Do kids with food allergies inconvenience “normal” kids?

Jan 02, 2013 11:00 AM by Monica Beyer

Posted in Parenting / Parenting Tips & Advice / Child Development & Health

Peanut allergies are no joke — even a tiny bit can send a child into an allergic reaction, which can be anaphylactic. Anaphylactic allergic reactions are serious medical emergencies, and if emergency medication (epinephrine) isn't administered in a timely manner, it can result in death. Some schools, in addition to providing teacher training on the use of EpiPens, have implemented peanut-free areas of their building, or have designated the whole school peanut-free. Arguments, generally from parents, spring forth as they feel it impinges on a non-allergic child's right to eat what they want. Here's why it's important for everyone to help protect our kids.

Some reasons it may be harder

For kids who have other special diets, such as being vegan or vegetarian, it can be more difficult to impose a peanut butter ban in the school. Charles Stahler from the Vegetarian Resource Group (http://www.vrg.org/) says that banning peanuts from a school can make it harder for vegetarian kids. “Many vegetarian and vegan kids live on peanut butter at school or camp because there is not much else convenient to eat,” he explained. “So in most cases, it would seem there should be a way to balance the needs of both populations rather than totally banning peanut butter or similar foods.”

Life-threatening trumps inconvenience

However, most experts, parents and fellow allergy-sufferers agree that the potential life-threatening aspect of a peanut allergy trumps a child’s desire to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. “The American Disability Act requires a school to meet the needs of the food allergy child, and it would be foolish not to — it is a life and death situation,” said Jamie Perillo, child and family psychotherapist who serves on the board as an expert clinician for the Food Allergy Education Network. “Kids are generally accommodating and supportive to their peers. It is often the adults who are not. A child who brings in peanut butter and triggers an anaphylactic reaction in the food allergy child would hold a tremendous amount of feelings if that occurred. The rule then protects both children. Children can learn compassion from these rules. A lesson in compassion and a great friendship is worth more than that peanut butter sandwich.”

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Cheryl McEvoy, the director of communications for the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness, agreed. “While a peanut-free classroom or a ‘no cupcakes’ policy may seem unfair to children who do not have food allergies or sensitivities, health and safety are the priority,” she shared. “It’s a medical necessity.”

Non-allergic kids have options

Jen from Canada, who has suffered from allergies (including a life-threatening peanut allergy) for most of her life, agrees that a no-peanut rule in schools is best for everyone involved. “No one has a ‘right’ to eat peanut butter at school,” she told us. “It's not a right. It's simply a choice, and given that a child could die because of the choice, no you don't get to bring it to school. There are plenty of other foods that kids can bring, they don't 'need' peanut butter and they can eat it all they want at home.”

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Especially in the younger grades, protecting a child with a life-threatening peanut allergy should be priority for staff, students and other parents. When you don’t have personal experience with food allergies and how frightening they can be, it can be difficult to really understand the need to eliminate certain foods from a child’s environment. All of us — as parents and fellow human beings — should consider the safety and welfare of all children as important as our own and should not balk at a peanut ban.

More on food allergies and kids

Mom story: My kids have life-threatening food allergies
How to manage your kids' food allergies at school
Your child's severe food allergy

Tags: food allergies kids health

Comments

Comments on "Do kids with food allergies inconvenience “normal” kids?"

Banning people from eating peanuts is unconstitutional. While at a school it might seem like a higher prevalence of peanuts lying around, in reality, the chance is everywhere else equally. So banning people from eating something at a certain time is simply unconstitutional. There is no argument. Your child's problem doesn't trump my right to eat food. Your problem your special accommodations. Not my problem, no reason for me to change for you.

Hi Beth. I don't know if you'll see this comment, but I am the author of this article as well as the other and wanted to respond to what you wrote. There is a big difference between vaccines and eating peanut butter. Your child not eating peanut butter at school does not harm them, but me vaccinating my child on schedule might. She is partially vaccinated, and will be fully vaccinated according to our state laws by the time she enters school -- just not on the same schedule most parents do. Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment.

