My kids head back to school on Wednesday – an odd day to start back – and thus starts my yearly struggle to keep them fed during the school day. The children’s school board has instituted the odd "Balanced School Day", which divides the day into three blocks of extended "teaching time" and two "Nutrition Breaks", followed by two 20 minute recesses.
I am unenthusiastic about this.
In part, I don’t feel like one of my children (the male one), in particular, is served well by the abridged recess time and in another part it’s HARD to pack a decent lunch that won’t look rather decrepit and unappetizing by the second time the kids are poking around in it. If The Girl is any measure, kids eat all of very favorite things – cookies and cheese strings and crackers that look like fish but taste oddly of cheeeez – on the first "Nutrition Break", and then come the second, all that’s left is a brown banana and some carrot sticks and a crushed egg salad sandwich*, so they go down the hall and tell their grandma, the teacher, that they’ve eaten all of their lunch and can they please have some of hers?
*Not that I blame her, now that I’ve written it down. That sounds NASTY.
Does your school have food bans in place? Ours has a peanut ban (there are several children with peanut allergies, the youngest one having a severe allergy which has caused him to nearly die on several occasions – and none of the families in question are in a position to keep their children out of school.) – the other school in town has a nut AND a fish ban, and I’ve heard of other foods being banned as well. Some psycho parents try to smuggle foods containing peanut butter into their children’s lunches, under the banner of "No One’s Gonna Tell Me What I Can Pack For My Kid" and as the mother of a child with serious food issues, this makes me feel, um, violently outraged. Your child’s desire for a peanut butter sandwich does NOT come before another child’s well-being. I recall reading with some shock a discussion of this very thing on a blog, and a teacher was commenting that she LIKED peanut butter and crackers and how dare anyone tell her not to bring them to school? Um, if the need to protect a child from serious harm doesn’t come first for you, Ms. Teacher, you need to find a new field of work NOW, preferably one that doesn’t involve contact with other human beings.
Whoa, I’m angry! My heart is racing and everything!
Okay. So I’m packing my kids zucchini bread and pasta salad (the kind with a vinaigrette) and some homemade hummus and veggie sticks for the first day of school (this was specifically chosen by the Girl, who loathes sandwiches), as well as a few mini Oreos so the other children still recognize them as their own kind, and some orange wedges to impress the teachers and which will be returned in pristine, untouched condition. How do you handle school lunches? Do you and your kids see eye to eye about what they should bring to school? And is there problems at your school with other parents who don’t see the need to stick to food bans?
i query what happens to children with severe allergies once they finish up with school and get out into the real world where allergens abound. if you can go into anaphalxis by smelling or touching a common substance i am not sure how you can function in society. do these children go to grocery stores? restaurants? movie theatres?
i have allergies to a number of fruits (bananas, papaya and mango) and shellfish. i have known about these allergies since i was a child. my parents never thought of demanding that the school prohibit other children from eating these foods. i was taught to avoid eating them – read labels, ask questions about homemade treats and turn down treats that contained the foods i couldn’t eat. i brought my epipen to school, just in case.
i can’t believe that about the peanut butter! that person is so selfish and definitely shouldn’t be a teacher. your first back-to-school lunch sounds delicious – lucky kids. thanks for the lentil soup recipe – i will send you mine shortly!
I am in complete agreement with all those outraged that anyone would feel their child’s need to eat peanut butter outweighs someone else’s right to not end up in the hospital.
I also get driven batty by preschools that feed kids whole grapes and popcorn.
Clearly I have issues but I just feel like these are small adjustments compared to spending a day in the ER or worse.
My daughter just started JK and her school is litter free. All lunches must be in reusable containers. I love it.
Sure it is a pain in the ass, but it is the right thing to do.
I don’t really like a general “nut” ban at schools… It’s not that I feel I need to send pb sandwiches, but if the allergy is to peanuts, then lets ban just peanuts… there are many other nut butters that you can use in place of PB (especially since the peanut allergy is rarely linked to a general “nut” allergy, peanuts are a BEAN not a nut!) I LOL that ppl are using Soy nut butter as a “healthy” alternative, now that nutritionists and naturopaths are warning against soy for children because it emulates estrogen.
I think its going too far to ban homemade items, given our desire to live healthier and cut mass produced foods.
