Nancyg56
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2005
Very true. Another thing is that peanut butter is a good, inexpensive form of protein. Its one of the main things my DS eats for breakfast (PB toast). If we needed to do away with PB toast we could & would but the alternatives (eggs, bacon, non-nut butters) are more expensive.
My DD8 has an egg allergy. From the age of 4 or 5 she was able to tell you that she had an egg allergy & what that meant (no cooked or raw eggs, no science activities with eggs, etc). I've known 4YOs with a peanut allergy who were able to say 'Does this have nuts in it?' I teach pre-school & by 4-5YOs they can understand 'No food but my food' & that's for all kids, not just any that may have a food allergy. 'Eat your own food & no one elses' is not a difficult lesson to learn IMO & it can be taught at a very young age.
As others have said, I do worry that nut-free schools can set up kids & parents with a false sense of security. My DD has only had 3 reactions in her life & all 3 occured with me in the room (1st reaction where we discovered it, 2nd at a relatives house [she was digging in the trash as a toddler & found some eggshells] & the 3rd was a flu shot [she had never had a reaction until last year]). Looking at those times you'd think that I'm more of a problem than any school system.
My DGD also has an allergy to eggs but she cannot ask if it contains cooked or raw eggs. She cannot have any egg byproducts nor can she be around eggs being cooked, her blood levels are affected. She is 6 but has known from the start what is safe for her and what is not. She will not touch any food she is not sure is safe. Her school has a no sharing rule, the children cannot and do not share any food. We know that there is no such thing as fool proof, parents of children with severe allergies do not send their children to school believing nothing will happen. They send them knowing that they, the teachers and the staff have done all they can to safeguard their child.
I think that parents want reasonable accommodation, the parent of the child in the OP's child's class was not looking to quarantine the classroom, she was looking for a solution. Most parents do not want allergy free, that is not an attainable goal. They want their child to go to school, eat lunch with their class, and still manage to get through the day without a reaction. That's it. When school systems go to an extreme it is usually because there is a parent who will not cooperate at all or because an adult made a very serious error in judgment and a child was adversely affected. My husbands cousin's wife is a prime example of that kind of parent whose response to any request was to say "No, Let them deal." and in turn the schools make blanket rules.