Schools and birthday treats?

[Blah11]

but do you banish things you deem unsuitable from lunch boxes?

 

[Blah11]

I thought you meant you took 'banned' foods from lunch boxes.

If someone comes in with a hummus sarnie it would be taken off them and they be given another. While allergies have always existed they are far more common now and those at the extreme end are more common too.

see, i think thats awful if a child was allergic to tomatoes would no child be allowed them? or gluten?

 

[Lauren25]

Its become such a joke!!
I remember my little cousin whose 10 a few years ago saying about his school, they are told what they have to have in their lunch box and it cant be unhealthy and they have charts to do with their lunch and if they get so many bad marks for having unhealthy stuff they cant go to the end of year school disco, how unfair is that!

I think its completely wrong!!

 

[indy and lara]

^^^They would get something from the kitchen provided. I cannot understand why, when a parent knows there are severe allergies in a class, they persist in sending in food which could cause death in another child. At thd end of the day, that can be the end result.

 

[DanielleM]

Evan has a metabolic condition called MCADD and because it is so rare and they know that he can't fast for very long they let him eat what he wants, also because they don't know much about it they won't take anything off him, they just know that if he doesn't eat they have to ring me straight away, or if he throws up. But I do stick to the healthy eating rules mainly, he is a good eater anyway and prefers fruit to chocolate and doesn't like sweets. Actually I am not sure he is my child

 

[indy and lara]

I thought you meant you took 'banned' foods from lunch boxes.

If someone comes in with a hummus sarnie it would be taken off them and they be given another. While allergies have always existed they are far more common now and those at the extreme end are more common too.

see, i think thats awful if a child was allergic to tomatoes would no child be allowed them? or gluten?

Only when you are talking about an allergy which would need an epi pen type reaction
for. I don't patrol the lunch hall looking for chocolate- I am usually too busy working;-)

 

[cherryglitter]

you don't get it in workplaces or cafes though? there could be allergic people everywhere.

 

[indy and lara]

On phone last night so can answer properly now.

Yes there are allergic people everywhere, of course there are. But as a school we have a duty of care to look after the children in the building. Young children also are not always skilled yet in being able to avoid foods which cause them problems yet. Many of the children I have worked with who have severe anaphylactic reactions very rarely eat out in cafes/ restaurants as their parents cannot be sure what is in the food.

Schools do not ban foods on a whim. Our ban on peas/ chick peas/ lentils is due to the fact that we have several children who have a severe allergy to them and who, if they were to eat them, could face a fatal allergic reaction. I really don't see how anyone can argue that is not right. If it was your child (especially if it was a really young child) you would surely want their school to do anything they can to keep that child safe? We are all trained in adminstrating epi- pens but prevention is surely better than just reacting?

As for the sweet things. We have a policy that kids should not have sweets or crisps at breaktimes. However, nobody is walking the lunch hall taking all the chocolate out of lunch boxes. The only time something would be removed would be if it was a food that is banned in school due to the allergy situation.

 

[AppleBlossom]

Wow... I really wish that the only thing in life I had to worry about is that my kid might get a cake or a packet of sweets in school when it's someone's birthday. Honestly, do people have nothing better to do with their lives than complain about every pathetic little thing? A bit of cake or a handful of sweets isn't going to kill anyone. Chill the hell out!

 

[Blah11]

I don't get why another child cant have a hummus sandwich though? Its not like theyre going to share it with the child who is allergic

 

[maryp0ppins]

I don't get why another child cant have a hummus sandwich though? Its not like they're going to share it with the child who is allergic

I live with a severe allergy to shellfish,if I am sitting across from someone on the tube who is eating say a prawn mayo sandwich I get nervous. People who do not have an allergy or don't look after someone who does isn't as careful about things like cross contamination. What if this person across from me has some of the filling on his hand and it transfers onto say the pole people hold on to and then I touch it and later use that hand to touch my face. Kids at 5 yrs old have no awareness of cross contamination and are not washing there hands regularly,it could easily be transferred to the child who is allergic and put their body into shock. At 18 months old I went into shock after a touched a piece of food to my lips,I was in intensive care for days and had a tube down my throat to breathe,my parents thought I was going to die. Sorry for the ramble but how would you feel if a child died because your child really likes a hummus sandwich and you thought it was a silly rule and didn't abide by it.

 

[indy and lara]

I don't get why another child cant have a hummus sandwich though? Its not like they're going to share it with the child who is allergic

I live with a severe allergy to shellfish,if I am sitting across from someone on the tube who is eating say a prawn mayo sandwich I get nervous. People who do not have an allergy or don't look after someone who does isn't as careful about things like cross contamination. What if this person across from me has some of the filling on his hand and it transfers onto say the pole people hold on to and then I touch it and later use that hand to touch my face. Kids at 5 yrs old have no awareness of cross contamination and are not washing there hands regularly,it could easily be transferred to the child who is allergic and put their body into shock. At 18 months old I went into shock after a touched a piece of food to my lips,I was in intensive care for days and had a tube down my throat to breathe,my parents thought I was going to die. Sorry for the ramble but how would you feel if a child died because your child really likes a hummus sandwich and you thought it was a silly rule and didn't abide by it.

Was just about to say this.