Even the email I received from UrbanMoms states to cut the 3 A’s from our kids lunches, Quote…
“Added sugars (AKA sucrose, dextrose, & glucose, high fructose corn syrup and cane sugar)
Allergens such as peanuts, gluten and dairy
Additives like sulfites, tartrazine, BHT and others ”
And yet even healthy organic alternatives from Natures Fare will contain added cane sugar… Cutting Gluten and Dairy??? I have a celiac friend, I KNOW what that entails… Gluten means no bread (except the $8 for a half size loaf variety) and no crackers… except “rice crisps” which my kids won’t eat, and no PASTA, not even “whole grain”. Dairy means no yogurt, no mayo, no creamy salad dressings or veggie dips, no CHEESE. (for all you who pack crackers and cheese for your kids)
And the additives are nearly impossible to avoid, did you know that ham/bacon or ANY “smoked” meat contains nitrates, whether it states it on the packaging or not, because of the natural smoking process… that means even “home smoked” or BBQ-ed meats too! I didn’t know that until my daughters allergy testing…
We did food allergy testing with my daughter a few months ago, and had to remove all of those things from her diet (and by extension, OUR diet) for a solid month… (also tomato, shellfish, yeast, eggs…) It was the WORST month I’ve had in YEARS… The extra meal planning, shopping, label reading, asking “but does this contain…”, no eating out, birthday dinners or parties because people weren’t willing to make foods she could eat, and we weren’t willing to exclude *only* her.
I feel for people who have allergies, but we can’t expect everyone at schools to cut ALL these things from their lunches. What exactly does a “healthy balanced meal” entail if you cut all those things? It turns out my daughter is “technically” allergic to almost all those things, but since cutting them from her diet didn’t change much I didn’t see the point. It certainly wasn’t worth the pain to the family, or to her emotional state over being excluded and told “no sweetie, you can’t have that”.
The peanut thing I get… I wouldn’t want any child to suffer anaphylactic shock, and that’s possible from just breathing the same air as someone who had PB for breakfast. But if your allergy requires actual ingestion of food… there’s got to be another alternative to banning that food for whole schools!
(sry for writing a book 😀 )
Very interesting post and comments. Praise God that food allergies are not an issue in my family. And thankfully, no one in my kids’ small classrooms are allergic to nuts. I truly don’t know what Boykiddo would eat if he couldn’t eat peanut butter. He would live on cold pizza alone.
I used to work at a daycare where all the kids with food allergies had to sit at their own table, usually by themselves or with one other drooling infant. It was really sad. No child should be forced to sit out of a normal social activity because of an allergy. Perhaps the kids whose parents insist on breaking a food ban should sit in their own room…
Right now Kayla buys school lunch, but I’m thinking I’m going to start packing them. I’ve just been too lazy to do so yet…I used to feed her lunch at home before she went to afternoon preschool, but now it seems so daunting a task! She doesn’t eat sandwiches much anymore (maybe that was why it was easier before – she would eat them) and it’s hard to figure out what to pack day after day. I’m going to have to come up with a game plan though.
I think it’s sad that some parents try to sneak in banned food. They must be ignorant of how deadly serious food allergies can be.
I’m “buds” with the principal at my youngest kids’ elementary school. She has spoken to me (off the record) of the outrage that comes from several parents whenever their child ends up in a room with a kid with peanut allergies. The anger and outrage and defiance she gets is a wonder. Here’s what it is for us: if there’s a child with a peanut allergy in the classroom, no peanut products allowed there if the kids are eating in the classroom. This includes, of course, parties but also “rainy days” when the kids stay in the classroom through both the morning recess and the lunch/recess. There is no cafeteria to send kids to. This is sunny California, folks, land of outdoor eating in all types of weather except rain. The kids can have peanut products any other time. Is it an inconvenience for me, parent of a picky eater? Yeah, in the winter, it is. But far be it from me to be the one whose kid causes the potentially fatal allergic reaction in a fellow student.
It’s a tough call. I can understand that parents want to send their kids with what they can afford and what’s convenient, but some kids are just too allergic to chance it. Even peanut butter left under a fingernail or smudged on a desk can cause a serious problem. One of my husband’s cousins has such a severe allergy that an empty chocolate bar wrapper in their car set him off once. I think a lot of people just will never understand the full severity of the allergy unless it’s their kid that has it.
I’m actually with Veronica Mitchell on this one. It’s a fighting battle to insist that the school can be made a peanut free zone. It’s eaten at home in the morning, after school as a snack, and yes, I gladly send PB&J in my kids’ lunches. Were a vote come up regarding it, I would vote against it. I happen to think that it’s a bit harsh to insist on something for one child when it won’t affect all the others. I do adhere to the snacks at school rule. I don’t send anything with peanuts in the snacks. But most of the time I make what I send. They have to take what I can afford.
