Explain It to Me: What's So Bad About Peanut-Butter Bans?
My kids don't like peanut butter. They're not allergic to it, but they've never demanded a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich in their lives, and if I banished that jar from our pantry, they'd never notice.
So maybe that's why stories like this one about battles over banning peanuts from schools seem silly to me. Maybe if I had kids who would eat nothing but peanut butter, preserving their right to carry it into the cafeteria would engage all my mother-bear impulses. As it is, it seems absurd to me that anyone would argue that their child's right to a particular sandwich type overrides another child's right to live without fear of sudden death.
In the latest case, a Connecticut mother requested that her son's school go peanut-free, and the school board turned her down. The Boston Globe quotes one school-board member as saying, "I think more and more people are looking for protection from cradle to grave, and I really don't believe that's what society is all about. I really don't believe we can protect people ... from all the things out there that may pose harm to them."
Later in the same article, a pediatric allergist is quoted as saying, "The concern that I have is does this make these kids have their guard down. If a school says it's peanut-free, the kid becomes less scrupulous about the food he eats."
Well, I don't know. Schools ban things all the time in the name of protecting students. Many schools are banning sugary sodas, even though the connection between those and ill health are a lot more tenuous than the connection between peanuts and anaphylactic shock, even though soda is the beloved beverage of choice for many kids. Many schools ban head lice, even though the little buggers never killed anybody.
"My son's allergy is like bringing a loaded gun to school," the mom seeking the ban is quoted as saying, and schools certainly do ban loaded guns, even though doing so arguably causes students to let their guards down. Is it just that peanuts are only potentially deadly for a small percentage of any particular school population that makes them acceptable for the school environment?
Is it really that hard, that painful, that unjust to omit one foodstuff from campus? It's always possible that less obvious versions will sneak in by accident, and kids with allergies will still need to exercise precautions. But even if it's just in the spirit of saying to a student, "Your life is important to us and we don't want to do anything to endanger you," why wouldn't you want to can the PB&Js? I don't get it. If you feel strongly that banning peanuts is a bad idea, please go ahead and yell at me in the comments.
UPDATE: And yell you did! I'm calling it quits here with 107 comments, and inviting anyone who feels the need to respond to this issue to read my follow-up post and continue the conversation there.
Comments
I will never forget how awful I felt when I ate a macadamia nut cookie in a room, and a half hour later someone entered the room and began having an anaphylactic reaction. I’m not a messy eater, but there was enough of the nut in the air to make her rush for emergency medical attention.
That was extreme, but some allergies ARE that bad. If you can spare doing that to your child or one of your child’s classmates, isn’t it worth it?
I sort of understand the detractors/doubters. I mean, I was among them until we found out about my youngest son’s celiac disease… on top of that, he has a list of eight things we know he’s allergic to — but it’s not that big of a deal, since it’s only church/Sunday School that we need to worry about, since he’s homeschooled. However, his allergy to peanuts has escalated into anaphylaxis. I’m the kind who doesn’t want to make a fuss, but we had to request that the his classroom at church go peanut-free. They *did* it. They voluntarily made the whole church peanut-free, and tree-nut free, too, just to be safe.
We just took a plane trip on Southwest… the trip out — no nuts. The flight back, though, served peanuts. I held my breath as I smelled the peanuts in the air, and closely watched my son… He did all right, but I’m never risking that again. I’m choosing airlines that are already 100% peanut-free, or that are willing to do a clean-out of a plane and have the flight be peanut-free.
Most childhood allergies subside with time, but peanuts are among the few that become more deadly as the person ages.
BUT, most people aren’t really going to understand that unless it’s something they’ve gone through.
I completely understand how terrifying it must be to have a child with a severe allergy. I do, however, have an unusual situation with my son. He is autistic and has severe oral-motor sensitivities. Peanut butter is one of the VERY few things he will eat. And the only sandwich he’ll eat. He cannot have dairy or wheat, so can’t eat school lunch and they don’t let the kids heat anything in a microwave. If his school went nut-free, it would truly affect us. We rely on PBJ at least twice per week.
I understand and feel for the parents and child.
At the same time, my son has major sensory-integration issues and the only kind of “carry-to-school” food he can eat is peanut-butter sandwiches.
And the world is not peanut free- nor will any school be safe from peanuts “in the air”.
You work on my son day and night to find something he can and will eat for lunch - great - I’ll make it. By the way he also has been a vegetarian since birth - his choose - can’t stand cheese - or anything else we have tried for lunch.
School with a special needs child is more hassle often than it seems worth it. This is just another.
If you have lots of money - send you child to a “peanut-free” school. We have no choice.
I’m too tired of all this.
My daughter has allergies to the point that she only eats 4 foods and must drink an elemental formula to meet her nutritional needs. Her allergy list is long. So, obviously I am sensitive to the issues of food-allergic children and families. Some kids have anaphylaxis to milk, eggs, and soy. If we ban peanuts, where will we stop? Would we ban peanuts to protect the children that are allergic to them but not ban milk to protect those children? Our society will never be “allergen-free” as parents we have to do the best to educate our children (and schools) about their allergens, signs of anaphylaxis, and appropriate treatment.
I totally agree. There is one comment regarding that is all her child eats. I understand…however just the smell of peanut butter can kill a person. Let’ truthfully look at the balance here. You are telling this person to go to a different school…ummm, how do we feel when people tell us our children should be in a speical school and not included? These allergies are real. My son only eats a hand full of items as well. Peanut butter used to be the only thing….now he doesn’t want PB, he has another food he prefers. So here I am going to balance….my child will not eat his lunch…a child may die because of my sons lunch….my child can eat at home after school and I will continue working hard to find something to send with him that is not based in PB.
I can appreciate having a child whose special needs require peanut butter (or other foods which are allergenic to others) for lunch. And they must, absolutely must, get to have their lunch. I agree with this.
What to do for the child who’ll be rushed to the hospital if they are exposed to these foods? I think it’s probably a matter of degree, on all sides, and there has to be discussion for each situation.
I’m not saying that your child is not good enough. I am saying that there has to be a solution, and it has to be found. We’re the adults, we’re supposed to be able to come up with creative and feasible ideas, and sometimes it’ll be ‘eat lunch with a teacher in a different location’ and sometimes it’ll be ‘there’s a good school with a food ban in place over here, we’ll find a way to get your child there’ and usually it’ll be something in the middle.
Your kid is wonderful, and their kid is wonderful, and nobody said it’d be easy. We have to find a way to make it work, and keep our kids safe and healthy.
One school and parent chose to allow the child to eat in the library. The child was able to choose a friend each day to eat lunch with him in the library. The other kids looked at this as something “cool” and wanted to be chosen. The allergic boy’s social status really improved in this situation. There are solutions.
I have friends whos children are allergic to PB and I completely understand but I also have a daughter with Williams Syndrome that has sensory integration issues and only eats PB sandwiches.
It is a touchy subject. I think that it would be difficult to expect a school to “ban” PB in order to prevent an allergic reaction of a child but PB isn’t the only product that contains oils from nuts. There are also many products out there that are made in and around machines that manufacture products with nut oils and therefore come in contact with these oils.
It would be impossible to go into the kitchen of every home and expect people to clean out their cupboards of products completely free of any oils related to penuts or other nuts.
It is a serious issue that I believe is on a much larger scale than just a jar of PB.
Also, I am guilty of wanting to protect my child from every thing that could harm her but I also know that I must teach her some responsibility for herself otherwise she’ll never learn.
I agree with you that we can’t make our schools safe from cradle to grave. We can’t always stop a Columbine type thing and we can’t read the kids minds, as much as we do try.
But we CAN intervene on this isue and we CAN prevent a child from a peanut reaction that is quite literally, a potentially deadly one. The kids deserve a chance to study and grow their minds in an environment that is as safe as we can make it.
you said about peanuts. what about another kind of nuts? huh! mm! you did not good explain about different kind of nuts. what about wheat oil, corn oil,olive oil etc. what?
I know that there are allergies to peanuts etc. Bit to tell a person oh you cant eat this it is dangerous. The effected lunch table where person sits should be told this table nut free but to tell whole school redic.
This is a terrible dilemma. I understand and empathize with parents whose children are allergic and I would likely want the same thing as far as the ban goes if that were my child. But my situation is one like some of the other posters noted. My daughter has CP, Autism, (with severe sensory integration issues) and has a sub-mucous cleft palate. Peanut butter is truly one of the very few foods that she CAN eat. She takes it everyday in her lunch. However, since she cannot handle the noise of the cafeteria, she does eat in an alternate location. She is perfectly content to eat in the quiet environment as it meets her needs. I requested and then we modified where my daughter eats…we did not request that all the kids in the cafeteria modify their lunch time to meet my daughter’s needs.