Children really are not able to be responsible for avoiding of cross contamination. With one particular child, her consultant explained that should a child eat a certain food and then she held their hand/ used a door knob that was touched by the child then she would suffer a reaction. With severe reactions this can happen so by keeping the food out of school in the first place then this situation is avoided. Children also often share their lunch with their pals and swap things in their lunchbox.

 

[Blah11]

Im very allergic to eggs but obviously not THAT allergic. I can touch them, just not eat them I thought most allergies were like that. Obviously I was wrong!

 

[indy and lara]

Im very allergic to eggs but obviously not THAT allergic. I can touch them, just not eat them I thought most allergies were like that. Obviously I was wrong!

I think that is why people get up in arms about foods being banned for allergies. I think most allergies are like that(Emma for example, may well be allergic to tomatoes and some of the things in mayo. We are waiting to start allergy testing at hospital. But her allergy just causes bad blotches nothing else) but for some people they go into anaphylactic shock which can be fatal and is pretty terrifying to see.

 

[Blah11]

I do go into anaphylaxis but like I said, I need to actually eat it

 

[DanielleM]

To be fair though Smelly07 was talking about sweets, not because somebody is allergic to ingredients. I understand where you are coming from about the allergies, I have been on an aeroplane before and they have announced that they have a person on board allergic to nuts and nobody was allowed to consume nut related products but the orginal OP was on about the healthy eating regime most school have these days.

 

[indy and lara]

The thread asked why treats were banned but also got into the wider area of foods being removed from schools. I was explaining why there is an issue with handing out sweets as you can be handing out something that has an ingredient you cannot have in school- nutella boxes and snickers are 2 of the treats I have been asked to hand out in a nut free school by parents.

Schools are charged with promoting healthy eating by the government. There is no getting away from that. We also have a lot of parents who complain that we are handing out sweets regularly. While it doesn't bother the posters on this thread it does bother a considerable number of parents.

 

[Eternal]

but to be far how is that far on parents still, unless the school issue regular letter saying we have a child with a serveve reaction to nuts, please make sure you child does not bring anything into school which contains nuts. however even then, what if you get 20 kids with sereve reactions to things, are you going to ban everything?

Its seems more like a cop out that the authrories would rather ban everything and blame another parent than watch out for the child with the allergy. i mean, if i child has such a sereve reaction to something then that child needs careful monitoring.

As for taking anything out of a childs lunch box or taking away snacks, i think thats so so wrong too.

So many kids are fussy, as i child i was really fussy and refused to eat fruit (i still eat very little fruit really), infact most healthy snack items i wouldnt eat, i ate a really good diet at home and loved vegatables etc, i easily got 5 a day but snack would have been chocolate, cake etc, so not the most healthy thing, and esp not everyday but that was my parents decision. Not a teacher. My son loves fruit and healthy snacks, but if spend him to to school (he isnt 2 yet lol) with a pack of crisps or something then id be furious if someone took them off him and left him hungry, how the hell does some one have the right to have away "candy from a baby", Im horrified to hear that teachers patrol and take away things "they" deem unheatly, leaving children hungery.

I understand where the allregy thing is coming from, i trained as a nurse and worked in a school, ive seen many reactions, epi pens are fairly common these days but like blah its most common to have a reaction when eating that item. Ive never seen someone react to something they havent had direct contact with, but i have heard of it, those poor individuals need special attention but i doubt the school is full of people with that level of allergy, as i say i can understand letters being issued in that case, and food taken away, but whats that child do then with no lunch, surly they could eat somewhere else?

Those who fly regularly will prob have heard announcements about nut allergy, ive been on a plane several times when we were told no nut products sold or to be consumed due to someone having a nut allergy, the difference there is the small area AND air conditioning, in a school hall that sort of thing wouldnt be as problematic unless they were sitting very close to someone with that allergy.

Question to the teacher - Your banned nuts and peas, is that because you actually have children with sereve allergies to those who is that just two products that have been picked on and banned accross the board?

 

[Boothh]

I'd be so annoyed if someone took something out of my child's lunch box, I can sort of understand the allergy thing and I would be inclined to say fair enough as long as we had been given a list of prohibited items, barring that and onto just the healthy eating side if I want to put cake or crisps in his lunchbox its up to me! I decide how to balance his diet and it shouldn't be up to teachers/ dinner ladies to go grabbing stuff out his lunchbox!

Also the birthday treats thing, if the parents are that bothered they can just not give their child one or send a note in saying my child isn't allowed the birthday sweets, there was a boy in my class at school that wasn't allowed certain e numbers, the teacher had a bag in her desk of sweets he was allowed and if we were handed out a treat at home time he would get one of these instead! x

 

[indy and lara]

I feel I am saying the same thing over and over again.

-We have 3 kids with anaphylactic allergies to nuts, peas and chick peas. We are not randomly banning foods because it is the trendy thing to do. As these children move on to secondary school we will be able to 'unban' these things unless someone else comes into the school with the allergies.
- Parents are reminded MONTHLY that we have children with these allergies. It is not some big secret or a trap designed to trip parents up.
- Part of the healthy eating policy is to be encouraging healthy snacking in school. Again, this is shared with parents, we have parents and kids on the healthy school committee and this has been agreed by the whole school community and shared with all the parents.
- No-one has their lunch item taken off them and they are left hungry. Food is always replaced by something from the kitchen.
- I don't patrol the lunchroom looking for unsuspecting kids to 'grab' food from. I never have a lunchbreak so having the time to do this just doesn't exist. No-one else in school does this either.