But the school really should clarify the reason. I could easily see a parent sending a kid to school with a PB&J anyway. If they knew that a child might die if they are around the PB&J, then there is a better chance of them not sending one.
Are these snacks for your child only, or snacks your child is bringing in to share with the entire class?
If it’s just for your child, then “no chips, no chocolate” doesn’t make sense to me. If it’s for everyone, more restrictive requirements seem reasonable than if it’s for just your child.
No nuts is an allergy issue. Our children’s elementary school banned nuts and peanuts, including peanut butter, for that reason.
It sounds to me like the statement saying what not to bring is not really part of the body text about healthy eating, but is some kind of summary, inclusive of both the document at hand and possibly an over-arching policy (to be specifying no nuts here most probably means there is a standing policy in place for that)
So send a few stalks of celery to school with your kiddo. Should make everybody happy. Oh wait… could be a choking hazard for the little snowflakes. Nevermind.
If you are so allergic that you can’t be in the same room as a food item, then you are too allergic to be allowed out in society. And that’s not hyperbole: you walk by someone who’s recently eaten peanut butter, and you could die. You need to be in some sort of bubble. You will be around someone eating a peanut product in your lifetime.
Banning peanuts in schools isn’t going to help you then.
As much as you may disagree with the policy, and I know I certainly scoffed at it, schools have an obligation to ensure the safety of all kids attending.
Yes, they may be going too far in some circumstances – there was a story a month or so ago about a Toronto area school banning all types of balls from the schoolyard – but imagine yourself in the position of school principal and what the ramifications would be if little Johnny Smith died because someone brought a peanut butter sandwich to school.
It’s far easier and less painful for all to just say: no peanuts.
I vote the schools ask if there actually is a child with the allergy before going off kilter with banning something for everyone else.
Is it too hard to ASK the parents and write that shit down? :rolleyes:
No. Because residual peanut oil can stick around for a while. It’s easier to ban than to try and find a balance and hope for the best, with fingers crossed. Lawsuits can be a bitch.
“…Four out of every 100 children have a food allergy…”
In all the schools I’ve attended, I never met one kid with this allergy. Nor even heard of any one with this allergy.
We had plenty of peanut butter and shelled peanuts abound in school.
In my adult life I only met a few people with any type of allergy…cats, bees, shellfish, ect.
I might…MIGHT have met one person that had a slight aversion to brazil nuts.
Not that I am belittling the seriousness of the consequences. I just find it hard to believe that these people cant be tracked once found out.
3 million people isn’t anything to sneeze at…but I think the stats are bloated guesses.
I guess the threat of litigation is too much to ponder.
I’m not sure how plausible this is, but it’s possible that even by kindergarten, you might not know if your child has a peanut allergy. If, for whatever reason, they’d never been exposed to it (here in the States, I know that that’s probably almost 0% likely, but still), then it is possible to send them off to school not realizing it.
I think also, that sharing is probably an issue. We spend so long the first few years telling our kids to share, that they might not understand when we tell them that in this instance, they shouldn’t share. As an adult, of course, if we saw a kid about to share half a peanut butter sandwich with someone who was allergic, we’d step in, but as a five year old, they’re not going to think about that. If they’ve learned sharing, they’d likely just go ahead and share.
If my last six years as a parent have taught me anything, it’s that kids tend not to think things through as well as you’d like them to (not that I blame them, they’re kids, for crying out loud). For something as serious as a peanut butter allergy, I can understand the school outright banning it, rather than worry about the one second the teacher’s not looking, and little Johnny decides to share with his new best friend.
Marc
Fortunately not everywhere. (My kid practically lives on peanut butter – things could get ugly if that was banned). 
Almonds… are almonds OK?
There is a young man on my local minor league hockey team who has a severe - as in life threatening - nut allergy. When we are making desserts for Booster Club functions we have to check ingredients carefully, down to the oils used, and label anything with nuts or nut oils.
It does seem a little strange to me that I never met a single kid with a nut alllergy growing up.
Instead of a “no ___” list, my son’s kindergarten sent home a list that said “Only fruit and vegetables.”
A parent had to fight to get stringed cheese worked in there.
My kid starts school next year, also in Melbourne where the OP is. Here’s how our school explained it (which seems at least in part determined by local regulations etc):
There may or may not be some kids with severe food allergies. They’re not allowed to tell us who, or what their conditions are, because of medical privacy laws. That much affects all local schools.
At this particular school, their policy is that nuts are specifically not banned. They say it’s better to manage the risk than to pretend to maintain a risk free environment. Food sharing is banned. But a lot of local schools do ban nuts altogether - even if it may not be strictly necessary - largely because of the medical privacy regulations. The school can ask parents to list allergies, but parents aren’t obliged to reveal them, so there’s no guarantee they’ll know.
I can’t vouch for any of that being correct, it’s just what we were told.
IMO, if a parent knows about their child’s allergies and refuses to disclose their child’s allergies to school/daycare workers, the parent should be charged with neglect if the child suffers from being exposed to the allegiant. Really, that is setting the child up to be exposed to an allegiant that may kill them. I can;t understand a parent who cares about there child not telling the people watching them that being in the same room as a peanut could kill them.
That’s more or less what the school tried to hint at (though not so bluntly). But an appeal to common sense is no help when the law says otherwise. I think this is why they’ve taken the step of saying very clearly that nuts are not banned - it stops parents from assuming the school will be safe and forces them to provide the necessary info and medication.
I’m glad I don’t/didn’t have any kids, because I would have been afraid to send them to school with these weird new dainty children. What if we accidentally broke one? :eek:
(I agree) I’m not sure why cases like that tend to be put forward as arguments in threads like this - because in this context, that’s probably not what the school is guarding against - kids of kindergarten age are messy and don’t have much concern about each others’ personal space, preferences and needs - they swap lunches, hold hands, put their fingers in each others’ mouths, etc - plenty enough activity to put a not-so-severely allergic child at risk.
Of course, the kids might have peanut butter for breakfast at home, and arrive with it invisibly smeared all over them - the school obviously can’t control that - so they’re controlling what they can - both in terms of real and perceived risk.
Just for the benefit of the overseas/interstate audience BTW, I’ll emphasise that in Melbourne “kindergarten” refers to (usually) 4 year olds, (frequently) 3 year olds and even (occasionally) 2 year olds. So bear that in mind - what might seem like an unreasonably strict precaution for a school-age kid becomes a lot more sensible when you realise there are probably kids around who aren’t even up to undestanding what an “allergy” is.
Our kindergarten always bans nut products, even when there’s no allergic kid enrolled. Part of it is, kids often come in during the year, also the kinder shares space with the childcare in the next building -it’s just too hard to make sure all the staff are up to speed on exactly when allergic kids come in and go out. Much safer to have a blanket ban all the time, then everybody knows where they are. Oh, and there are also frequently parent volunteers around, trailing younger siblings who might have any issue under the sun the staff doesn’t know about.
The kinder teacher’s take on this policy : “Once you’ve had to shoot your first four year old with an epi pen, you’ll do quite a lot not to have to do that again.” Fair point, I think.