And along that same line….my daugher has Asthma. That along with the sensory integration challenges make perfume, scented lotions, and numerous other things kids bring to school VERY difficult for my daughter. She can and has become ill and had to be picked up because of something someone has sprayed or may be using. Granted, this is not a fatal situation for her, although serious asthma attacks can be deadly….I can only change what goes on in the immediate presence of my daughter (they can’t spray any perfumes or such while in the class with her)but the school does not ban scented items or sprays for the entire school for my daughter. I suppose if her needs were to the point that it could pose a fatal situation for her, I would place her in an environment I could control, such as home school or a very small school group. I wish a solution that meets the needs of everyone could be created. But since that is not likely, I hope for a solution that serves the greater good.
My child has a life-threatening peanut allergy. I am also an elementary school teacher. I support a ban on peanuts because there are plenty of other great foods to eat. For those people who say their children have sensory issues. First of all sensory issues are not life-threatening and soy-nut butter is a good alternative. Since peanut allergies have the most deadly potential I think it is really stupid to take this risk. I wouldn’t want to be the one who flippantly said, “but this is the only thing my child will eat?” and cause potential danger for any child. Certainly I don’t understand why people want to isolate these poor children who deal with this danger daily. For those who say we can’t protect our children from everything. Let’s hear what you would be willing to expose your child to knowing the result is likely death–playing on a busy street, eating poison (which is what this amounts to), etc. Yea, stupid thoughts as it is stupid for me to hear people say such ridiculous comments as “we can’t protect them from everything”. If it were your child, you’d say something different I guarantee you. Please note it could be your child. Peanut allergies can present at any time so be careful about how casual you are. It could be you in the emergency room wondering if your child will be able to live through the anaphalaxis. I say get your heads out of the sand and come up with more creative lunches that aren’t potenially lethal to someone else’s child. And, by the way, shame on you for being willing to risk the life of any child to make lunch-making easier for you!
Ok, I propose the following.
1. No one is allowed to eat at school. This means everyone has to go home for lunch or go hungry from 8am to 3pm. This includes the teachers and staff so that no one is exposed to any possible allergin.
2. No one is allowed to bathe, use deoderants or perfumes during the school week or at after school events so that no one is exposed to any possible allergins.
3. No one is allowed to bring anything to school. All school use items must be kept at school.
4. No one is allowed in the school except the teachers, students and police.
5. All schools will have cameras on all areas (including bathrooms and locker rooms) at all times.
Have I covered it all? Does everyone feel safe now?
Some are allergic to peanuts, others to shellfish, still others to wheat gluten, or lactose, and the list goes on.
At some point parents have to assume responsibility for their own children and not demand that society deprive others of healthy foodstuff to guard against the possibility that their child might be exposed to their particular allergin.
My son, now 27, was allergic to peanuts before the allergy ws widely known. If he ate then he could die of shock. I would support getting peanut butter out of schools. better that than lsoing a child needlesly.
My son was allergic to chocolate….
Should I have insisted that noone at the school eat chocolate because he might have broken out in a rash?
I DO understand about being concerned and SO worried about your child having a reaction to peanuts but you can not expect society to conform to your family situation or your child’s situation. Your child/family will have to conform. Eating in the classroom with a friend/friends is an alternative that should be looked at. It is not the end of the world for the child and something the would have to understand. The world will not change for them….. Better to learn it now.
I don’t know anyone personally with such an allergic condition, but if I did, I would certainly respect his or her needs. How could I be so selfish as to insist that nothing impact my personal freedoms to the tiniest little degree–even when a person’s life could be in the balance? I just don’t comprehend it.
It’s depressing how little most Americans seem to care about each other these days. I was on a plane flight just a couple of weeks ago, and the announcement came on that this was going to be a peanut-free flight because we had a passenger on board who was allergic. You should have heard the collective groan that went up and the nasty comments!
Apparently these people are more interested in eating peanuts than they are in avoiding a lengthy flight delay from a mid-air medical emergency. I wondered how the passenger with the allergy felt hearing that reaction from the people around him or her. I’m sure it was a real heartwarming experience.
And all this over a 20-cent bag of peanuts, as if that is something so horrible to go without for a three hour flight. If the flight crew hadn’t said anything, nobody would even have known. No kudos to them for handling that so poorly. Who knows? Maybe they are also on the side of the eye-rollers and the people exclaiming “oh my God”. Maybe their comment was a deliberate slap in the face of the allergic passenger, given just to make sure he or she stays off that airline in the future.
This country is headed for a dive, and it has nothing to do with a few people who have special needs. It has everything to do with people who only ever think about themselves and who act accordingly.
I do under stand that some kids have allergies, and I do understand they can be deadly, but for crying out loud banning certain foods from schools is just plain crazy!!!!!!!!!I think it is so stupid that at my childrens school they have milk free zones in the lunch room! The kids have an allergy to milk not a disease! all of the children I know that have these food allergies are very aware of it, and are not going to eat the stuff that makes them sick!! I ticks me off that my children who by the way LOVE peanut butter, cant have it for lunch because it is not allowed in the school because some one has an allergy!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ignorance, selfishness and lack of human compassion are all threats to our children. When your child is the one that can have an anaphylactic, life threatening reaction- your tune would change immediately and you would unfortunately be dependent on the compliance and compassion of others. Should these beautiful children stay home, always and never count on another for support and understanding. I don’t even wish that for you. For those of you with finicky eater (not medically related), how difficult would it be to limit the risk you pose by sending your child to school with peanut butter products and feeding your child the peanut butter sandwhich at home, after school. Do they eat peanut butter for every meal? If so, sounds like a parenting issue. The content of peanuts is much stronger in peanut butter than other products that have a “may containg peanuts” or other allergy warning on the label. If it would offer some reduction in a major risk for anaphylaxis, why would we not try to protect the child and all the other growing numbers of children with simailar life threatening allergies. we are not talking about ingestion allergies, which we can rely soley on the parent and child to monitor, we are talking about touch/smell anaphylaxis. Shame on the parents that are so self centered that they speak on the issue without understanding the severity of what a peanut allergy can do to a child…even if you were the ones to cause a child to have a reaction, you would never acknowlege it. And to those of you who have put others before you and the convenience that peanut butter sandwhiches offer- God bless you and thank you.
The sarcastic replies of some people amaze me! Peanut allergies are very real and can be DEADLY. Yes, just breathing in the scent of peanuts can be enough to send a severely allergic patient into anaphylaxis and possible death. I have been an allergy nurse for years. I have a daughter who is very allergic to shellfish. She knows and is very careful but eating out can sometimes be surprising with “hidden” shellfish in stuffed mushrooms for example! Our youngest daughter’s classroom is a peanut and tree nut free room. Her best friend is allergic to peanuts and another child is allergic to tree nuts. This doesn’t mean we don’t have these items in our home, we just don’t bring them out when her friend comes over, her allergy isn’t that severe….yet. But exposure brings on severity. I’m thankful my daughter is only allergic to tomatoes and amoxicillin. We can easily avoid amoxicillin and tomatoes, well, if she wants to deal with a rash and upset stomach, at least it won’t kill her.
My daughter has a terrible corn allergy–that includes corn syrup products, corn starch–even as thickener for pies and gravies, corn chips, corn tortillas, corn bread, any kind of soup that has corn in it — etc. She can be sick for several hours with just sipping the broth of soup made with corn. She does not have to eat the corn. If she just sips the broth she can have diahrrea and cramps for 24 hours. My son has several friends that are allergic to wheat–& as we know wheat is used in tons of things. Without making a long list of all the other things I know of that personal friends of mine are allergic to — and lets say we banned all corn products and all wheat products from schools — then what are these kids going to eat? If we respect one allergy - that being peanut allergy — then do we not need to respect all allergies for all children and say no peanuts, no corn and all things that are made with corn, no wheat and all things made with wheat…and so on?
This is a Pandora’s Box just waiting to happen. If we respect only one allergy then that is going to be discriminating. The schools will be put in the position where they cannot allow foods that any and all children are allergic to — if they allow it for one group — then they must allow if for all groups. So, what will we have these children eating if that is the case? If we ban all foods that children are allergic to — then the only alternative schools may have open to them is to have parents picking up their children for lunch every single day. Other parents are going to fight for the rights of their children that have allergies that are not peanut allergies—as they should! All children are equal. Corn allergies, Wheat Allergies and so on are as important as peanut allergies!
Allergies that cause cramps and diarrhea or rash are not the same as an allergy that can stop a child from breathing and cause them to die. Get real people. Think.
I have and will always have a problem with ZERO tolerance for specific items. In and of itself a ban on peanuts doesn’t seem so bad and believe me if my child were allergic I would probably jump right on the bandwagon; but I would hope that my sense of what is truly right here would win out. We have gone from a nation that holds each to his own to a nation that seems to want to protect every individual from everything that could possible harm them. We Can’t Do It. What does this child do in the mall? What does he do at the pool, public park, the zoo or the museum. ALL places that people take picnics and quite often peanut butter sandwiches. Do we ban peanut butter from the world? Peanut butter is a normal healthy alternative to get protein into a child or adult. As mentioned above, some children will or can only eat peanut butter sandwiches. What about them? Find another way to protect your child. All schools, by law, have to help you with this delimma. There have been some very good ones mentioned in this string. Good luck!
