School bans nuts because of one student's allergy

[Peaches-n-Cream]

I think that they eliminated nuts from NYC public schools because a student died from eating chili made with peanut butter.

My mother is extremely allergic to nuts. She is so happy that they stopped serving them on airplanes because the smell of it makes her sick. She carries an epi-pen with her everywhere in case she accidentally is exposed. She visited the emergency room once because she ate pesto which unbeknownst to her contains nuts.

[chideltjen]

Originally posted by Lil' Hannah
People with nut allergies can have them triggered just by breathing dust with nut particles in it. Even if the kid were in a different room, nut dust will travel through the vents. It's a little extreme but it's not like they had to ban it just because this kid couldn't keep his mitts off his friend's food.

I could see this with giving children packaged nuts for snacks and whatnot, but peanut butter that has already been preprocessed and mashed down to nothing outside the school walls?

If they are concerned with the kids smelling another child's peanut-ridden breath... hand out peppermints. **shrugs**

[aurora_borealis]

Originally posted by chideltjen
I could see this with giving children packaged nuts for snacks and whatnot, but peanut butter that has already been preprocessed and mashed down to nothing outside the school walls?

If they are concerned with the kids smelling another child's peanut-ridden breath... hand out peppermints. **shrugs**

Or they could teach the kids good oral hygeine and have tooth brushing and flossing after lunch. Some Listerine should knock out nut breath.

[AOII_LB93]

At my cousin's high school in NY, there are a peanut-free tables in the cafeteria so that the kids with allergies can sit there...I dunno. I get the point, but why should kids have to go without peanut butter and jelly(of which my preference is strawberry) which is/was a staple in my lunch just because of the one kid? It sucks that it's that bad of an allergy, but wouldn't home school be a better option till the kid can figure out how to protect himself?

[cash78mere]

it's very easy to say to just put them at another table or saparate them from everyone. but it's not easy to do.

i had a kindergartener in my class who was DEATHLY allergic to nuts and products with nuts. we had to send home a letter to every parent informing them of what this boy couldn't be around. we had to wash and scour the desks if anyone had m&m's or anything with nuts. he had to be taken out of the room if someone had food he couldn't smell because even if he smelled it his throat would immediately close.

i was told to call 911 BEFORE informing the nurse because his allergy was so severe and we had an epi-pen on hand at all times. his mother came on all class trips and sent him in his own food for parties.

i don't think it's unreasonable for the school to do this if the allergy is that severe. a young child cannot protect himself. even if he knows how serious his allergy is, the other kids don't understand.

and keeping a child isolated from everyone at lunch really isn't fair to him if it's a life or death situation.

if a kid really wants pb &j, take him home for lunch and then bring him back after he's brushed his teeth and washed his hands.

just imagine if it was YOUR kid that could DIE because someone just HAD to have his peanut butter and jelly.

Oh i agree with banning them 100%! i am fortunate i am not that severe.......... I don't think it's such an ordeal to ban it from schools. Just think the school nutrionist have to re arrange meals not to inlcude products like these for their students.

I carry an epi pen as well because of nuts and nut based products and other foods i am highly allergic too , but on the other hand i also feel bad for the ones who have to pay for someone elses allergies.

[IowaStatePhiPsi]

Originally posted by Rudey
Let's rub the kids with nuts.

-Rudey
--This sounds awful.

how bout you do it then we can jail you when he dies from the allergic reaction.

[Peaches-n-Cream]

Originally posted by Peaches-n-Cream
I think that they eliminated nuts from NYC public schools because a student died from eating chili made with peanut butter.

I mean that the school cafeterias stopped serving food with nuts. I don't know about students bringing nuts such as PB&J sandwiches to school.

[Rudey]

Originally posted by IowaStatePhiPsi
how bout you do it then we can jail you when he dies from the allergic reaction.

Do you want the little boys Jacko?

-Rudey

[DeltaSigStan]

What's worse, that, or the damn hippies at my school who had ALL meat taken out of every lunch meal for a meat substitute, because they didn't have an adequate meal for the vegetarians.

We had salad, fries and fruit.....we shouldv'e told them to eat that shit and get back in the closet.

[33girl]

Originally posted by aurora_borealis
nut breath.

This sounds worse than Rudey's suggestion about rubbing the kids with nuts.

Here's what I don't get - I know that when I was a little kid, one of my neighbors had an allergy to either strawberries or tomatoes (it was something red) and several other kids at my elem. school did as well. However, I can't think of ONE kid who was deathly allergic to this point - and out of approx. 400 kids in a school you'd think there would be at least one, with as often as it seems to crop up now. Did we just not know better, are the kids too isolated from nature, or are the parents just overly cautious?

[AGDee]

This is a really tough one. My daughter has a peanut allergy, but, thankfully, so far, she has to ingest it to have a reaction (or rub her eyes with peanut oil on her hands, like when they made pinecone bird feeders with peanut butter in kindergarten then called me to tell me she had pink eye.. it was allergies). I also have a son who won't eat any sandwich except peanut butter and jelly (won't eat lunch meat). That puts me totally on the fence! I do think that if my daughter's allergy worsened to that point, I would have to find someone to home school her. I wouldn't want to take the risk of exposing her and I wouldn't feel it was fair for 300 kids to have such severely restrictive diets because of her.

I talked to one of the epidemiologists at work a few weeks ago about when she's going to start studying peanut allergies. She currently studies allergy triggered asthma. She said there is a clinical trial out now for a medication that allows these people to ingest up to 9 peanuts with no reaction, even if they have one of the really severe cases. Hopefully they will get that medication approved by the FDA soon!

Dee

[IowaStatePhiPsi]

Originally posted by AGDee
She currently studies allergy triggered asthma.

that's my category. Never a problem until something triggers an allergic reaction, then I need to use the preventative inhaler. Never had a bad asthma attack- had a moderate one during a cross country race- came across the finish line with blue lips and about collapsed.

[tunatartare]

Why make a provision for only one student? That to me doesn't seem fair. It's not like he's the only one in the school with allergies. If I was a parent of a kid in that school and my child was allergic to something, after finding out that nuts were banned because of just one student's allergy, I'd expect the same courtesy to be shown to my child. I agree with the peoole who said he needs to learn how to deal because such provisions aren't going to be made for him later on. I'm deathly allergic to dogs and I get allergies a lot at work because some of my co-workers have dogs and the dander or whatnot from the dogs gets on their clothes. It's not like I can tell my coworkers to not have pets because of me.

[IowaStatePhiPsi]

Originally posted by 33girl
Did we just not know better, are the kids too isolated from nature, or are the parents just overly cautious?

(overly simplified answer)
It is generally considered that a lot of allergies today are our body's immune system needing something to attack due to a lack of exposure to things such as microbe-laced dust and animal dander when we are infants.

When my two oldest sisters were born and infants my parents lived in Chicago and my sisters were not exposed to many animals and plants at early ages. The next two children- my youngest older sister and I- were born and raised in a small town with exposure to a wide variety of animals and plants at an early age.
Result: older 2 children have mild to moderate allergies to dogs and cats, heavy response to pollens. Younger 2 children have no allergic response to animals or pollen. Hell- we're not even sure what I'm allergic to, just that everytime Septemberfest and Oktoberfest roll around there's something in the air that triggers an allergic response and then my asthma sometimes worsens.