdoor activities. He can not be exposed to certain kinds of light bulbs. There will be no sports teams, camping, etc for him.
ReplyDeleteI therefore suggest we simply block the sun from my entire state. After all, MY SON could be KILLED if he were exposed to it. He is my special snowflake and I demand his needs be catered to.
If your child doesn't like living in the land of perputal night, tough. MY SON could DIE if he gets exposed to the UV light.... don't you care about the children??
Of course, I could educate my son about the dangers of his condition and make sure he can take a responsible/proactive go at his own life but its much more fair to make the general population change the way they live to accommodate his restrictions.
Really... if your kid has a food allergy are you going to hold their hand through college and the work force as well? If your kid is so allergic she can not be in the same building as peanuts then homeschool the kid, or have them eat away from the rest of the kids.
Suck it up buttercup. It's not the rest of the world's job to make sure your kid is safe.
I can see peanuts being banned. They are not ubiquitous in our cuisine. You can easily substitute cashew or almond butter on a sandwich. @grandmawithachiponhershoulder. Teach your granddaughter to be responsible for her condition. I've had patients as young as 6 who can check their insulin levels and tell their parents what they are. Surely, your granddaughter could understand that she isn't to eat something she hasn't had packed specifically for her. But, then again, that would require parenting.
ReplyDeleteBut wheat and milk? Wtf? Every parent has to purchase and send gluten free products with their children to school? Good luck getting people to start shelling out extra money to do that. And milk products? Kids get tons of nutrients from dairy. Seems like this school wants to generate a ton of malnourished poor children. This policy will last a total of 0 minutes as parents continue to pack what is reasonable.
OK, so educate me. Peanut allergy can be an issue through the air, right? Do kids allergic to milk react to breathing in milk? Or only when they consume it? Same with wheat - do kids react when they breathe in sandwiches other kids are eating? Or only when they are eating sandwiches themselves? I did do some reaserch. The only one of the allergies listed in the original post that spreads through the air is peanuts (wheat is only an issue in its raw form, i.e for bakers). That means that milk and wheat allergies should be able to be controlled by teaching a TEENAGER to not eat them.
ReplyDeleteI did draw the distinction that there is a difference between little kids and older kids, in the level of action appropriate at school. Did you? You didn't address the issue of how you're teaching your grandchild to take ownership of her health condition, other than she has the right to dictate to other people. How WILL you teach her to handle college? The workplace? public transportation? shopping malls? bookstores? gas stations? banks? car dealerships? It's your job to prepare a child for the world, not the world's job to prepare itself for your child (or grandchild). And before you think I don't know what I am talking about, my daughter has special needs too. My daughter knows that she is the center of MY universe, not the center of the WHOLE universe.
And dont they have allergy shots for that? My brother has a milk allergy..he takes Lactaid and uses Lactaid Milk. When he was at school he always brought his own juice for lunch. No problems, no reasons for the school to go, milk free for him.
ReplyDeleteGluten free products are super expensive, so let those parents with the wheat alllegies pack the kids lunch and by this time the kids should be old enough to know what they can and cant eat. As for peanuts, sorry segregate them. I dont feel one or 2 kids should dictate the dietary habits of a few hundred of other kids. Everyone else is right...are you parents going to demand peanut free colleges and work places and towns when your kids are adults..get real
I can't even begin to address the many levels of allergy ignorance here, and really I don't mean to be insulting. It's difficult, though, not to get irritated when bombarded with so much misinformation.
ReplyDeleteI know if you don't have a severely allergic child you don't need to know that much about it, and I don't expect you to do the mounds of research such as our whole family has undertaken.
Perhaps, then, the simplistic approach - the ban all whatevers - is in fact the preferred route.
That is something you will have to deal with, and for that I am thankful.
No we don't, why don't you just keep your kid at home if they are soo special. I am going to have my bread!
Delete"That is something you will have to deal with, and for that I am thankful"
ReplyDeleteThus proving you really do think it's all about you and your special snowflake. you haven't even addressed the idea that not all allergies act the same way 9through the air) that peanut allergies do.
Except I DO have a severely allergic child. And still I do not expect the rest of the world to bow before my child and change their eating habits.
ReplyDeleteI have severe allergies. Severe will kill me allergies. Two of these allergies that will kill I am affected by airborne (and a few that won't kill). Touching certain everyday objects causes my skin to blister.
ReplyDeleteThere is a name for people like me, atopic. Worse, I don't even have the common allergies (feed me peanuts anyday).
Now that I have listed my credentials, kindly all get fucked with these blanket bans on certain substances. *IF* there is a child who has that level of severe allergy, then discussions can be entered into, but most parents demanding these bans do not have such disabled children.
I feel bad enough not being able to kiss the boyfriend for 24hours after he has eaten his favourite food. I don't tell him not to eat it, I minimize my risk.