The difference between a corn/wheat allergy and a peanut/tree nut allergy is that 1) corn/wheat allergies usually cause GI upset, not anaphylaxis. 2) peanut allergies can be brought on by just BREATHING in the odor of the peanut not just ingesting the allergen as in corn/wheat. HUGE DIFFERENCE!!! Or touching a table where someone had just consumed a peanut butter sandwich and had been wiped down. I’ve seen it happen! Thankfully, the school I am now working at is now peanut and tree nut FREE!!!! Because peanut/tree nut allergies can KILL!!! Not just give you a tummy ache!!!
I know people with severe allergies. I actually have two younger sisters with allergies. I was just the fortunate one who wasn’t born with any. Growing up was difficult for me since I was the first born and all the attnetion went to my two younger sisters because of their severe allergies.
Anyway, my comment about all of this is that this is an important issue since some people can die by just the trace of a scent of peanut butter as well as other nuts in the air. This article as well as everyone else’s comments adress the problem placed before us, but has anyone ever really considered the root of the problem?
This may not be entirely correct, but here is my belief in all of this. If you look at other countries we don’t see as many problems with allergies in comparison to North America. This is probably due to our obsession with cleanliness. We are afraid of germs to the point that every household probably has some form of anitbacterial cleanser that will kill 99.9% of germs. As a cause of our obsession with eliminating germs, we may may be wekening immune systems. It is possible that for some, their immune system is unable to differrentiate the difference between the good proteins and the bad proteins that are harmful to us. Therefore, those with alleriges are more sensitive to different substances and their bodies attack proteins that are not actually hramful to our bodies.
Last year in school, when my son was a freshman, there was a student (a senior) that has a peanut allergy. They banned anything peanut from the school. A kid actually got suspended for bringing a Reeses Peanut Butter cup to school in his lunch. The kid with the allergy “got up in his face” (my son’s words) and started yelling something to the effect of “you are trying to kill me - you are a murderer”. The kids has since graduated, and peanut products are allowed back in our school. As much as we all like to protect our children, there are nuts and nut products out there in the real world. Restaurants use peanut oil for cooking, people can be walking down the street eating a peanut butter sandwich or candy bar. My point is, you can not protect your child from everything. I know people with peanut allergies have severe reactions, precautions should be made by the child/parent if the child is going to be in a situation they feel may not be safe. I have allergies — I have always had to take precautions when I go somewhere — everyone does not stop what they are serving/doing and rearranging everything around me — that’s selfish.
What about those deadly utensils. Did you know that last year alone, school children used spoons, forks and knifes to fling food at each other? Could put an eye out!!!
OH, and school bus accidents. Last year there were dozens of kids killed in school bus accidents. Oh, wait, cars and trucks on the highways caused those accidents.
That’s it, BAN all MOTOR VEHICLES. 45,000 deaths a year can be prevented.
Dust, mold, bacteria, virus’s in the classroom? What is a concerned parent to do?
Why not build a little plastic bubble for you and your kids to live in ?
You people have got to realize that the REST OF US ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR LITTLE PRINCESS AND LITTLE LORD FUANTLEROY. YOU ARE!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is another case of the tail wagging the dog. It is up to the parents to protect the child by either removing them from the environment or teaching them how to deal with the problem. I am a Type 1 diabetic. If I don’t take the appropriate steps to protect and care for myself, I will die. I will not request that anyone else remind me to take the insulin. I will not ask anyone else to give up sugar products because it can hurt me.
My responsibility, my job, and I get upset when other people interfere with my responsibilities. Parents with alergies, do “your” job, teach self responsibility and self reliance, and don’t interfere with me and mine.
Wow. Comments such as several on here remind me of why I’m so reticent to make special dietary requests. There are just a whole host of people totally unwilling to bend for the health and benefit of those around them, and who ridicule those who have such needs.
I’m glad we homeschool, since we’d likely encounter many of the attitudes posted here, if my son went to a regular school that would need to be peanut free, due to his anaphylaxis.
Also, there is a lot of interesting research going on as to why Americans have such problems with sickness & food. One theory is that, in general, people function better if they eat food that is native to the places of their ancestral heritage. And, since most everyone here is NOT native (and since many of the natives eat non-native food), there is a high incidence of dietary-related health problems in Americans. We’re simply not eating the food that is good for us.
My granddaughter has had severe reactions to someone who has just eaten peanut butter, and that was outside. Believe me she has been left out of many things including celebrations at day care because of her allergy. Her new elementary school that she will start in the fall has notified her parents that she will be seated at a peanut free table for lunch. This child who has done nothing wrong will now because segregated (for lack of a better word). To all these people that think that people like her is caused by pushy parents, think what it’s like for a 4 yr old to have to carry epi-pens and hope she doesn’t come into contact with peanuts in any way or form. Death is always a possibility for her and many others. A lunch without peanut butter for 5 days out of the week wouldn’t “kill” the non allergic. A little understanding please for the non affected. This is not a minor problem, possibilty of death never is.
My children have various allergies - some considered “life-threatening”. It’s my job to not only protect them but to teach them to protect themselves. THEIR life depends on THEIR vigilence. We face reality and realize that our children are “different” because of these allergies. Different doesn’t mean better or worse… just different. And, since it IS life or death for them, my kids know they ARE different! If I felt the school environment or ANY environment couldn’t keep my child safe and alive… I would remove my child from that environment. As the parent, I needed to step up early on and teach my children what was necessary to keep them alive and my children HAD to learn - otherwise it would mean death. *I* couldn’t afford to be lazy and expect others to do the job, especially since too many people are uneducated about it. Nuts/peanut butter are pretty much in this world to stay and those allergic must learn to deal with it. Yes, help is nice and appreciated, but again *I* am the parent of MY children and must step up - other parents have their own kids and worries to deal with.
I have a friend and her son has a peanut allergy. As a result our school is peanut-free. I was very sympathetic and understanding of this problem UNTIL:
I learned that this family eats in a local restaurant where they serve peanuts in a basket and throw the shells on the floor…
She had me make treat bags for a party at school and she brought me the candy to use…M&M’s and other candies that have a warning right on them that they are made in a factory where nuts are used, even though they are not in this particular candy…
She takes him to malls, the zoo, ball games, children’s parties, overnights with friends, etc…all where foods are served that contain peanuts/peanut products…
SO, how real is this peanut allergy with this particular boy??? Should our entire school adhere to this peanut allergy ban and yet he doesn’t when he is outside of school???
This same mother brought HOT MEALS to this son every noon so that they were supposedly totally peanut free. And that same night they might go to town and eat in this restaurant where there are peanut shells on the floor!!!
It is no wonder that parents resent how this mother caused all this to happen at school but doesn’t carry thru with this 24/7.
I don’t know how often this happens, but if it does, I can see why people resent making our schools peanut-free. And I think it is just a matter of time until parents of children with other allergies start asking for equal treatment. And what about kids who are very allergic to bee or wasp stings? Does that mean that no child should be able to go outdoors for recess because there might be a bee or wasp on the playground.
I realize the danger of this in many instances (children with peanut allergies) but I also wonder how many times parents have overreacted, as in the case mentioned above. I believe that this boy has a peanut allergy…but I don’t believe that it is as “bad” as she told the school!!
As the parent of a child with both celiac disease (gluten intolerance) and anaphylaxis to peanuts, I AGREE that it is primarily my responsibility to both protect my child, and to teach him to be vigilant about his special needs.
However, one of the ways that I, as a parent, can take responsibility is to ensure that the places that we regularly go do NOT contain needless contamination. As I mentioned in a much-earlier post (#2 above), I hesitantly made a request to my church, and they immediately hopped on it and made the entire church nut-free. The comment made to me was that anyone in administration where children are MUST be aware of the potentially life-threatening hazards that are out there, and that they need to take care of the things within their power.
Some things are NOT within a parent’s or administrator’s power, like viruses. However, the school does clean and disinfect, right? And car accidents are not w/in everyone’s power, but we use seatbelts, right? (Although I think no seatbelts on buses is a travesty.)
IOW, of course, no one can protect everyone from every potential danger. But the things that we CAN guard against, we should.
Hi, the question I have is where do you draw the line? I’m severly allergic to legumes especially anything in the pea family, I’ve been hospitalized twice because of them. Just the steam from them cooking can put me into anaphylactic shock. Are you going to ban beans at your next cook-out for me and banish them from school? My brother is severly allergic to shellfish. My old girlfriend was severly allergic to a host of foods especially tomatoes. Are you suggesting we ban tomatoes too from school? You need to be vigilant and you need to teach your children to be vigilant too. Or we’ll all be eating solent green in school because someone is severly allegic to something everywhere.