Perhaps it would be better to have an allergy free room during lunch for the children. That’s no more of an impediment than telling kids that aren’t allergic that they can’t have what they will eat.
And until someone sends me a lot of money to purchase turkey, ham, roast beef for sandwiches, I think I’ll stick with the sandwiches that my kids like.
I would also vote against the idea that everyone had to have pre-packaged food. There’s no guarantee that peanuts wouldn’t be in some of those items either. Have you read those packages? They give warnings that peanuts MAY have come in contact with the contents inside.
Yum! I wished you made my lunches! My son actually has a peanut allergy, but a mild one, and lucky thing, because he had so many overlooked run-ins with peanuts during his kindergarten year that it’s a miracle he didn’t have a reaction.
by the way, that last comment was me. My foggy brain forgot to enter my personal info. Stupid cold meds.
Well, as a mother whose child is allergic to peanuts, I applaud your outrage. I still remember a co-worker making a comment to me, when D. was still a toddler and we had just learned the upsetting news that he was allergic to peanuts, that she thought the nut bans in schools were ridiculous. I almost had to kill her. Almost.
Moving on…we do have a balanced day with two nutrition breaks. I find that my kids eat way more of their lunch with that system. Although the recess is pretty short. This morning I packed them egg salad sandwiches, watermelon chunks, a whole nectarine, some Teddy Grahams, a mini yogurt and a granola bar. I’m expecting that the nectarine will like come home looking rather forlorn. It takes them a week or two to get back in stride and eat their food before the bell rings.
Oh ya and about balanced school day. Our school introduced it this year too. I am a bit freaked out about it but then my son barely eats anyhow so he will probably be fine. Our school decided to do two 1 hour breaks with the play time first followed by eating. I like that better than ‘eat first then play’. I think the kids will be less likely to rush through their food to get outside. Plus they will be hungrier when they come in from playing.
Wow lots of comments on this topic eh. My son is a terrible eater and I find lunches hard. Mostly because he will only eat crap like cookies and granola bars and I hate the feeling that someone at the school is looking at his lunch and thinking, “what is wrong with his mother that she didn’t pack him any fruit”. But if I do, I get a bruised up apple or brown banana home at the end of the day, he just won’t eat it.
I can’t believe anyone in their right mind would try and go against the peanut ban. Our schools have different lists of banned items for each class depending on the students. Peanuts, school wide, but last year my son couldn’t bring kiwi, tomato, raw potato(??). I am the mom who is always calling my friend who’s son is allergic to nuts and checking to make sure my food is safe.
My sisters daughters school tried to institute a no home made food policy and that just drove me nuts (it got shot down in a vote). I know why they were doing it, to stop the crazy’s who insist on sneaking peanut butter. But really, are Dunkaroos a better option than home made cookies! UGH.
We are not poor by any means, but I often wonder what poor kids take to school. Back in our day peanut butter sandwiches where the cheapest to bring along beside bologna and that is just gross.
I hope to send yummy homemade non processed things along with a few goodies so the kid isn’t a freak that mooches off the others 😛
I can’t believe there are parents (and teachers!) who don’t respect the ban. I can honestly say that I would be the teacher who would end up confronting the parents (and teachers) who break the rules. I am not one to stand for rules breaking esp. by adults.
My son is currently on a peanut ban. It’s not because he’s allergic, it’s just because he’s only 1 and with a history of food allergies in our family, we want to wait until he’s older to introduce peanuts. Of course, that doesn’t mean we don’t make pb&j sandwiches. We’ve found a fairly decent alternative in Soy Nut Butter (I.M. Healthy brand). I’m even using it for a marinade that calls for peanut butter. The best thing about it is, like PB, it doesn’t need refrigeration making it great for sack lunches.
Good luck finding healthy stuff to pack. As a former teacher, I applaud you for making the effort to pack healthy. As a former teacher, I despised seeing lunches stuffed with Lunchables, cookies, candy, and Kool-Aid because I knew the kid would be bouncing off the walls come afternoon.
I’m lucky that my kids don’t have any major food issues.
Our school has nut and peanut bans. It does make packing a lunch a bit more complicated, but I totally agree with you – the well being of kids with allergies comes before my kids eating peanut butter. I won’t give them PB before school either because I’m afraid they’ll miss some when they wash and brush their teeth.
