Community Chat

[Mama Mia]

We cannot control everything in this world and I believe you have to take personal responsibility in a case like this. Very sad, and hard on the child as well, but everyone cannot cater their food around him. It's up to the parent.

ROMARY, I agree, why are kid's coming down with all these allergies that were unheard of years ago?

mm

[brii]

That's very sad. I would feel awful if my child caused this allergic attack. Kids should not be prohibited from eating pb at home before school.

If my child were that allergic, I would look into alternative means of school. You cannot 100% control what people do that have contact with an allergic child.

[kdgn]

I taught a child with a fatal peanut allergy. I won't go into all the details but he's in high school now so we must have done something right with all of our safety precautions.

But those of you who are assuming it was "peanut butter breath" are more than likely wrong. Peanut oil was the culprit and may have been on his clothing or under his fingernails. I believe it takes 48 hours for it to dissipate with washing.

My students knew that if they ate peanut butter products at home they were to tell me. No big deal, they stayed away from the child. But you know what? Once the parents of the students had been educated we had no problems. None. Obviously the entire school participated in safety precautions and continued to do so.

It turned out to be more of a blessing than usual. One of the upper grade teachers had a peanut allergy too, not fatal but serious. All the precautions helped him too.

[herekitty_kitty]

If the preschool is being run in a private home they can make clients follow their rules. Parents who feel the rules are too strict can find another preschool.

However, if the preschool is being run by the State, County or City, I find it intrusive to tell someone their child can't eat XYandZ before they come to preschool.

[herekitty_kitty]

On 6/5/2014 chrystaltree said:

On 6/5/2014 Emma bunting said:

There was a child in my son's Junior High who had some issue with regulating his body heat. So all winter the thermostat in his wing of the school had to be kept excessively high.....just for him. The other kids were sweating...and getting drowsy because of the heat. In my opinion, you do whatever you can to accommodate a child with special needs......short of actually affecting others around them in a really adverse way like this.

And I agree.....if my child was that deathly allergic to peanut butter I would home school him. There is no way you can control everybody around you all of the time.

ETA: now I want peanut butter!

Sorry that was WRONG! It was abusive to the other students! And bit was mean. No, you don't do NOT accommodate or protect a special needs kid by putting other kids at risk or adversely affecting their ability to LEARN. Even the law only mandates 'reasonable accommodation". Do you think those drowsy, kids were in an atmosphere that was healthy and conducive to learning?

Totally WRONG! The parents should home school the child during the winter. Why make all the others suffer.

[bikerbabe]

One recent theory was that early exposure in infancy increased risk of allergy. That seems to be false and recent studies show that the opposite may be true: lack of exposure in the diet of the pregnant mother and in early infancy to potential common allergens increases risk of allergic reaction later on:

From the NY TImes

Various studies had suggested that early exposure to peanut protein by infants with allergic tendencies could sensitize them and lead to a serious peanut allergy. In 2000, pregnant and nursing women were advised to avoid eating peanuts, especially if allergies ran in the family. And new mothers were told not to give babies peanuts before age 3, when digestive systems are more fully developed.

But this advice did nothing to curb the steady climb in peanut allergies, and it was abandoned in 2008.

Today, the thinking is exactly the opposite. Instead of restricting exposure to peanut protein by unborn or nursing babies, the tiny amounts that may enter the baby’s circulation when a pregnant or nursing woman eats peanuts might actually induce tolerance, not sensitization.

In a recent study of 8,205 children, 140 of whom had allergies to nuts, researchers found that children whose nonallergic mothers had the highest consumption of peanuts or tree nuts, or both, during pregnancy had the lowest risk of developing a nut allergy. The risk was most reduced among the children of mothers who ate nuts five or more times a month.

The researchers, led by Dr. A. Lindsay Frazier of Dana-Farber/Children’s Hospital Cancer Center in Boston, wrote: “Our study supports the hypothesis that early allergen exposure increases the likelihood of tolerance and thereby lowers the risk of childhood food allergy.” They added that their data “support the recent decisions to rescind recommendations that all mothers avoid peanuts/total nuts during pregnancy and breast-feeding.”

The study was supported by Food Allergy Research and Education, a nonprofit, and published in December in JAMA Pediatrics.

According to an accompanying editorial by Dr. Ruchi Gupta, an associate professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University, “some studies actually showed that avoiding peanuts during pregnancy increased the risk of a child developing peanut sensitization.”

Further support comes from studies of other common food allergens. In an Israeli study of 13,019 infants, those who were exposed to cow’s milk protein as a breast-milk supplement in the first two weeks of life were less likely to become sensitive to it than infants first given cow’s milk much later.

An Australian study of 2,589 babies found that those first introduced to egg at or near 1 year of age were more likely to develop an allergy to egg protein than those first given egg at 4 to 6 months of age.

In her editorial, Dr. Gupta emphasized that further research was needed to understand how maternal diet affects the development of food allergies and “why more and more children are developing food allergy and how we can prevent it.”

But for now, she said, “pregnant women should not eliminate nuts from their diet, as peanuts are a good source of protein and also provide folic acid,” which can help prevent neural tube defects.

[Lipstickdiva]

I thought that there was a study done by Mt. Sinai that concluded you cannot get an allergic reaction from someone else having peanut butter breath?

[Emma bunting]

On 6/5/2014 chrystaltree said:

On 6/5/2014 Emma bunting said:

There was a child in my son's Junior High who had some issue with regulating his body heat. So all winter the thermostat in his wing of the school had to be kept excessively high.....just for him. The other kids were sweating...and getting drowsy because of the heat. In my opinion, you do whatever you can to accommodate a child with special needs......short of actually affecting others around them in a really adverse way like this.

And I agree.....if my child was that deathly allergic to peanut butter I would home school him. There is no way you can control everybody around you all of the time.

ETA: now I want peanut butter!

Sorry that was WRONG! It was abusive to the other students! And bit was mean. No, you don't do NOT accommodate or protect a special needs kid by putting other kids at risk or adversely affecting their ability to LEARN. Even the law only mandates 'reasonable accommodation". Do you think those drowsy, kids were in an atmosphere that was healthy and conducive to learning?

I was not happy at all about it. I think it was wrong as well.

[missy1]

I do think if it can be a possibly fatal reaction to being around peanuts ( whatever), I would keep my child at home. There's so many allergies now a days, it's impossible for parents and the school to keep track of, and eliminate.

[missy1]

On 6/5/2014 chrystaltree said:

Most schools prohibit peanut butter and nuts. Letters are sent home to classmates parents. The school nurse and the teacher have the kid's medication, just in case. But let's get real. How would any mom know that her kid's peanut butter breath could trigger an allergic reaction? That's not to say that I believe it's even possible. I doubt it. I'm not a professional teacher, so I wouldn't even think about home schooling beyond grade 3. Plus most families need two incomes if they want a good life and if they want to send their kids to college. So that isn't an option for most are families. You just do the best you can.

Our schools only post "the allergy"on the individual classroom doors. Why should the whole school be nut free?