I aggree with you. I don’t understand any society that would risk a child’s health or life for a food stuff that can be enjoyed at home. The school board that turned down that mother’s request should be voted out of office.
I have a very bad allergic reaction to bug repellents and and other chemicals. Guess what? I don’t use them and certainly don’t propose banning them. Hell, smoking killed my father but that was HIS CHOICE, nobody put a gun to his head and made him do it. So go ahead and ban peanuts, then hot dogs and fast food since people are forced to eat them and die of heart disease.
My three year old grandson nearly died from one peanut and he did not swallow the whole nut. He will break out if someone has handled a peanut and then touches him. So yes, peanuts should be banned from all public places not just schools.
Just image a child unknowingly trading his pb&j to a child who is allergic and that child dies.That would haunt him or her forever. Or if a child eats peanut butter ,goes to the bathroom and the allergic child comes behind and touches the oil residue on the door knob. Who is responsible for the negligent death?
The school or the teacher or maybe the parents who sent their child to school with something containing peanut butter?
The law requires us to buckle up for safety so peanut’s should be banned for the allergic person’s safety.
I guess that I react to these comments as a mother of a healthy 13 year old boy who does have severe allergic reactions to nuts, namely peanuts, so to be safe, we avoid all nuts with him. As a toddler, I gave him peanut butter crackers, priding myself on trying such a healthy snack alternative instead of glorified cookies. He took one bite and gagged a little. I patted him on the back and encouraged him to take another bite, thinking he just choked a little. He took one more small bite, spit the crackers out of his mouth and refused to open his mouth again. He continued to cough and gag, then started crying, screaming, and scratching. I panicked and began yelling for my husband to come quickly, as our son was turning bright red and breaking out into hives before my very eyes. We tried to cool him off in the bathtub with some baking soda added to the water; it was Sunday and we didn’t know what else to do. Eventually, a couple of hours later, the rash subsided and he was calm. The next day I got a phone call at work, and I began rushing back to the hospital emergency room, which was an hour’s drive for me. My sister, who was closer to him, had picked him up from the sitter’s and taken him to the hospital. He was having an asthma attack, triggered by the peanuts. When he entered school, I took him to an allergist, and watched incredulously as they pricked my son’s back with almost 50 sticks of possible allergens. The allergist said that he had never seen such a severe reaction to peanuts and that if he were ever to consume peanuts in any quantity, that it could possibly kill him. So we avoid peanuts like the plague. I haven’t bought peanut butter for my family in over 10 years; on all forms for school, camps, and sports I write ALLERGIC TO PEANUTS, NUTS, AND PEANUT BUTTER in all caps and in red ink! His built-in affinity to taste even the slightest bit of nuts causes him to spit out any peanut product that he might accidentally attempt to consume. We have avoided potential scares in school in this manner, which I attribute to luck, parental tenacity and God’s Divine intervention. So to all of you who consider us irrational parents for trying to protect our children from death, this is why we do what we do.
I would imagine that the 50% that voted that it is an over-reaction do not have anyone in their family with this deadly allergy. This is what happens to the 4 or 5 year old child when exposed to a peanut butter sandwich on a table in the same room as the child. First, if your lucky, he/she starts to break out in hives and begins scatching so hard that the scratches begin to bleed. If your not lucky, he/she starts to wheeze. This means that the throat is closing. If Benedryl doesn’t work, an inhaler is next. If that fails the next step is dialing 911 and then the application of the epi-pen, containing epinefrine, then the trip to the emergency room.
Does this sound like an over reation caused by some pushy parent or a life saving decesion? Thos 50% are lucky. My grandson who just turned 5 is not. Yes, my daughter may be pushy, but she has the right to be.
Neither of my children have a peanut allergy, but I work in an elementary school cafeteria with several children that do. In our school we do not serve or sell any peanut products. However, children are allowed to bring peanut butter sandwiches from home for lunch.
Our school district has trained peanut allergy aides on staff that separate the children who have brought peanut butter for lunch from the students with the allergies. The aide stays by the students with the allergies to make sure they are safe and the aide gives all students who eat peanut butter wet wipes to clean up their hands and table area when they are done.
Then me and my other cafeteria workers wipe down each table and chair in the entire cafeteria between each lunch period with bleach, soap and water. We are also all trained what signs to look for and we know the identity of all the children with the allergies so we can keep an extra eye on them. All parents should be able to send their children to school with the confidence that they will be safe, whether it is from allergies, bullies, guns, etc. We are very fortunate in our school district to have the peanut allegy aides on staff, all school districts should have them. We also have diabetic aides for the diabetic children so their special needs can be met. Children should be safe in school and parents are not able to be with them in school all day to protect them.
Mothers have always roared like a bear when their children are at risk. It’s understandable and more often than not, a good thing. Many people - children and adults have life threatening illness, sensitivities, special needs, and deadly allergies. The parents of little boy that lived in a bubble did not require the rest of the world to do so in order to protect him. They made the bubble, put him in it, and took care of him, teaching him how to live to the utmost of his capacity. They modified his personal environment so he could partake in life – within his capabilities. As for schooling for those with deadly allergies, there are many private school options as well as homeschooling. Check them out. Don’t put all the other kids in the bubble when it’s only your child that needs one.
I don’t currently have a comment about whether or not banning peanuts is a bad idea. But I just want to comment that this author also fails to show evidence of any kind that it is a GOOD idea. Let’s have her give a little better explination than ‘peanuts can kill some people’. There are many things that can kill people that are NOT banned from schools.
I am 52 years old and grew up with severe allergies, including to all nuts such as peanut butter. No school or organization or company ever made allowances for me and I survived just fine. Even as a child, I made sure to stay away from the product or anyone eating it. The schools knew about my allergies/asthma, but treated me in a sensible fashion. That is what I think the current schools should do - if someone has such a severe allergy, segregate them from the regular population while they are eating or could be exposed to the product.
I’m alive and have such a bad allergy to nuts that eating 10 nuts would cause me to start having asthma and my throat swelling and other allergic reactions that could be life-threatening. Common sense tells me to never be without Benedryl and my inhaler and to stay away from nuts altogether.
Some airlines are now giving peanuts to passengers on a regular basis and this bothers me because it is in a seriously controlled environment. I’ve complained, but no one wants to listen.
We can all get so PC (Politically Correct) that it interferes with everyday living. I’m also allergic to dogs, cats, feathers, and when I was a child, was severely allergic to dairy, wheat and chocolate products. Made my childhood somewhat difficult, but no one made any allowances for me except to keep me from injesting or breathing things to which I was allergic. Let’s keep common sense as a our top priority in maintaining everyone’s health, okay?
I can emphasize. My child also has severe allergies. But he has to learn to live with this. The whole world can’t adjust to his specific allergies. If we started banning different causes severe allergies in one or more person, boy, all kinds of things could never exist anywhere. No seafood, strawberries, nuts of any kind, dogs, cats, gluten, soy, lactic acid…those are some of the allergies in my family…anywhere? The airlines, that I can understand as it’s a confining space with the same air recirculated. But, really, anywhere. It’s something my child has to learn how to live with. So they ban it in school. But then we goes to the mall/playground/you name it…some kid just had a PB&J sandwich and touched something…Do we band it at the mall now? I’ve taught him to keep his hands to himself….he’s only 4 (it takes some work and constant reminders but he has to be responsible for himself in this manner!)
PEANUT BUTTER almost took my child’s life on several occasions. My child is 6 and knows to avioud people who eat peanut butter due to severe allergies. But one day she picked up another kid’s ballon and blew it up.(without me knowing) Less then 3 minutes later she turned pale white (with lips only slightly swollen), had no hives or outward symptoms, a began to wheeze slightly…..within minutes she was alomst dead! I knew the signs, I administered two epi-pens (the first one failed to inject), called 911 and we spent the next 24 hours in the hospital (where she required an I.V. and more med’s). By the time someone (other then me) realized that my daughter was having an anaphalaxis reaction-she would be dead! She is only six, I try to teach her not to touch things…but’s she is only 6. What happened if she touched the monkey bars at the school and there was a trace amount of peanut butter from some kid…..Could they act quick enough? I don’t think so. So what do I do until she is old enough to use & carry her own epi-pen? You tell me?!? She is a more extreme case, she test at the VERY HIGHEST LEVELS for peanut allergies. Forgot what she eats….it’s what she touches!