The other thing complicating things right now is the Maple Leaf foods Listeriosis outbreak. So I’m very hugely wary of cold cuts. So I’ve come up with alternatives. Our school doesn’t have a fish ban so I can send light tuna. Hummus is also okay (although you have to be careful that seeds aren’t banned at school – one of the main ingredients of hummus, tahini, is made of sesame seeds). Chick peas and salad. Cheese sandwiches. Left overs from supper the night before. Pasta. Soup… That kind of thing.
I had a doctor recently tell me a story of a child he knew who was allergic to nuts. If the child even smelled peanuts, he became violently ill. Just smelling the nuts wasn’t fatal, but still enough to make him very sick. I feel so bad for the children that get this sick over a food so common to childhood and is so hard to avoid.
I think about my sister, who is a single mom with two children. She has no choice but to put them in school. There is no homeschooling option for her. If my nephew or niece were to have a nut allergy and had to attend a school where they eat likely three times a day and would regularly be surrounded by nuts in food, I would be outraged too, to see parents slip around a ban as if it’s no big deal.
Allergies are a hard thing to understand, or even sympathize with if you don’t have any of your own. My husband is allergic to most vegetables, also, he hates them. I tease him and ask why he isn’t allergic to ice cream and brownies and I’m trying to understand and not purposely “test” him as a previous commenter mentioned by asking if just a little of this or that will hurt him. I don’t have allergies so I don’t get it. Doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try and it certainly means I shouldn’t sneak some zucchini into dinner to see if it will really have any effect.
I had a doctor recently tell me a story of a child he knew who was allergic to nuts. If the child even smelled peanuts, he became violently ill. Just smelling the nuts wasn’t fatal, but still enough to make him very sick. I feel so bad for the children that get this sick over a food so common to childhood and is so hard to avoid.
I think about my sister, who is a single mom with two children. She has no choice but to put them in school. There is no homeschooling option for her. If my nephew or niece were to have a nut allergy and had to attend a school where they eat likely three times a day and would regularly be surrounded by nuts in food, I would be outraged too, to see parents slip around a ban as if it’s no big deal.
Allergies are a hard thing to understand, or even sympathize with if you don’t have any of your own. My husband is allergic to most vegetables, also, he hates them. I tease him and ask why he isn’t allergic to ice cream and brownies and I’m trying to understand and not purposely “test” him as a previous commenter mentioned by asking if just a little of this or that will hurt him. I don’t have allergies so I don’t get it. Doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try and it certainly means I shouldn’t sneak some zucchini into dinner to see if it will really have any effect.
Allergies scare me. We don’t have any food allergies in our family, but our Tom does have an allergy to Amoxycillin, and seeing how he reacted to that (utterly terrifying, btw) makes me appreciate how important it is to adhere to any “no nuts” rules.
Our old school had a “no homemade treats” thing going on, and I never once thought about it from an allergy perspective. I always thought it was to prevent people with dirty kitchens from spreading their funk to my preshus chilluns.
Seriously. How dumb am I?
(‘Quite’ comes the answer from the peanut gallery)
Zomg! Peanut Gallery! I managed to get a nut joke in there too! I am on fire here!
And in the interest of adding some more awesomeness to this topic, may I direct your attention to this video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9r25GhBWjc
It contains the phrase “No nuts” which makes me howl. And it’s Little Britain, so it’s funny!
I think people unfamiliar with allergies think that they’re comparable to, say, vegetarianism. A choice rather than a rule.
My FIL is diabetic; my husband is allergic to almost all fresh fruit and nuts (cooked is fine); my SIL is allergic to wheat, but only when eaten before exercise; one niece and nephew are lactose intolerant; and my 12-week-old nephew is allergic to wheat and dairy (ingested through breastmilk). So. In this family we serve a wide variety of foods and people are expected to manage their own diets!
I forgot to say that a school our friends children attend have also requested the children do not eat peanut butter for breakfast. I thought this was extreme until Papoosie Girl sat two desks over from a boy with a severe peanut allergy. Just knowing it might still be on her hands or even clothes made me take it off the breakfast list. I just would not want that little boy sick because of what my daughter ate for breakfast.
Instead, it became her after school snack.
I forgot to say that a school our friends children attend have also requested the children do not eat peanut butter for breakfast. I thought this was extreme until Papoosie Girl sat two desks over from a boy with a severe peanut allergy. Just knowing it might still be on her hands or even clothes made me take it off the breakfast list. I just would not want that little boy sick because of what my daughter ate for breakfast.
Instead, it became her after school snack.
Our school has two 15 minute recesses where the kids can have a snack if they want before recess starts which amounts to about a minute to consume it. Lunch is only 20 minutes followed by a 40 minute recess. By the time my daughter goes to the bathroom and comes back…the teachers request the kids go at lunch…lunch is over. More often than not only about half of her lunch is eaten.