My kid is not allergic, but eats a pb and j sandwich everyday for lunch. If this was to be banned at his school, he is headstrong enough to refuse food until he gets home. And has done so, when he forgot his lunch. In a time of obesity, he is 11 years old and weighs 55 lbs. A ban on his lunch would mean that I would have to switch schools, homeschool or look into private schools, because denying him a meal a day is tantamount to child abuse.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but the milk and wheat bans are ridiculous. Did anyone look to see how many medical emergencies were the result of exposure to milk and wheat in the past five or ten years at that school? If milk and wheat were so dangerous that they need to be banned from the campus, there should be some evidence of the danger. I am suspecting that there is no evidence to support the ban of milk and wheat products at the school.
ReplyDeleteTwo years ago, my liver enzymes quadrupled. My upper abdomen was distended and painful. I had just begun a new medication four months prior, and when discontinuing the med, my liver approved. Then it happened again, liver distended, on another medication, and the pharmacy tech said...maybe its the red dye. Stopped the med, and now I take the dose without the red dye. All is well with my liver. I have to take 3 pills at a time to equal the prescribed dosage. I certainly didn't ask to have this allergy. I also have a gluten/casein intolerance. My last surgery, they used a prep that has an adhesive (gluten is an adhesive), and I lost all the skin that was prepped. That can be a disaster, and set the patient up for a serious wound infection. Luckily, I healed nicely. We are inundated with pesticides, hormones, antibiotics that are likely to contribute to these issues, as well as causing auto-immune diseases. It is not likely that theses health problems will resolve on their own, and society as a whole, not just us health care providers will have to make changes in how we deal with allergies. I know its a drag for everyone that has time constraints in the job and daily living, but if you have ever seen true anaphylaxis or better yet, have to treat one; it will make a believer out of you. TY
ReplyDeleteI can't believe the government allows them to ban these things in the lunchroom. As a professional lunch lady I know all of the regulations of what MUST be served to the school children. If you buy lunch you MUST take a milk. Everything is wheat now. And peanut butter is allowed. Our school has separate tables and we handle the food differently for those with food allergies.
ReplyDeleteThe bans are silly, as several people here have noted. My wife volunteers in a school a few days per week, and I do some volunteer work with the local gifted kids. There is officially a ban on the PB&J stuff, but my wife and I just ignore it, as do some of the other volunteers.
ReplyDeleteAs the comment said at 7:25 said, what about when the kid goes to work someday? I guarantee you that no employer is going to accomodate the fragile little waif.
My nephew is allergic to peanuts. He gets anaphylaxis if he gets second hand transfer. Meaning, if he touches something that someone else touched and that person didn't wash his hands after eating a peanut butter sandwich, my nephew can die. The school he's at right now is nut free so they don't worry. When he goes to kindergarten, I think that his classroom should be made nut free. He's been told what his symptoms are, but he's only experienced one exposure when he was old enough to remember the symptoms and that was a year ago. It's highly unlikely that he's going to be able to catch the symptoms early if he's exposed again. He knows what they are, but as far as connecting what he knows to what is really happening, he doesn't have a reference for that and he's just too young right now expect him to do it. If he gets exposed, he can end up too far gone for help even if the teacher notices and stabs him with his EpiPen and calls 911. The only safe thing is to keep his classmates nut free because he's at the age where there's a lot of physical contact between students.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's necessary for his school to go nut free, though he should have a nut free table in the cafeteria and he should be allowed (along with the other students) to leave for his class before everyone else so he doesn't bump into peanutbutter hands. I think that this is a fair compromise to making the school nut free if it isn't already.
People with anaphylaxis are considered disabled in terms of school access and work and whatnot. Work needs to accommodate them if requested and so do schools. Making them eat in a room by themselves at school or telling them to stay home and home school is the legal equivalent of telling someone who uses a wheelchair that they can't access the same education as everyone else and that the wheelchair user has to stay home instead of making the school accessible. Statement like "they should stay home, we shouldn't make accommodations for them" are not legally allowed and so that argument is moot.
It would actually be like telling the classmates of a child in a wheelchair that since little Jimmy can't walk, they won't be allowed to walk while at school either.
ReplyDeleteMy child is horribly allergic to nuts. She almost died because a classmate had peanut butter toast for breakfast and then kissed a baby doll which my child later touched. There is a child in our homeschool school group who is immune compromised and could die if exposed to an ill child. Some kids are too sick for public school, that's just how it is.
My child is in a public kindergarten. The SCHOOL can't serve anything with peanuts or tree nuts, but kids can still bring those from home in their lunches. Any kids with peanut or tree nut allergies are seated at the allergy table. Because the kids eat snacks in the classroom, peanuts and tree nuts are not allowed in snacks.
ReplyDeleteIn my understanding, milk and wheat allergies are not usually likely to cause anaphylaxis from smell...
My son gets hives and migraines from artificial colorings, flavorings, and sweeteners. Thus far I have simply taken the "Don't feed my kid" approach; maybe I should just insist that food services for the entire district change everything they do to accommodate my son! Just kidding - I'd actually rather just send real food for him. We are working on teaching him how to avoid his triggers/allergens, but he can't yet read labels well enough.
I'm allergic to corn, which makes me violently ill. Maybe I should try demanding a popcorn-free movie theater.
There are consequences to coddling children with food allergies. Check out this news article:
ReplyDeletehttp://fxn.ws/1wIdG3D