The problem I have with banning something is “Where do you stop?” There are other foods that cause allergies, such as wheat, milk, and eggs. Should they be banned as well? While I don’t think that ‘problem foods’ should be ignored, I do feel that a more measured solution should be implimented.
you can’t eliminate the threat totally . . . inform others and peanut proof your child (make them aware of the seriousness of their allergies . . . how much sets it off - smell, touch, or ingestion?, this gives them a reason to ALWAYS carry their epi pen)
Personally I eat pb&j sandwiches almost every day for lunch, I’ve made people aware that I’m eating it, and if someone is allergic, I accommodate them, if eating elsewhere is necessary then i leave.
I will never stop eating pb&j sandwich’s ,but I’m not going to expose you to it.
We seem to live in a society where everything has to be just right, nothing can be out of place, and our own personal needs are paramount above all others. We want government to do everything for us, and we cannot be patient enough to plan for our own individual idiosyncrasies. Instead, we want to inconvenience everyone else because we are too lazy to care for our own individual needs.
Kids today rarely play outside anymore (notice what blobs of unexercised and amorphous goo many of them are today). They are not exposed to allergens and other common environmental toxins that we were exposed to during our formative years. As time goes on, we will likely see new generations of people with new and currently unimagined allergies caused by similar lack of exposure to environmental toxins.
What are we going to do then, ban everything? Why must free individuals be burdened by the nuances of a minority of people who, with proper planning, could take care of their own individual problems?
Banning things is not the answer. Individual responsibility is. We already know what banning weapons of self-defense did inBlacksburg, VA this week.
A Holocaust survivor and 31 others were murdered by a piece of human debris because no one could defend themselves.
Please stop requesting selfish bans of things that are, for the most part, minor inconveniences that can be solved with proper planning. I can take care of myself if I assume responsibility for my situation. Please let me exercise my personal freedom to do so.
While you’re at it, ban soy, diary, wheat, gluten and other nuts too. Hell why do you just ban eating at school altogether and expel or fire anyone caught trying to sneak food in.
Seriously, you don’t see me trying to ban grass from schools because of all things I’m allergic to it.
I’ve read many comments about parents protecting their children from life threatening allergies. I’ve only read one comment about getting to the root of the problem. The problem is becoming deadlier and more rampant with each generation. Why?
Many of you ate peanut and tree nut products while you were growing up and while you were pregnant and didn’t have any reactions. When did your children begin to have reactions to certain foods? Was it after their immunization shots were given?
Having said that…I don’t think the solution is to ban certain food groups. Your children will, hopefully, grow up, go off to college, and have a career. They will have to learn to cope in any environment they chose to be in.
I think the best solution (other than finding the root cause of these allergies and banishing it) is to teach your children to be prepared. Teach them to look out for themselves-don’t expect or demand others to look out for them. Teach them find solutions for their problems which won’t have a negative impact on others.
People in wheelchairs complained about having limited access to offices, hotels, restaurants, etc. They made everyone take notice of their problem and they found a solution that does not take away the freedom of people who aren’t in wheelchairs. I think you should follow their example.
No one is upset at parents for protecting their childrens from deadly allergens. They are upset because their freedom to choose what they want to eat or snack on is being restricted.
I don’t think peanut butter should be banned from schools. I think a solution needs to be found that will benefit everybody.
Look I know some people have severe allergies to various things BUT it is there responsibility to learn how to protect themselves. If you get rid of peanuts from school then next we’ll be getting rid of all comon allergens: other nuts, wheat, gluten, milk, and eggs. If a child has a food allegy a parent needs to teach them to:
A: Read food labels. Teach them to look at food labels and read them carefully. Fortunately, most foods point it out if they contain of may have come in contact with common allergens.
and
B: Not eat anything if they are uncertain what it contains.
Schools should provide listings of what foods are 100% allergy free for the students, and which to avoid the most. (I know a lot of schools do already).
If someone has such a severe allergy that being exposed to minute dust particles of that makes them go into anaphalactic shock, school isn’t the best place for them (very unfortunate to say) because kids are messy and school can be unclean (no offense to janatorial staff).
I know someone who grew up with my sister who was litterally allergic to school. It is difficult having severe allergies, but lets face: The rest of the world doesn’t cater to people with allergies/disabilites/excetra. People have to learn to care for themselves.
Unfortunately, thats the way it is because you can’t please everyone and cater to every allegy (/dissabilty/excetra).
“What about those deadly utensils. Did you know that last year alone, school children used spoons, forks and knifes to fling food at each other? Could put an eye out!!!
OH, and school bus accidents. Last year there were dozens of kids killed in school bus accidents. Oh, wait, cars and trucks on the highways caused those accidents.
That’s it, BAN all MOTOR VEHICLES. 45,000 deaths a year can be prevented.
Dust, mold, bacteria, virus’s in the classroom? What is a concerned parent to do?
Why not build a little plastic bubble for you and your kids to live in ?
You people have got to realize that the REST OF US ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR LITTLE PRINCESS AND LITTLE LORD FUANTLEROY. YOU ARE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Comment by Tony — April 19, 2007 @ 3:15 pm….”
Tony…you need to educate yourself! I can not believe people don’t see this as a big deal. We are talking about a child dropping dead if they come in contact with peanuts. I’m shocked at the insensitivity in some of these comments!
I also would like to note Julie (#8) had a good solution that is more fessable and appropriate for a child with severe allergies.
I would also like to note PB is very affordable and growing up my father ate a lot of PB sandwhiches growing up because they didn’t have a lot of money. What about kids whose parents can’t afford a lot of alternative foods for their children, consider them.
People with exotic allergies cannot expect the world to accomidate them, period. They need to work around their unique “problem” as difficult as that may be. Some people are allergic to cotton, some to latex, some to SUNLIGHT, etc etc. Sorry, but be realistic. Many people with disabilities (using the term very loosly) need to realize that they dont have the same public “access” (again using the term broadly) as everyone else. People born without legs cannot be skydivers and blind people cannot be airline pilots. NOT EVERYONE CAN BE ACCOMIDATED! Political correctness is beginning to make me a right wing nazi…..
I have a serious allergy to peanuts. I’m pretty good about looking at ingredients and avoiding eating things with peanuts.
But there is very little I can do about the smells and airborne dust particles of peanuts from other people. That can make me very sick.
I also have little control about contamination other people have done by touching things or spilling things. This contamination can make me very sick.
Most other forms of allergies are not this sensitive or this dangerous. Peanut allergies are in a class of their own. Peanuts are dangerous enough that they do not belong in public places.
I am mixed on this subject. I have been allergic to nuts & peanuts all of my life. When I was a kid, there was no such thing as a nut-free school, so I was taught never to take food from other kids (very very embarrasing to explain why I had to refuse every time someone wanted to share), and to leave the room & go outside when someone around me was eating peanut butter & causing me to break out in hives & my mouth to swell (also, very embarrassing for a shy kid). Funnily enough, my allergic reactions have been from cafeteria ladies who assured me there were no nuts in the cookie, teachers who assured me the same, an aunt and a grandmother who forgot (and I was a kid who trusted them). My friends from school had much better memories & were a lot more vigilant than the grownups. In my adult life, I have had reactions from leftovers from a “nut-free” school, and from waitresses & waiters who assured me they would take care of things, and they didn’t. In fact, this evening, I ate in a bistro, notified the server of my allergy as I ordered and voila, there was a lone almond in my salad. Thank goodness the lighting wasn’t dimmed. Nothing kills an appetite faster then knowing you were THAT close to having been killed.
So, for these reasons, I am torn between trying to protect kids from everything, and trying to teach them to be hyper-aware. I don’t want them going to school thinking that just because they are told there are no nuts or peanuts that they are safe - they aren’t. I am not safe anywhere but my own home, and I am an adult who is over my shyness of asking - and of asking family members & colleagues to please take their Oh Henry! bar to another room & brush their teeth when they are done so that I don’t have a reaction to their breath.
Last point: There are some very good alternatives to peanut butter these days - I purchased some pea butter which my boyfriend tested & deemed very close to the real thing. I couldn’t bring myself eat it, because the smell of it smelled like the real thing too - and killed my appetite.
Nut allergies are a very funny thing. They are very different from other allergies, they kill within minutes. It is unbelievably scary to have a reaction. Every time I eat something I didn’t make myself I wonder - is this going to be it? What is my husband going to do without me? I am pregnant - will we both die? Will my baby die even if the hospital saves me?
Please don’t be selfish or flippant when someone asks you to be considerate of their needs - be it food allergies or perfume/environmental allergies. Think about how lucky you are if none of these things affect you or your family.
exotic allergies?? peanut allergies are becoming more and more common. maybe if YOU accidentally killed a child with your own stupid selfish bent-on-eating-peanut habits, you wouldn’t care, but some of us actually have compassion and care for the lives of others. i’m sure if it was your child, brother, sister, mother, father, or loved one being buried in the ground because some jerk had their head too far up their butt to admit that fatalities from peanut allergies are becoming more common, you’d have something else to say. if someone you loved died senselessly, i’m sure you’d love comparing that to a blind person flying an airplane. picture the person you love most in the world DROPPING DEAD. real cute, isn’t it? oh, but who cares, it’s just a stupid allergy! why all the fuss?