We have bans on peanuts and fish. They tried to include wheat and dairy and a whole host of stuff until parents went a little nuts (no pun intended) since all that was left was meat and fruits and veggies.
I find lunches very hard since Papoosie Girls loves PB&J and won’t really eat any other sandwich expect veggie subs as she calls them. A whole-wheat hot dog bun with a mozzerella slice, Romaine, pickles and Zesty Italian dressing. I do a lot of cheese and crackers too.
I know some kids who happily eat nice, hot leftovers every day, but that isn’t really popular in our house either.
It is hard! I just put in lots of healthy choices and hope some of it doesn’t come home.
Our school has two 15 minute recesses where the kids can have a snack if they want before recess starts which amounts to about a minute to consume it. Lunch is only 20 minutes followed by a 40 minute recess. By the time my daughter goes to the bathroom and comes back…the teachers request the kids go at lunch…lunch is over. More often than not only about half of her lunch is eaten.
We have bans on peanuts and fish. They tried to include wheat and dairy and a whole host of stuff until parents went a little nuts (no pun intended) since all that was left was meat and fruits and veggies.
I find lunches very hard since Papoosie Girls loves PB&J and won’t really eat any other sandwich expect veggie subs as she calls them. A whole-wheat hot dog bun with a mozzerella slice, Romaine, pickles and Zesty Italian dressing. I do a lot of cheese and crackers too.
I know some kids who happily eat nice, hot leftovers every day, but that isn’t really popular in our house either.
It is hard! I just put in lots of healthy choices and hope some of it doesn’t come home.
Oh yeah and my girl is such a little empathic wierdo she is deathly afraid of peanut products…but she isn’t allergic.
I support bans as long as they don’t scare my overactive imagination kid into anaphalactic hypochondriac shock.
My girl (8) loves her some leftovers in a fancy stainless bento box/canister. If it is in the cool japanese lunch tin she’ll eat anything.
My big boy (15) is at the “Please let me live on canned meatballs and bread…I promise to eat limes to fend off scurvy” stage…
Ugh! Me hate packing lunches! Ugh!
Yup, peanut and fish ban. What I object to most of all is how the teachers would throw out my daughter’s chicken salad sandwich in a flourish and then call and leave a nasty message saying, “You KNOW you’re not supposed to send tuna.” Ya, I knows it. That’s why I sent chicken. Dummies all around! Probably encited by the dummies that are determined to send dangerous foods. Dumb dummies!
I have a thick brain and can’t come up with a lunch without a sandwich being the life preserver in the middle. My kids are thick too. They’ll mostly starve and bring home the sandwich and the veggies and fruits and eat when they get home. Grumpily.
That is so selfish. If you want to give your kids peanuts, that is fine. Just do it at home. I can’t see putting another kids health and even life in danger so I can do what I want. As for the teacher, that woman needs to be fired! Some kids can have a reaction if the oil is just in the air so if she had a bit on her hands, that could be all it takes. Your right, she needs a new professions.
Oh, Minnesota Mom – we actually had the girl develop ANEMIA from her over-consumption of dairy products! Now she’s limited to 2 or 3 glasses of milk a day. It’s good to remember that even healthy foods can be over-consumed.
No sandwiches for my daughter either. (And she doesn’t like PB, so I’m pleading The Fifth on the nut ban debate.) Like you, I’ve become very familiar with hummus with vegetables and crackers with cheese.
Loved the line about the Oreos, by the way. Surely your children will be accepted with that chocolate outline around their mouth.
I noticed many of you have concerns regarding the increasing amount of food allergies diagnosed in children these days. I, too, have noticed the trend. Here’s a great quote I found on http://www.pcrm.org (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine):
“Health Concerns of Infants and Children
Milk proteins, milk sugar, fat, and saturated fat in dairy products pose health risks for children and encourage the development of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that infants below one year of age not be given whole cow’s milk,31 as iron deficiency is more likely on a dairy-rich diet. Cow’s milk products are very low in iron.32 If dairy products become a major part of one’s diet, iron deficiency is more likely. Colic is an additional concern with milk consumption. Up to 28 percent of infants suffer from colic during the first month of life.33 Pediatricians learned long ago that cow’s milk was often the reason. We now know that breastfeeding mothers can have colicky babies if the mothers consume cow’s milk. The cow’s antibodies can pass through the mother’s bloodstream, into her breast milk, and to the baby.34,35 Additionally, food allergies appear to be common results of cow’s milk consumption, particularly in children.36,37 Cow’s milk consumption has also been linked to chronic constipation in children. Researchers suggested that milk consumption resulted in perianal sores and severe pain on defecation, leading to constipation.38
Milk and dairy products are not necessary in the diet and can, in fact, be harmful to health. It is best to consume a healthful diet of grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, and fortified foods including cereals and juices. These nutrient-dense foods can help you meet your calcium, potassium, riboflavin, and vitamin D requirements with ease—and without health risks.”
