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Aargh...this thread has a life of its own, it seems. For parents of peanut-allergic kids, I think that you should consider the provision of a peanut-free table as sufficient accomodation for your child's welfare. As a PP poster has said, start with your own kid and educate him on the dangers of contamination. Have him carry wipes, tissues, whatever to wipe everything he touches. It's about enabling him to watch out for his own interests in addition to the reasonable accomodation he is granted. Do not put in his head that he is being punished or isolated; instead, teach him that it is a matter of his survival and a preparation for how to deal with the outside world as he grows up. Diabetic children who also have learned to administer their own insulin have to be made, and have been made to understand, that when cupcakes are brought in for someone's birthday, that they cannot have any, or as much as they want, unlike the other kids who are not diabetic. Administering the insulin is not a "punishment"...it is a necessity for survival and a tool for leading a normal life. The sooner they learn this, the better for them. I don't believe that these children feel that they are being isolated, excluded, etc. because they did something bad. Why can't this line of thought be applied to peanut-allergic kids?
After all opinions were voiced, I pretty much believe that if there are peanut allergic kids in a school, those children should be placed in a minimum number of classrooms (all the 1st graders w/allergies go in Mrs. Janes class, all the 2nd graders w/allergies go in Mr. Janes class, etc...), and those classrooms should be peanut free. The cafeteria should have a peanut free table/area for the children to sit at, all peanut allergic kids sit here as well as any child whose parents commit to sending their child a completely peanut free lunch. (If 50 kids parents agree to send peanut free, then make 8 peanut free tables to accommodate the children). I think school wide peanut bans are unfair to other children. In the very least, if most parents agree to the ban and don't mind, then make a PEANUT PRESENT table where the kids who really need/want the peanut butter can sit. For lower grades, like prek or kindergarten, I can see peanut free schools, but that is a hard thing to do because many prek and kind. are in elementary schools. So best to segregate the children as much as possible. For higher grades it would be different because older kids know better.
If the issue is sticky hands, then the issue is with the school. Shouldn't kids wash their hands after eating anyway, just for hygienic purposes?
I understand that there is debate on this issue, and if your school has a peanut ban you object to, take it up with them.
Don't protest by sending your child to school with a peanut butter sandwich anyway. That is childish and negligent.
If you must send your child to school w/peanut butter, because they have to have it, or simply because your rights are being violated, ask the principal to accommodate your child or sue your school to get the right to send him w/peanut butter. But don't send your child to school w/peanut butter in protest and not tell anyone about it. That is being hard headed and could be dangerous.
One side note:
My cousin is a teacher in a private catholic school. She just recently described to me how a severely allergic child at school had a reaction to something that was not supposed to be in the school in the first place. If that wasn't bad enough, the teachers were completely ignorant as to what to do, actually ignorant sounds too kind a word. To put it plainly, they were inept and basically negligent, despite clear instructions from the child's doctor, and the education they were given on how to recognize symptoms of a reaction and how to administer the epi pen. The school is lucky the parents aren't suing the school for the teachers stupidity.
I also stand by my opinion that even peanut free schools are not going to ever be completely safe for a severely allergic child. there are just too many people, to many variables, to many dangers, etc...(The school above was peanut free, btw).
Why can't this line of thought be applied to peanut-allergic kids?
After reading the numerous posts by the parents of peanut-allergy kids I get the impression that they would rather have everyone else make the accommodations, not their own children. I still find it ridiculous that (it seems as if) most of these parents demand that the school go peanut free, that everyone else change their eating habits instead. If your child as a potentially life threatening allergy, you simply do not allow your child to be near that situation.
After reading the numerous posts by the parents of peanut-allergy kids I get the impression that they would rather have everyone else make the accommodations, not their own children. I still find it ridiculous that (it seems as if) most of these parents demand that the school go peanut free, that everyone else change their eating habits instead. If your child as a potentially life threatening allergy, you simply do not allow your child to be near that situation.
Meanwhile those of us with kids that are asthmatic, diabetic, other allergies, etc teach our children how to COPE with their environments and to do the best they can. We teach them how to make the best of it and what to watch for and avoid. How to recognize the signs of trouble coming on. No one bends over backwards and completely changes the way they live because 1 kid in a class might be diabetic. Or they don't get mad that the kids were allowed to go out to recess and poor Johnny was having a terrible time w/ his asthma and it was a poor ozone day. Oh well.............. just goes to one thing that this world is quickly becoming.......... the "I'm more important than everyone else". It is evident on our roads daily.
It's not the same rationale, as no one is telling you that you may not have peanut butter in your home.
Again, no one is dictating what a child can and can not eat in their home or away from school, and in most cases what the child eats in the cafeteria. But schools DO have a legal responsibility to keep ALL children safe, and a peanut free classroom is one way in which they do this.