I think we have to be very careful when asking schools to ban things like peanuts. This gives a false security that there will be a safe atmosphere for the child.
As the legal system does not recognize an allergy to peanuts as being a handicap or a disability the school could become liable if a child were to die from exposure to peanuts if they declared that they were peanut-free.
This may seem harsh but in our society it seems that suing has become the norm and because of that and as a tax payer I cannot condone a school increasing its exposure to liability.
Instead I think that parents should work with schools to prepare guidelines to follow with respect to this issue.
A very good protocol was developed at the Hebrew Academy and should be used as a sample for other schools.
my nephew’s grade school is a peanut free school because of him. He is severly allergic to peanuts in any form,oil, or products with peanuts in it, also airborne peanuts vapors could kill him. all children that bring their lunch have to eat at a special table away from where his class sits. They even have to wash their hands after dinner to prevent passing on the peanut oils. The school has been very good about this and we are hearing of more and more kids with life-threatening allergies such as his. Is your peanut butter sandwich worth a child’s life? Why not save that for home where no one is bothered.
You have options besides insisting that the everyone else accomodate your dangerous allergy. Especially where children are concerned. Homeschool your children. There is a lot of support out there for that - there are a lot of like-minded/healthed groups that work together. I would be willing to bet there are peanut free groups. If there are not, start one! Google it, you’ll be amazed and pleased. You control your child and you can leave others to control theirs. Yours is different, sorry but that’s the way it is. If that means you must stay away from certain public places then you will do so. It means that things won’t be easy for you. It’s not easy for people that suffer with cancer or MS either. That’s the way it is though. Learn to improve your situation through educating yourself and your child, not through controlling the lives of others so that they are forced to be in the same boat as you. I don’t force the world to adapt to my handicap (I do have one), I adapt to the world. Teach your child to say that - instead of feeding the sense of entitlement that must follow when an entire school is forced to change the way they live because of you.
What about people like me….I’m not viable to take interfuron to cure a sreious illness. So, I have to take a somewhat successful nutritional system that in some cases can work. A major nutritional need for me are nuts. So I get deprived. Granted, I understand a need to protect people who have allergies to nuts…but if my university bans it, they better make provisions for me, and I also have to keep them with me and Graze feed for a hypoglycemic condition.
I THINK BANNING ITEMS FROM SCHOOLS IS NOT A BAD THING! IT WOULD JUST MAKE THE STUDENT OR ADULT BE A LITTLE WORRY FREE KNOWING THAT THEY HAVE TO ONLY ASK IF PEANUTS WERE USED IN A NEW DISH OR IF SOMEONE BROUGHT A FOOD DISH. BEING DEADLY ALLERGIC AND SPENT A WEEK IN THE HOSPITAL AND ALMOST DIED FOUR TIMES I WOULD GLADLY EAT ANYWHERE AND FEEL COMFORTABLE IF I KNEW THEY DID NOT USE OR COMBINE ANYTHING WITH THESE DEADLY LOVELY NUTS!!! I HAVE TO ASK EVERYWHERE I GO UNLESS I HAVE BEEN THERE BEFORE AND JUST TO BE SURE I ALWAYS ASK THE SAME PLACE I EAT AT IF THEY USE PEANUTS OR PEANUT OIL TO COOK IN, THIS JUST MAKES ME FEEL BETTER. SO BANNING IS NOT ALL THAT IT IS A WORRY FREE PART THE SCHOOLS CAN PLAY. IF IT WHERE A OKAY THING TO DO THEY WOULD BE SERVING SHRIMP LOUIE FOR LUNCH BUT THEY SURELY DON’T HAVE THAT ON THE MENU NOW DO THEY, SO WHAT IS BANNING ONE MORE HARMFUL THING TO MORE AND MORE PEOPLE GOING TO HURT, DEFINETLY NOT THE PEANUT MANUFACTURES!!!!
Yes, they should be banned from schools. No, we can’t protect children from everything. But we can try and keep them safe when they aren’t old enough to inject their own epi-pens in an emergency, when the parent isn’t there to take care of them. In public places like malls, someone fully responsible for the child will be watching them, knowing what to do in an emergency. But you can’t expect a teacher or other school employee to watch one or two children all the time.
Has anyone asked their kids about how they’d feel if someone could die from them eating peanut butter at school? There was a kid in my classes back in elementary school who was severely allergic, so the school didn’t eat any peanut butter. As far as I knew, nobody complained other than the occasional “I wish I had a peanut butter sandwich right now”. It’s not as hard as you’d think, because at least in my school, we cared about whether a fellow student lived or not.
No, banning peanuts won’t work for every school, because it’s a case to case basis. If the parent can’t do homeschooling and there are no safe schools in the area, then yes, it should probably be banned in that case, but if they can do homeschooling, that’s good too. Everyone needs to be a little bit more flexible in situations like these.
I have read somewhere that people who have had an active open tuberculosis (infected f.i. during a holiday in East Europe states) are cured of all allergies they have had instandly (including caries).
Getting a tuberculosis under doctors monitoring should not be harmfull at all, the patients should cured only in a sunny location who is fully separated from day to day traffic of unprotected people.
Look, I’m sorry for those and those whose are parents of allergics. They are in this case, just childeren. BUT, has any one considered the Darwinistic aspects? Children that severly allergic may in all probability never grow up. Parents need to under stand that thier child just wasn’t built for the world that he or she occupies. My brothers two children are severly allergic to wheat. milk, nuts, and chocolate. (Maybe more) They are two and three. Will they be able to entirely avoid these substances? Probably not. WIC initially wouldn’t provide soy milk for the youngest because of its exponentialy higher cost. My nephews will not likely see thier fifth birthdays, because they were born into a world they are drastically unsuited for. No matter how smart, and sweet, and loving they are, their bodies can’t be medically made safe to move through the world. So what should change; 6 billion people, or my beloved nephews? I know I must enjoy them now, because they cannot live in a world they must be constantly afraid of.
seriously, you cannot take pb and j out of schools. most kids love it. make it mandatory that cafeterias offer an alternative for the students that are allergic to nuts. that’s fine, and that’s perfect. just denying one of the most popular foods to kids is crappy. and the poll offered is crap. it’s set up to cause controversy. i love pb and j, i will always eat them (im 26). when my son gets old enough to go to school, he’s gonna eat them to if he wants to. it’s like banning hot dogs so you won’t offend the muslim and/or jewish community. take care of those who need to be taken care of, but don’t penalize those who are ok.
now that i really think about it, i’m lactose intolerant. my school high school offered nothing to drink with my lunch except milk and water. i never complained, i brought my own beverage. i never asked the school to quit carrying milk. i never threw a fit on pizza day (every friday). i know that lactose intolerance is hugely different than being allergic to peanuts, mine would cause great discomfort and many many trips to the restroom, where the other would cause death. but neither i nor my parents ever complained that WE had to take it into OUR OWN hands and make sure that my meals were ok for me. and it’s still that way, now that i’m all grown up and living on my own.
I have posted once before (#33) and I’ve read through all the new comments. My questions are mainly directed to those that react through airborne or touch… it seems that if a child reacts that severely, it would mean sending that child to a public school would be like letting them walk through a mine field. Why are you putting your child in such danger??? If the risks are so high for your child at school… why are you sending them to this place that they could die so easily? Is there something else more important that you can’t find an alternative? Is it worth the risk to send them to a pb/nut free school with other first graders who still may mistakenly bring in a pb/nut snack? Or have Peanut Butter Crunch cereal on their breath? If your child hasn’t learned how to take care of themselves without your presence, why are you letting them out of your presence? As everyone in support of such a band has said…This is a child! This is a life! How safe do you really think a ban would make schools and are you willing to risk your child’s life over it???
Two of my 4 grandsons are allergic to nuts. One of them is anaphlatic. Their school does not permit Epipen’s in the classrom only in the nurse’s office. If the 5 year old went into an anphlatic shock from eating or touching peanut butter there is a strong possibility of tragic consequences. It is a difficult situation although it is also a no brainer.
I think it’s our responsibility as parents to make sure our kids know what we can and can’t eat if we have a problem with certain foods. I grew up with asthma and some food allergies. I have always known what eating fresh strawberries or peaches would do to me. It only took one or two times to learn. My sons both have asthma and they know what their triggers are. Do I have to follow them around and make sure they stay away from kids that smoke, or use cologne or perfumes? No, of course not, they know what they can and can’t tolerate. We have to many parents now who expect the big wide world to accomedate every child in every situation. Then you send your child out into the big mean world, and wonder why they can’t function. We need to do our jobs as parents, and raise our kids to know how to take care of themselves and be tolerant of others. Usually that means that the friends our kids have, will themselves do without that peanut butter when they are together.