I find it very ironic that the person writing this also writes why her child is on a delay vaccine schedule. Let's see if I have this right...my child should forgo peanut butter at school to protect the kids with allergies. Yet you yourself do not vaccinate your child to the detriment of children who cannot be vaccinated? So it's okay to subject kids to whooping cough, measles, mumps, chicken pox, but not peanuts? For children who cannot vaccinate because of cancer, low immune system, etc those illness are deadly. Sounds like one hell of a double standard to me.

Children should be allowed peanut butter sandwiches at school or anything else they wish to take. Because some mother wants to bring up a child who is hardly allowed anything why should everyone suffer. Violence and bullying is the thing they should worry about. Do they never take the child to a restaurant or shopping mall in case peanuts are around. These children are usually the sickly looking children. Health nuts are always sick.

My children are vegetarian and both of them are in nut-free classes. On top of that, my son needs to eat a gluten free diet. Yes, it's inconvenient at times, but I would rather deal with inconvenience than being responsible for another child's potentially life threatening allergic reaction. I work around it. If my children want to eat nuts, they do it after school. It is not that hard. I don't understand people who complain about it.

Also our son knows not to eat anything we have not approved and does not trust a verdict of safe given by someone we have not told him he can trust. As he grows up he will have more control, learn to read and understand food labels. We don't expect the world to change for him, but at the moment he is too young to make these decisions himself. The school situation is different in that he has to be there so it should be safe for him. Even if this is just a dinner lady watching his table and understanding friends and their parents. Thank you to them.

My son is 5 and has multiple food allergies. I used to raise my eyes to the sky when parents waffled on about this allergy and that allergy. Completely self diagnosed, un tested etc. now where most of my sons allergies are concerned so long as he does not eat it or cover himself with it he is fine. I would say that's most food allergies to be honest, BUT his nut allergy is different. why? Because there is a chance that if he eats or touches nut products he could have an anaphylactic reaction. I am not just assuming this... I have seen his blood results and I have sat up all night in HDU watching him struggle to breathe. His school is not nut free but his class is. His friends, 5 year olds, not teenagers or older children with greater understanding have been fantastic, they choose to bring foods which will keep their friend safe, they have compassion. I find that is a quality that is often lost with age. His teachers are amazing everything is just normal for everyone. I would also like to remind those anti that allergy often starts in teenage years and whilst I would wish this on nobody , I would be interested to have this discussion again after your child becomes the allergic one. The other consideration here is actually your child. How is your child going to feel if it was their peanut butter sandwich that made their friend sick, or even killed them, how will they feel about themselves and how will they feel about you. That you valued a peanut butter sandwich over their friends future. Good luck explaining that to them. Nut allergy is different..... Anaphalaxis is not a tummy ache and a bit of a rash! Please be more understanding.

So your kids are NEVER allowed to eat peanut butter because your friends are alleric? Sorry, but THAT is nonsense. At school? Sure, make it peanut free. But not letting your kid eat peanut butter EVER even when they are at home and won't be seeing anyone with an allergy that day..e on!!

I don't have a child with allergies, but my kids have 3 friends who do. So, I have simply trained my kids to like sunbutter and almond butter instead of peanut butter. What an easy switch and sunbutter sure tastes so similar to pb. An easy solution for everyone! :)

Tardis_blue, Thank you!!! I say "ditto" to everything you said. And to NormalMom, it's moms like you that I don't understand. If your child had a life-threatening allergy, would you feel differently? Of course you would because it would be your child whose life was on the line every time they took a bite of food!

WOW, "NormalMom" you are really something! Our kids are NORMAL, which have just been dealt a card of having life threatening food allergies. Food allergies are becoming more & more common and it's something people like you need to learn to accept. We didn't ask for these allergies, but have learns to love with them. It doesn't just affect our kids at school it's ALL day EVERYDAY, social events, birthdays parties, sporting events...EVERYTHING our kids do! So sorry but yes it would be nice to send my son to school and not have to worry EVERYTIME the phone rings and it's the school (they call a lot because I voluntary) oh is my son OK?? You seriously need to put yourself in our shoes. We don't need a separate school for kids, we just need compassionate parents who understand that our kids just want to be "normal" too! Did you ever hear of Karma??

