Peanut Allergy Questions

[lesliepear]

I am just curious about this.

Alan has no problem with peanuts and eats peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at home.

If I make something for his preschool class for a treat, does it matter that my utensils may have been washed in the dishwasher with a knife that had peanut butter and jelly on it? Should I take any other precautions when cooking? (I'm considering making spinach lasagna for international day for his class and we've been asked not to use peanuts - I'll read the boxes on my ingredients carefully.)

Also, are there any good online sites or articles on peanut allergies anyone can recommend? I'm considering sending something in to his preschool to share with other parents.

Comments

[bshaahtovah.livejournal.com]

Your rant is understandable. It must be frustrating. On the other hand, while it's an inconvenience to avoid sending these items to school, most kids are able to eat peanut butter at home. By contrast, kids with life-threatening peanut allergies can die due to exposure to peanut butter, which is easily transferred by little hands in a school setting.

The reason you're hearing about it more in the news, is that we're talking about 2% of all students -- that's a very sizable proportion of the population.

It's very easy to say "Fine. Let them stay at home" (you're not saying this, but some do) but not all parents are able to homeschool. As a result, schools have the obligation to provide reasonable accommodations, since life-threatening allergies are considered a protected disability. Here, it's a matter of other parents being *empathetic* about what is simply "a pain" or an inconvenience. A life-threatening allergy trumps mere inconvenience every time.

I know parents who once felt the same way you do. And then, they happened to have a child with a peanut allergy, and their response became "Oh my goodness. I had no idea."

Every parent wants their child to come home alive at the end of the day. If all it takes is other parents helping to minimize the risks, then that's not only a reasonable effort, but displays the kind of unselfish behaviour we want our children to adopt with respect to their global community.

I'm not going to reply to this thread again, as I'm on bed rest and must relax, but here's an article in two parts that explains more about life-threatening allergies in a school setting. I hope it's interesting to readers.

http://www.barrhavenindependent.on.ca/page1.pdf

http://www.barrhavenindependent.on.ca/page7.pdf

[bshaahtovah.livejournal.com]

Sorry. I tried to edit the above posting, but it ended up not working, so I'm posting it here.

No problem! I actually understand your perspective. I'd be cranky too if I didn't know what it's like on the other side of the fence. PB&J is a good, nutritious and inexpensive school lunch for most kids. The issue is a really challenging one, but for now, all we can do is try to work together to keep all kids safe.

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

I think the difficulty with peanut allergies is that it can cause a reaction just by being near the food. Most other food allergies that I know of require ingesting or touching the food (which adults usually can deal with, it's more complex with little children.)