Many people are allergic to a wide variety of things and yes some allergies can kill if the person or care givers are not prepared to react properly. However harsh this seems, the responsibility for a persons specific problems lies with that individual or their caregiver (parents) not with the general public. If you can’t deal with your allergies, stay locked up in your house. We can’t ban all sources of peoples alleric reactions.
There are a lot of important things to consider in all this. Many of the above comments have very solid and educated points. This is a very sensitive matter, indeed and I can empathize.
My step-daughter goes to school with a child her age who is deathly allergic to peanuts. Now, she takes her PB&J sandwich into class. Since its a Catholic School, they all eat in their classroom, at their own desks. So far he’s done pretty good, and I’m very glad to hear it. Anytime there is a party, all the parents are alerted to this child’s needs. Most, if not all, understand and do what they can.
My own stepdaughter, and it was cute, oversaw my home-baking of party cupcakes.., just to make sure her classmate was safe. I’ve sent candy in that we -both- made sure did not have any ‘peanut alerts’ on them.
In my 5th grade class we had a student that had a heart transplant. The entire class was taught very basic ‘first-aide’ care in case, during recess, she went down. She was looked up to in class, not down on.., and proved to be a very important life lesson to us all.
If the community around the school works together, there -can- be a compromise. Teaching the classmates of the needs of each person teaches them to understand. Teaching them to understand is the next step in teaching them to accept differences. We need more of those kinds of life lessons in our kids, in general.
to the person who said it sounded like a “parenting issue” with the comment the children who will and can only eat peanut butter sandwiches for lunch due to many circumstances!!
Shame on you - you obviously do not have a child with special needs and major sensory integration issues - nor do you understand.
We parents and our children go through enough without more ignorant criticism and fault-finding from people like you.
Most peanut butters on the market today contain either partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, fully hydrogenated vegetable oils or both.
For that reason ALONE, I would say that these products do not need to be served to children.
If they can provide the kids with a form of peanut butter that doesn’t contain these ingredients, then I think it’s a healthy food.
Tony Rush
Drakenhart, thank you for your posting. It’s wonderful to hear about how you and your classmates rallied around the girl who had special needs. Kids really can be taught to care about their fellow citizen and to support those who are most vulnerable. At this date, I’d say we in America need to hear that message a lot louder than we apparently are.
Why is peanut fascism so popular nowadays? What did we do 20 years ago or 40 years ago or 60 years ago? Did deadly peanut allergies exist back then? What did they do?
If we do treat peanuts and peanut growers as pariahs like we to tobacco, what is next? There are people who are allergic to tomatoes. Are we to make tomatoes illegal? What about every other food allergy? Do we need to ban every foodstuff that somebody is allergic to?
This is all part of the cradle to grave welfare state we live in. We can’t do anything or say anything or eat anything that might offend someone somewhere. Kids with allergies need to learn to eschew those things that they are allergic to. If we make the government schools allergen-free, what are the little precious dears going to do when they are out of school, or in college, or in the workplace?
I wonder if that parent that says that possessing a peanut is the equivalent to possessing a loaded gun after the V.T. tradjedy? What we need is a 5 day waiting period before the issuance of a license to possess a peanut! This plan worked so well for alcohol and drugs!
It’s obvious some of the commenters here are not aware that peanut allergy is on the rise (researchers do not definitively know why.) This is the reason it was not dealt with in the past or discussed with as much frequency. My daughter has a peanut allergy…we carry an epi-pen with us for her safety.
I am a school nurse who works in a large school district. We at this time do not have a peanut ban, and I agree with it. We have emergency action plans in place for all of these students, and I have trained all personell in my buildings how to use an epi-pen, and what signs to look for if someone is having a reaction. We also have an aed team (automated external defibrillator) in each building, with at least 10 or more people trained in CPR/AED. It also does not just come down to peanut butter sandwiches. The school where my children attend in a nearby district do have restrictions on peanuts and peanut produncts. This includes any peanut crackers, cookies, granola bars, chocolate, etc. There are peanut products is MANY things other than peanuts. It is impossible for a school district to enforce a ban and expect every parent to. You would have to check every child’s lunch, including the labels every day. I do want children to be safe, but there comes a point where you cannot ensure that from everyone else. We do have peanut free tables, and we clean the tables, and train our staff. I think it is important to keep all children safe, but taking things away from everyone else is not the answer. Where then will we draw the line for sugar snacks with diabetics, allergies to flour and wheat, no bread at school? If the parents and the school work together a safe environment, it is possible. That is the key, everyone having open communication between schools, parents and the student.
I have friends who have children with severe allergies HOME SCHOOL their children. Other friends have taught their highly allergic children to be VERY CAREFUL of what they eat. These children do not eat anything unless they have read the list of ingredients. I believe that a parent MUST TEACH their children to survive and thrive. Otherwise, they will not learn to take care of themselves and may put themselves in dangerous situations.
Much as I sympathize with the parents whose children have the most extreme form of allergies, I think that such bans are somewhat unreasonable and most likely ineffective. Even if the school were to ban all peanut containing material, there might still be allergens which find a way in. I know that some like peanut butter in their waffles for instance. This could easily be tracked into school on hands or clothes.
These children sadly will have this allergy their entire life - shall we ban peanut products in the workplace too? Will we require that supermarkets no longer sell peanuts so that those with allergies may visit? Will peanuts be banned from ballgames?
The deaf have equal rights but different needs as well - perhaps their solution of separate schools is best here.
Having a developmentally delayed son, who is also anaphylactic with regards to peanuts is to say the least, scary. During preschool and elementary it was difficult till there were enough informed support staff to make me feel comfortable. There was never an out and out ban at his school. Just his table, and that worked very well.
Middle school since he was now in a school with small class size and lunch was in a classroom was much easier. Now he’s in high school and carries his own epi on the bus and everyone at the school knows about his allergy.
I know this is going to sound harsh to those of you that want to perpetuate your damaged genes…but what ever happened to survival of the fittest? Again, I understand what that means…but it also means that our childrens childrens children get all these great traits because we have to save everyone.
So if you have a rare allergy, the rest of have to do without? This generation is so self centered it makes me want to scream.
Why should several hundred or thousand kids have to skip Skippy because yours is allergic? Home school them, private school them, or take reasonable precautions.
I agree with #84 whole-heartedly. Although totally different than anaphylaxis, I am kosher and I do not complain when someone sits next to me eating a cheeseburger or a ham sandwich. We all have our rules, whether they be physiological, spiritual or otherwise.
We each and every one have to take responsibility for ourselves and try to accommodate others as much as we can out of genuine concern for one’s fellow man. Society’s perpetuity is more important than any one person’s special need. Americans as a group seem to think the world revolves around them and their own. Quite possibly the syndrome that also causes our gridlocked freeways with the “ME FIRST” mentality.
Americans are fat and overweight. Peanuts are a healthy option for most people. If we’re trying to get kids to eat healthier it’s ridiculous to take peanuts out of school.
Not to sound harsh, but if this kid is sheltered and peanuts are removed from his environment at school, won’t he be less suited to survive when he enters the real world? Isn’t school the ideal environment for him to learn to be around peanuts without ingesting them?
This entire idea is ridiculous.
The whole problem is you can not make a school peanut safe, no matter how hard you try! A kid could have had peanut butter at home, not washed good enough after eating (which is quite natural)and touch the door knob that the allergic child will touch….. Our school is “peanut safe”, no actual peanut products for lunch, but to declare it peanut free is impossible and also a false safety net for that child. That child has to learn the very early symptoms of a reaction and tell the teacher, and if that is not an option, be home schooled. Dawn, R.N.
After reading this EXTREME POLEMIC, it appears to me that we need to create a new kind of segregated school or schools. Let them each become multigrade, multiaged classroom to deal with the numbers issue, but create peanut allergican schools, tomato allergican, etc. Each district will need to take a new census to determine the allergies in the community. All other factors which have been used to discriminate for grouping children such as age, color, creed, socioeconomic status, only factors which harm the child’s life through whatever personal allergies anyone has would be the formula for grouping children. All peanut-allegric children would be in one building, peanut free. Those with any of the other allegenics would be in varied schools. Non-allergic children would be isolated from others as well.
Each of the school would vary in size because of the percentage of the school community which had the problem. Some children might have allergies but only 20 of them would be a a nongraded, multiage classrom but with same allergy.
Depending on the allergy and its outcome, we might have a uniersity campus-type facility with small buildings for one allergy and other larger buildings for allergy free, etc.
It is a new form of discrimination.
Only life-threatening degree would lead to the segregation, rather than color, race or creed.
Seems like a serious problem that needs a new solution, not depriving children of one of the greatest epicuran delights….American peanut butter. I lived in other countries and they don’t make it as good as we get here.