As the mother of a child with both peanut and tree nuts, I get inconvenience. I have to spend hours reading labels. Hours educating new teachers and education assistants. Hours writing and reviewing anaphylaxis protocols for my daughter. Contrary to popular belief, peanut butter is not the only option for kids who do not eat meat. We have wowbutter in our house (which is made of soy) and there are also several sunflower butter options that are totally nut safe and high in protein. How about teaching your kid some compassion...namely thinking about the needs of others and not only their own wants.

I don't even understand why the word "inconvenience" needs to be used when there are so many other food choices out there. People act as if peanut butter is the only viable school lunch option for a picky eater. This is a medical condition that neither the child or their family chose.

Ok I am a 54 year old grandmother and the one in our family with the food allergies (though my son in law is allergic to tree nuts, so its both of us). I understand all of your comments but YOU must understand and epi-pen is NOT fool proof people die every day even when epi-pens have been used. Also about children in other countries. They may not be allergic to peanuts but look at how many in Iseal are allergic to seseme seeds! and how many in China are allergic to rice! The numbers in these countries are staggering. Just like peanuts are in the US. So please put things into perspective. BTW I am allergic to peanuts, milk, corn, oats, bananas, wheat (spelt, and other "older versins of wheaat)and eggs.

As parents of a food allergic child. We completely understand the "inconvenience" it imposes. We have to make the effort to include our son in the same meals at home so he feels safe. That means, making something egg free so he can eat it. Even though it doesn't taste the same as a muffin with egg. It also means asking every one what they are preparing as a meal if we are planning to go to a friend or family members home to eat. And, taking a "safe" back up meal just in case egg, peanut or soy is missed when reading the ingredients. Calling or emailing our "safe" restaurants monthly to make sure their ingredients haven't changed. Calling ahead to any sit down restaurant and talking to the kitchen manager to plan our sons meal before going. And, eating my food with a knot in my throat wondering if the kitchen missed an ingredient! Reading each and every label of every single food item before purchasing. Even if I just purchased it the day before! So, yes, parents of children with allergies understand this "inconvenience". We LIVE with it so our child can live and thrive!

Aside from living in a bubble- what do these highly allergic kids do when they grow up or go out in public? Teaching your kid to carry and use an epi pen when they are old enough seems more responsible than expecting the entire world to adapt itself to your needs.

NormalMom--not very compassionate, are you? I think that it is the point of the article that yes, allergy kids inconvenience "normal" kids--and that they deserve to be accommodated, even at the expense of inconvenience. All manner of special needs are accommodated by schools--blindness, deafness, inability to walk, behavior disorders, learning disorders, neurological disorders--and ALL of those cost the schools, which means less money for the "normal" kids--of whom, by the way, when you start thinking about all the different kinds of special needs there are seem fewer and fewer anyway. All children have the right to a free and appropriate education. Just like children in wheelchairs have the right to come to the same school your child attends, even though it cost the school money to install ramps that could have been spent on playground equipment or new books for all of the kids, allergy kids have the right to attend the same school and not have their lives put at risk. Can you not hear yourself, and how horrible you sound? Your kid's INCONVENIENCE is more important to you than another child's LIFE??? It is part of being a member of a social species that sometimes including one member inconveniences other members. Suck it up.

Look around you...kids with allergies are the new normal and more and more kids are becoming allergic to foods. I think it's more important to teach kids tolerance and compassion toward others than to isolate kids with allergies from "normal" kids.

I think they do inconvenience the "normal" kids which want to have "normal" life and actually CAN have it. Personally I think having specialized schools where kids with allergies are attending will make life for them so much safer. The staff with nurses which can attend to their needs. Really allergies are literally a disease with huge life threatening consequences, so why do we have staff for disabled kids which can injure themselves in schools but we have no staff for kids which can simply die? Said that, for children which do not have allergies - can we please make their life NORMAL and let them eat what they want? Like nuts are good for you?

Honestly, it is what it is. If it's a convenience than so be it. It's not like you can just feed a kid something they are allergic to.