I don’t want to hi-jack this post, but if you’re interested in more resources regarding child allergies, please feel free to email me or stop by my blog and leave a comment.
Anja’s not really old enough for us to discern if she has food allergies yet (we’re not exposing her to the foods with allergens at this time), and we still haven’t decided if we’ll do public, private or homeschool. Like Veronica, though, I have a hard time picturing myself being furious at other parents for not upholding a ban on something as common to childhood as peanut butter. Surely if my child was so sensitive that even smelling it in the air could cause a reaction, I would keep them home with me.
That said, I wouldn’t be the mom trying to sneak behind a ban if there was one.
Sorry just to clarify, when I said peanut ban everywhere in the City here, I meant for daycare and schools, not the entire City. And hey ever notice how much salt is in lunch pre-made stuff! Wild!
Has anyone ever noticed the Sulphites in all those crackers, granola bars etc! Not to mention hydrogenated oils and sugar contents… I like to go for organic stuff. Now you are even finding sucralose and asprithame and stuff in kids eats…I don’t think that’s the best either.
Hello,
There are bans on peanut butter everywhere in the City where I live. It’s just the way it is here. I think most respect it as the schools send home a note and they inspect lunches if there is a child in there with a peanut allergy. We had to send food labels to the old school if they thought something was not peanut free, they were strict and would not let the child open that item.
Lunches for my kids, easy as pie! They love everything you find at an event such as a baby shower. Fruit platter stuff, veggie tray stuff, and cheese and crackers! So voila, in thier lunch each day they get mixed fresh fruits, be it grapes, watermellon, honeydew mellon (her favourite), blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, whatever combination looks colourful. Then I do the same with veggies, some green or yellow beans, carrot sticks, sugar snap peas or cucumber slices or mini whole cucumbers unpeeled. Cheese and crackers sometimes, granola bar, sandwhich with either just butter on bread, or cream cheese on a multi grain english muffin, or veggie ham between an english muffin. And a REAL juice box by sunpack as in no sugar added, real juice not the fake stuff everyone encourages thier kids to drink which consists of sugar sugar and sugar. My kids like sprouted ground flax seed with blueberries (ground) and I add that to a sandwhich at home or to cereal. Sometimes a yoghurt tube too (I prefer bio-best but they don’t make yogurt tubes) Sad eh!
My kids are odd! But yes I do give Bear Paw cookies cause it’s peanut free. Heart shape sandwiches or heart shape cucumber or fruit and love notes are the highlite! Just try to give something from the 4 food groups in the lunch and ta da, you gotta be doing something right.
OK – if there was a ban on something, then I do believe all parents that agree to send their kids to that school – need to follow it. In the same way if the school bans cell phones, drugs, Ipods – whatever – parents need to be willing to follow the rules.
That being said – have there actually been many cases of death or near death from one child who is allergic to nuts (or fish) – caused by another student’s lunch?
Why was there no such thing when I was in school?
I do have a nephew with a severe nut allergy – I am always careful of what I have around when he comes over – but his own parents still keep nuts in the house and I have had meals there where nuts were included (say in a salad) for everyone except for the allergy child. His parents are not careless – but I think they are realistic.
I guess my theory is – why should 599 kids be limited to what they eat for the sake of 1 child. Yes there is danger. But there is danger in sending your child to school with a mild sore throat – that you later find out is strep – and then another child contracts strep and dies. Meaning – there is danger in everything we do…we need to make sure that we are careful – but realistic.
Every day BubTar wants a PB&J (which is COMPLETELY legal at his school), juice, and cheesy rice cakes/pretzels. I generally put fruit in the bag and it ALWAYS comes back. I can hope, right?
I would certainly observe a food ban if there were one, but I think I have to dissent a little from some of the furor you experience. Of course allergies are real and dangerous – anyone who thinks otherwise is an uneducated fool. But when children are not merely allergic by ingestion but also touch-sensitive to certain foods, I think trying to keep the school an allergen-free zone is a losing battle.
