They probably also think there’s such a thing as MSG allergies.
Don’t doctors now routinely test newborns, and often the test comes back with “MAY be allergic to peanuts. Best to never risk exposure.”?
Of course there are also kids who’ve had a scary reaction and chances are the next reaction would be even worse, so there’s no question about being extremely careful with them.
I voted Partially. It’s banned in the elementary school my kids went to, but not in the middle or high schools. They couldn’t even take in food with the “processed on machines that also process nuts” warnings.
I think most elementary schools in our district ban nuts and peanuts, but it’s not a district policy.
Our son is in seventh grade, and is in his 3rd school since Kindergarten, and none of them has ever had a ‘peanut butter ban’.
I teach middle school.
We choose to not ban it, but ask the peanut allergic kids to sit at a separate table. We have 2 kids out of 800.
classes where some of the kids have peanut allergies have a ban. It’s not a school wide ban. that’s at 2 different elementary schools in the same district.
I would have starved too. I was an extremely picky eater as a kid and I don’t remember eating anything BUT PB&J until junior high. It’s not like we had fridges so you could bring in cold alternatives, microwaves to heat them up. Peanut butter sandwiches are so good in that they can go for a few hours in a closet without losing quality or going bad without a fridge.
Our school districts bans it entirely at all school levels, from what I’ve been able to tell. My child has eating issues. When it comes time for school, it’s going to suck not having it as an option because it’s one of the few things she’ll eat. Plus we’re pretty broke, and peanut butter is a lot of nutritional bang for your buck.
I can totally understand being compassionate and trying to keep safe kids with allergies, but it’s really hard on everyone else too.
My cousin swears she is allergic to MSG. She says a certain Chinese restaurant gives her “hot flashes” (or whatever). Which is interesting, as she is obese and eats a *ton *of processed foods (which are undoubtedly loaded with MSG). Two years ago she was diagnosed as being bipolar.
We used to be friends with a woman who believed her 10-year-old daughter would die if she inhales one peanut molecule.
I remember the first time they came over to our house. Before she came over, she called the local emergency response team to alert them that they will be in the area, and to be ready in case their daughter was exposed to peanuts. (I am not making this up.) When they arrived she spent half the time looking through our refrigerator and cabinets looking for any food products that might contain peanuts. She finally found something with a label that said, “This product may contain peanut residue” or something like that. She then made a big show of putting this item in the back of a top cupboard. At the time I thought, “Wow, her daughter must be very sensitive to peanuts.” But then as we got to know her, we concluded she was very… strange. She seemed to thrive on attention. We later concluded she was batshit insane, and the peanut thing was nothing more than a way for her to gain attention.
Not all peanut allergies are “death or intensive care” level reactions. There probably were children with tummy upsets or rashes or wheezing that might have been caused by peanuts but were never formally diagnosed. Such children today are much more likely to be spotted as allergic, and they are just as banned from peanut exposure as those who experience near-death level of reactions.
So… more kids being diagnosed is part of it, I’m sure. And really, even if the reaction is not likely to cause death they shouldn’t be eating peanut butter as repeated exposure can make the reactions worse (though not always) and in any case, being all rashy, tummy upset, and wheezy isn’t good for you even if it won’t kill you.
I would have starved if peanut butter was banned too. I was also extremely picky, even throwing away lunch meat sandwiches uneaten, and then coming home from school at the end of the day sick with hunger. If peanut butter had been banned, no doubt I would have had to have been home schooled. Fortunately, this wasn’t a concern back in those days.
Within our county, peanut butter and nuts are completely banned at certain schools, banned on a class-by-class basis at others, and not banned at all at some. Interestingly, the most affluent areas have the most allergic kids.
Graduated 2004. They used to sell PB&J for breakfast.
Yes and no - yes in primary school, no in high school (which starts here in 7th grade.)
He’s in 10th grade and goes to boarding school - nuts are not banned in the dorms, they can bring in any food they want into their dorm and there’s a supermarket in walking distance - they go into town several times a week to hang out, so they can get what they want.
I am unsure if they serve it in the referatory though.
Only as a sexual lubricant and even then only the crunchy.
The affluent have had a higher rate of allergies since the early 1900’s. The “why” has been puzzling doctors for a good century or so.
None of the schools my kids have attended have had bans on any food for allergy reasons. Peanut allergy doesn’t seem to be particularly common in Scandinavia, but then again, peanut butter isn’t nearly as common.
One of my sons is allergic to almonds and tree nuts, though not peanuts. His allergies are of the oral allergy syndrome type, so merely sitting next to someone who is eating, say, cashews is not a problem. Walnuts seem to be the worst offender, and we’re more careful with them at home. Outside the house, the issue simply hasn’t come up yet.
That is fucking insane.
Perhaps if exposed she would explode like a peanutty nuclear bomb, wiping the town off the map. Don’t let her fall into the hands of the terrorists!
Indeed.
We ordered pizza on one of the days she came over. She claimed she was allergic to tomatoes, and requested one of the pizzas to have sour cream in place of tomato sauce. Over the phone, she instructed the restaurant employee on how to wash their spoons and ladles to prevent her pizza from becoming contaminated with tomato paste.
Oh, it gets better. After the pizzas arrived, she ate a bit of her special sour cream pizza, and then abruptly stopped eating it. I asked her why. She said saw someone eat a slice of regular (tomato) pizza, and then eat a piece of the sour cream pizza, thereby contaminating her pizza.
i wondered the same thing, especially when there is no scientific explanation for it.