I certainly did learn something by reading this thread tonight. I never did understand the whole move to ban peanuts from schools because of those who are allergic. Yes, I do know that these allergies can be deadly. But I also know that it is impossible to guarantee your child a peanut-free life. I know of a young woman who got the peanut-free treatment all through school, but then sadly died as a young adult after ingesting a snack at a party that she did not know contained peanuts in some form. (I don’t know if she had an Epi-pen with her.)
I learned that some people want to put the guilt trip on others…”What if your child ate a PBJ sandwich & caused another child to die? What if your child ate peanut butter for breakfast, and then touched a classroom door handle? What if your child ate peanuts & did not brush his teeth immediately afterward, and then had the audacity to breathe & possibly contaminate my child’s airspace?” Seriously…if your child’s allergy is that severe that they can die from someone else’s peanut breath…then I agree with some of the other posters, that child is probably not safe anywhere in public.
My ultimate reasoning is that while we would not want to knowingly expose anyone to something that would make them sick or put their life in danger, banning a common (and healthy) food product is not going to solve what will be a lifelong situation for allergic kids. I’m a diabetic…but I had to learn to deal with it, not expect others to conform to my diet. Be vigilant, and teach your child to be so, also.
I agree with you whole-heartedly. The worst that can happen is the kids think it’s quirky that they can’t have peanut butter in school.
Wow, there’s an unbelievable number of comments here. I’ve tried to edit or delete the more outrageous thoughts here, but there’s just such a lot of PASSION about peanuts that it’s hard to keep up. I thank everybody who’s shared their opinion here, at least those who have been able to do so in a civil and thoughtful way.
I’ve written more on this subject at http://specialchildren.about.com/b/a/259073.htm — maybe it’s time to move the conversation there?
I don’t think that peanuts should be banned. Where does it stop if we do? I would think parents of a child with these kind of allergies would teach them what to watch for. You can’t make every environment completely safe for the few that suffer.
Yes,banning peanuts really is that hard to do in a school. B/c we are not just talking pb&j sandwiches, but granola bars, crackers and cookies (especially those processed in factories which use peanuts), and many other snacks popular in kids lunches (just start reading labels and you’ll realize what these poor parents and kids deal with!). But asking all other parents in a school to monitor their childs diet for another, only perpetuates our society about taking care of our own individual needs, not that of the group at large. At best, public schools may want to provide a peanut free room for peanut free kids to go to and eat in when food is exposed in the cafeteria and classrooms.
I am against banning peanuts or peanut butter products in school, when my childs school spoke of a ban, I was the first parent there fighting for a compromise. We ended with a peanut free zone. Why should my childs rights be compromised for another child, as many school boards have said, we cannot protect children cradle to grave. It is up to the parent and the child not the school. We compromise too many cilvil liberties in the name of protecting someone. It’s time we take stance.
John L
In response to OneOverTheTop’s message:
As a child, I benefitted from a mild climate. We habitually ate outside and children were neither rushed to eat nor inhibitted from playing. (Parents taught their children not to eat and play at the same time and I never saw another child choking.) Undercover benches in wind-sheltered areas were provided but many children would sit on the grass or ground. I suppose that this is not a solution which would protect our children from situations where one child would share food with another. Sharing has become an evil? Why not let us break (gluten-free, yeast-free, egg free, milk free, organic, kosher) bread together! Why not bring back school lunch programs?
Peanuts?! I would have died without PB&J’s in school. You have to teach your kids that they can’t eat certain things. Why don’t we stop letting buses pick our kids up, that way they won’t be in an accident on the school bus…get over yourself. Be a better parent and stop trying to make others do your parenting.
Again, as many others have pointed out, the issue is not a child eating the wrong thing, it’s a child being sickened by contact with food another child has eaten. It’s not enough to tell your child what not to eat — you have to request that others not eat that food in places where your child may come into contact with the residue.
I sincerely doubt you would have died without PB&J. However, a child with a peanut allergy CAN die if he or she comes into contact with it. It’s not a joke, and it’s not an idle request. And since, unlike school buses, peanut butter has no actual function in education and schooling, it’s not so unreasonable to ask kids to skip it for this one meal per weekday.
Has anyone thought of the cost issue? I grew up very poor and my mom packed me a PB&J for lunch every day - it was all we could afford. A ban on PB would be hard on poor kids who already have it rough.
The comments are mostly balanced and thoughtful. The original article is asinine. Hey, my kid doesn’t eat PB, what’s the big deal? But I guess the point is to be outrageous, right? It worked for Imus.
I’m allergic to dust. I remember one time in Junior High, I started coughing so bad that my eyes were crying all by themselves and then it happened, I couldn’t catch my breath.
There are NO allergy meds for stupid allergies such as dust, perfume, cigarette smoke and temperature changes.
You CANNOT prevent them.
You learn to DEAL with them. I did. I respect other peoples right to wear perfume and smoke … I dont ban everything they want to do. I do what I have to do to take care of myself. I dont go to places I know will affect me and when I realized I’m in one, I LEAVE.
….and another thing … my b/f is extremely allergic to strawberries along with other fruits and veggies … and dairy … if the school bans all of those, what are the kids going to eat for lunch? Chicken flavored soy with soy nuts on the side and wash it down with soy milk then have soy pudding? Give me a break. Schools should compromise and allow kids to eat in different areas such as outside or in the hallways as we were allowed to do when i was a kid. They already have epi pens available so there shouldn’t be too many ‘near’ deaths ever if the teachers are paying attention. hmm …
Didn’t know until now, peanuts can be fatal. I am not even a mother yet, but I think that PB allergy cannot be treated the same way as others, where even the TOUCH/ SMELL can be fatal. Of course, one has to learn to deal with situations outside school. But here’s my proposition -
Ban the PB in school that caters to very young children who are not responsible enough. As someone suggested, these children can always, eat PB at home,and parents can always monitor that they wash their hands after that and before going out to play.
When the child is older he/she needs to understand the situation and deal with it with discretion. So, no need to ban PB in classes with older children.
On a broader level, this needs to understood at the root level, why -
Why is it prevalent moslty in North America?
Why more so now, than ever before?
In the LONG RUN, we should probably let ourselves be exposed to allergens to become resistant to them. That will take years… but generations down the line may not hear of PB allergies!
hmm. this thread is getting fatally long; if it grows any more, no-one will want to read it at all.
but heres my two pence:
it seems the problems are these
1) some people are like “my child only eats peanut-butter so you cant take it away!”
2) some second the notion with, “its not like the whole world can go peanut free, so those allergic to it will just have to deal.”
3) some further this with, “my kid’s allergic to milk, but that doesnt mean im gonna ask to ban that!”
but the thing is this. the thing is, peanut allergy (and tree-nut allergy too) is such that a whiff of the stuff can cause death. dairy doesnt do that. and maybe Not A Mother Yet was right to point out “why is it prevalent in North America?” and “why has it only cropped up so recently?”
my hypothesis may be entirely wrong, but i strongly believe it may have something to with new agricultural “advances.”
i have heard numerous accounts of people who think they are lactose intolerant, but when lactose free milks dont help, are baffled. the solution in many cases as i understand is organic milk.
you dont have to hug trees to understand how scary that is. going back to peanuts, many of the crops in the United States, especially soy, peanuts and corn, are genetically modified to make them hardier and more fruitful. (by the way, the european union, if im not mistaken, has objections to genetically modified crops.) my theory is that, just as cats can be engineered to be dander-free, peanuts, hopefully accidentally, in the modifying process, have been given a trait that causes severe allergies. –be sure not to quote me on this, i havent studied it .. yet–
Good grief. Some parent wants to fly in a plane that a crew has cleaned to be “peanut-free” because her child has a peanut allergy? So all these people have to jump through hoops for one child? That is ridiculous. Drive your own peanut-free car. I wouldn’t want your child to die because I left a peanut on the seat of the airplane that I just flew in. However, if I were the parent of a child with that severity of an allergy; I wouldn’t take the chance of exposing him. It is not fair to affect hundreds of other people’s lives for your one child. Affect all the necessary changes within your own little world. You might have to sacrifice that flight because it is the right thing for your child. I think it’s crazy that an entire school has to come to a crashing halt because one child has a peanut allergy. I guess I’d have a different perspective if my kid had it, but I don’t think I’d feel entitlement to make all others change their lives (schools, airplanes, etc.) for my child. I’m allergic to aspartame and MSG. I ask before I ingest. I don’t request that the world stops using aspartame or that every Chinese restaurant stops using MSG. So, that’s my two cents–guaranteed to get some angry responses. Sorry!
Pack the poor child it’s own special lunch. My Mom always did for me. Don’t make the rest of the children suffer for one child’s alergy. What will we ban next?
I think Wyatt has a very good point about this thread having grown far too long. I’m going to close down the comments for this post and ask people to read my follow-up post and continue the conversation at http://specialchildren.about.com/b/a/259073.htm/. Thanks to everyone for your participation.