For example, my skinny kids will eat nuts when they refuse to eat almost anything else. While I would not send them to school with them, I’m not sure it is really possible to make sure that every vestige of nut is absent from their person when they go to school. My kids can smudge peanut butter ANYWHERE, and the three-day-old glop hardened in the sole of their sneaker could, hypothetically, harm someone. If the goal is an absolutely nut-free school, then every child would need to give up nuts at home as well as school.
Our school hasn’t banned peanuts, but I would surely respect one if there were a ban! My goodness, that is dangerous. As a person who suffers from a particularly violent tree nut allergy, I can tell you that anaphylactic shock is no fun at all – and that people in the south do not consider pe-cans a nut. Oh! There’s pecans in the crust! says the kind waiter as my throat swells shut.
I’ve been meaning to do a school lunch post, after I had written so much fussing on the days working up to school starting. We’ve found balance with a sandwich a day or two and crackers/cheese a day or two. Cookies or fruits snacks a day here and there, raisins and fruit every day. The carrots were returned pristine and untouched until I shared my expectations that she actually eat the veggies in her lunch. The next day she obliged. The thing is, she doesn’t eat much and I’m just sure she must be so hungry, but she says she’s not. So I guess I won’t fuss.
I hope you’ll do more school lunch posts, since it’s a topic I apparently don’t get tired of!
How could those sneaky parents live with themselves if their kid’s indulgence resulted in another kid’s death? Morons. I wish the teachers would send a note home letting us know if there is a child with a severe allergy in the classroom. Our school is nut free (not just peanuts), but if I knew a child in one of their classes had a severe allergy to dairy I would be extra vigilant about getting any traces of breakfast milk/yogurt off their hands.
We’re doing our first year of the balanced day, so to start she’ll take two smaller lunch bags each day. High School Musical for the morning, Hannah Montana for the afternoon. I don’t trust the ice pack to keep the yogurt cold until the afternoon break, so that kind of thing will go in the morning bag.
It is extremely hard to pack things that are appealing as well as nutritious, that will hold up until lunchtime. My son will gladly eat juicy apple slices at home. At school? They’re brown and unappealing. If I dip them in a little (LITTLE) bit of lemon juice mixed with water, then they ‘taste funny’ and he won’t touch them. It really is hard.
I’m always taken back by the smugglers, thinking somehow they know better & that all this allergy talk is hype.
I’m an adult with a food allergy – no eggs for me please – and I’ve had it with people trying to test me or some such nonsense, ‘just one bite couldn’t hurt…I made this cake just for you…’
It’s ignorant, and in the case of the school, plain out selfish.
I’ve been thinking about school lunches this morning, trying to come up with something that won’t come back pristine & untouched, healthy and something that can be consumed rapidly because their lunch period is ridiculously short.
It still boggles my mind. Must go think think think.
why do I feel like weeping. School lunches are the bane of my very existence.
We have a nut ban, and for a while I was sending granola bars (face it, they are cookies packaged as something healthy), when I realized with horror that they contained NUTS. Whyohwhy do they package these things so we can send them off and potentially kill some poor child.
We seem to have so many more allergies now, at least this generation does. Makes one wonder about why. Anyhow, the schools send out forms so we are alerted about allergies within each classroom.
sigh. all my little one will eat is mustard salami (of course she will not eat teh organic stuff so she is FULL of nitrates) and pickles. Thankfully the older one has branched out a bit.
sigh. now I feel frustrated. they start tomorrow. Guess you struck a nerve here Beck.
Strangely last ‘air’ trip, there was an announcement about people handing in their peanuts. I hadn’t realized it could be ‘that’ bad for some people. But I sure know now.
Best wishes
This is where I stop and PRAISE THE LORD that we are home schooling. My oldest has severe food allergies –to food dyes including those found in markers and watercolor paints, which by the way WILL trigger a reaction when coming contact with her SKIN, to all chemical preservatives–we can’t even cook pepperoni in our house lest she get horribly sick, to tomatoes, citrus, apples, and cinnamon–all of which trigger a slow but very deadly allergic reaction even if she gets a whiff of them.
I cannot imagine telling some other parent that they cannot feed their child apples, cinnamon, citrus, or anything with tomato (including ketchup, which is one of Rachel’s worst enemies because it has both tomato AND cinnamon) just because of my daughter. And then add in all the other food allergies out there that have potentially deadly reactions and and my goodness, everyone will be eating lettuce. Plus there are all sorts of places those things are hidden. It is nearly impossible for us to keep foods and other things containing Rachel’s triggers out of the house let alone in an entire school building. (Rachel has to go outside every time one of my husband’s friends forgets and orders a pizza.) It just isn’t worth it.