ARE YOU JOKING???
There are MANY posts where parents of peanut allergic kids suggest alternatives to peanut butter in our homes. HAHAHA, and you call that not dictating????? AND IN THE CAFETERIA???? You all sit there and say your child is being punished by having to sit at a peanut free table and you think there should be no peanut products in cafeterias and classrooms.
There are many, many posts dictating what everybody else should eat as alternatives, in their own homes and at school. You say people should consider alternatives. I DON'T NEED TO, we don't have allergic kids in our home.
You parents of allergic children really need to come to terms with this yourselves and leave the rest of us out of your problems. YOU take what steps are necessary for YOU to protect YOUR child. Don't punish the other kids in the schools because your child is allergic. I'm sick of your attitude.
Momof2dfwQuote:
Originally Posted by K-Luv After reading the numerous posts by the parents of peanut-allergy kids I get the impression that they would rather have everyone else make the accommodations, not their own children. I still find it ridiculous that (it seems as if) most of these parents demand that the school go peanut free, that everyone else change their eating habits instead. If your child as a potentially life threatening allergy, you simply do not allow your child to be near that situation.
Meanwhile those of us with kids that are asthmatic, diabetic, other allergies, etc teach our children how to COPE with their environments and to do the best they can. We teach them how to make the best of it and what to watch for and avoid. How to recognize the signs of trouble coming on. No one bends over backwards and completely changes the way they live because 1 kid in a class might be diabetic. Or they don't get mad that the kids were allowed to go out to recess and poor Johnny was having a terrible time w/ his asthma and it was a poor ozone day. Oh well.............. just goes to one thing that this world is quickly becoming.......... the "I'm more important than everyone else". It is evident on our roads daily.
I tried to give you both points on these posts, but it I guess I'm supposed to spread them around a bit first.
After reading the numerous posts by the parents of peanut-allergy kids I get the impression that they would rather have everyone else make the accommodations, not their own children. I still find it ridiculous that (it seems as if) most of these parents demand that the school go peanut free, that everyone else change their eating habits instead. If your child as a potentially life threatening allergy, you simply do not allow your child to be near that situation.
I don't think they are trying to pass the burden off on the rest of us. Their children are making accommodations that are unimaginable to the rest of us, poor kids.
I think they are parents who love their children and are scared to death at the thought of losing them.
Face it, we make decisions every day to protect our children. We all have a comfort level with certain things. Do I let my 7 year old walk to school alone? 8? 9? 10? 11? Everyone has a different comfort level with each and every aspect of their child's upbringing and specific needs.
Regarding them not teaching their child to cope, they DO teach their child to cope. But they face the reality that no matter what they teach their child, there will always be factors outside their child's control, and their child can face deadly consequences.
These people have to cope more than we can imagine, and even if a school goes peanut free, it only helps them with managing their child's allergy, they still have a long hard road to deal with life with their kids allergy.
Some people think that they are bearing the brunt of the responsibility for taking care of someone else's child that has an allergy, but there is much more those parents have to do, so much so that those parents look at us, and think that our just not sending our kids to school w/PB & J is so easy to do COMPARED to the daily ordeal they have to live with. The part that they sometimes don't seem to understand is that it is an inconvenience to many many people, and that , yes the inconvenience to us is small compared to what they go through, but it is not OUR child that has the condition.
In the end, I wonder if the schools are to blame for a lot of this mess. I can just imagine a parent finding out their child has an allergy, and then telling the school only to find they hit a brick wall and the school says there is really nothing they can do about it or offering an accomodation that would be really effective. So these parents get mad and push it to a legal level and are awarded way more accommodations than they would have initially been satisfied with had the school offered them in the first place. (I'm just throwing this out there, don't know if this really happened with any people/schools)
There are MANY posts where parents of peanut allergic kids suggest alternatives to peanut butter in our homes.
I believe they were suggesting alternatives for the children to bring to school.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stormy night
AND IN THE CAFETERIA????
What I said was that MANY schools allow peanut butter to be eaten in the cafeteria, but not in the classroom. Again, this does not dictate what you do at home or anywhere else outside of school.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stormy night
There are many, many posts dictating what everybody else should eat as alternatives, in their own homes and at school.
No one can DICTATE what anyone else does through posts. And I haven't seen a single post where anyone dictates what your children should eat at home.
What I said was that MANY schools allow peanut butter to be eaten in the cafeteria, but not in the classroom. Again, this does not dictate what you do at home or anywhere else outside of school. .
There was a news story here locally a year or two ago about a school that did a school wide ban on ANY and ALL nut products at the school and they DID dictate to what the kids could eat AT HOME before coming to school. They were telling the parents that even siblings or other family members that might not attend that school should ALSO avoid having any and all nut products to prevent "cross contamination".
To me that was going a wee bit TOO FAR!
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