I realize that our case is a bit unusual though it is becoming more common. And people often don’t even think when they “sneak” some food in–my mil often tries to get Rach new foods and she never can eat them (citric acid comes from apples/citrus, so does pectin and she never understands that Rach can’t have them even though they are not OBVIOUSLY foods she can’t eat.
This is K’s first year of full-day school, and the first year she will be packing a lunch. As our school district does not have a formal allergy policy in place and she is allergic to dairy, I am VERY NERVOUS about this year. She is in a class with a peanut-allergic child, and I am going to make K’s lunches peanut-free whether the school enacts a peanut ban or not, as I assume she and this other child will be together a lot. I just bought some peanut-free soynut butter today! I was excited to find it at our little grocery store.
She doesn’t really like sandwiches either. I think she’s going to have turkey tortilla roll ups tomorrow.
As someone with a dairy-allergic daughter, I’m constantly shocked by how ignorant people can be about what is in food—-“Oh, there is milk in cheese/yogurt/butter!?!?” Ahhhhh, yup. I feel for you==peanut allergies are truly scary.
Ahhhh, yes, the rant from the teacher—-you can read the hilarity (I use that term loosely) here: http://fairlyoddmother.blogspot.com/2008/07/when-nutter-butter-is-public-enemy-1.html
Well, I am just about to start with this. We have to take turns sending in the snack, and there is a “lunch bunch” that you can pay extra for.
The preschool does have a peanut ban. Since my mom saw a young college girl die within a few minutes of eating some peanuts (that she didn’t know were in her restaurant food), I have respect for the rule.
That being said, I am having a hard time coming up with lots of nutritious and filling snacks for the children. My child, at least, eats most of his calories in the morning, so this snack thing is going to throw him for a loop.
One of my sons is allergic to peanuts.
There is no peanut ban at his school. This doesn’t really bother me because he is deeply afraid of peanuts. The school is aware of his allergy, and his teacher knows that when class parties and birthday celebrations occur, he can’t have anything with peanuts. Most parents seem to have wised up about allergies, so they don’t bother bringing in peanut butter cookies. 99% of them just bring in Target cupcakes (he won’t eat those, either). He hates chocolate, too. In fact, he hates most foods. He hates everything the cafeteria makes. Packing HIS lunch is a nightmare. He eats a grape jelly sandwich, an apple, string cheese, and chips. Daily.
I know the true threat is in cross-contamination, but I still don’t worry. Maybe I should. He has an epi-pen at school, he knows what to avoid. He knows what peanuts look like and smell like. Unless his lunch bag collided with another kid’s lunch bag and they mixed up their sandwiches, I really don’t see how he would consume any peanut protein. Most kids these days eat the cafeteria food, which contains zero peanuts, guaranteed. If they don’t, they bring those little microwavable soups, frozen entrees, and pastas. Their cafeteria has several microwaves for the students to use. Even the Kindergartners zap their lunches.
At his old school, they had a “peanut-free” table in the cafeteria. All the peanut allergy kids HAD to sit there. It really isolated him socially because there were so few of them (5 in a school of 400), and they were in different grades. You’d think their common malady would bond them together, but it didn’t. He dreaded lunch.
ETA by the “healthy schools” rant I am not talking about peanut bans. I fully support peanut bans. It’s when they can unhealthy snacks that I get a little peeved though in all honesty Sarah rarely brings unhealthy snacks to school.
Some schools don’t allow homemade baked goods and I do confess that this rubs me the wrong way as we’re trying to stay away from packaging and processed foods. I am very careful when baking to keep all peanut and nutty things away but I do understand that not everyone is so careful. Still, I’m sure not everyone is so careful when slicing apples on the cutting board or slapping a sandwich together either.
Ok that’s my own particular rant. So far my school still accepts banana bread and zucchini loaf so I’m o.k.
I’m not a fan of the “Healthy Schools” idea where teachers and monitors actively remove unhealthy snacks from lunchboxes. One because it’s very arbitrary (some will allow fruit snacks, some not, some will allow bear paws, some not, etc) and two because in this case I think it’s up to me to make the call with what I’m o.k. with my kid eating and a couple of oreos aren’t going to kill her. I’d much rather the “healthy school” focus more on exercise and outdoor activity and leave worrying about food to me.
As for Sarah, she’s ok with cold foods so she often gets whole grain noodles with pesto or homemade pizza pockets. This’ll be Chloe’s first year of school and I’m fairly sure her lunch will be more of the cheese and crackers kind.