Peanut Butter Rules

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
My son has a lethal allergy to many nuts, including peanuts. We carry his Epipen everywhere.

I would not bring any nuts anywhere.

Nice try. Peanuts aren't nuts. If you really had allergic kids, you'd know this.

[Anonymous]

My child's best friend has a peanut allergy. The interesting thing is that the parents did not tell me this when she first began coming to our house. My jaw dropped when I found out because I had her over frequently and just had no idea. Apples & pb are an almost daily snack in our house. But, the first time I offered a food that was iffy to the child (an oat bar) she asked about nuts and told me about her allergy. I suppose the parents felt very confident in their child's ability to determine this and let me know!

Anyway -- now when she comes over, I keep all nut products away and up high out of an abundance of caution. I'd never have my kid eat a PBJ sitting next to this friend or on a picnic with her.

When we are not with this friend, however, I'd definitely bring a PBJ to a park and be sure to wipe our hands once finished.

[Anonymous]

You should absolutely fade this friendship. That poor woman deserves a better friend than you

[Anonymous]

I have two family members with food allergies. One with peanut/tree nut (has been hospitalized multiple times) and one with mild peanut and serious egg/dairy allergy.

Both carry epipens and would have no expectation of the general public keeping them safe. They even keep these foods in their house.

I think the OP was being dramatic and probably doesn’t know anyone with actual food allergies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your friend did the innocuous thing of bringing peanut butter sandwiches to a park. You would end a friendship over This? I’m so confused.

Because her friend isn’t politically correct and insufferable enough for her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Now I want a peanut butter jelly sandwich. Thanks, op.

We keep those frozen ones in the freezer for emergency cravings.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone else think this hysteria over nuts is causing more allergies?

I have a friend who won’t feed her egg-allergic son any nuts “just in case.” The kid’s been tested and only reacted to eggs. He’s 4 and has never eaten a nut! She won’t even buy food processed in facilities with nuts.

Some people are nuts, pun intended.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone else think this hysteria over nuts is causing more allergies?

I have a friend who won’t feed her egg-allergic son any nuts “just in case.” The kid’s been tested and only reacted to eggs. He’s 4 and has never eaten a nut! She won’t even buy food processed in facilities with nuts.

Some people are nuts, pun intended.

Actually, the research is leaning towards this - that is, a child with another food allergy has a higher incidence of having allergies to other foods - so it's important to "innoculate" the child NOW as a young child by having them eat the foods they aren't allergic to. Omitting those nuts from his diet MIGHT (not will, not 100% correlated) mean he will develop a nut allergy because his body won't recognize it and will react against it when he accidently eats them (which happens, no matter how vigilant we all are - I've had to use my epipen as a full-on adult).

it used to be that everyone was told "don't give your child any nuts or peanut butter! OMIGOD" and they "THINK" that this might have led those kids who might have developed an allergy to do that. BUT if they had been eating nuts and peanuts without reaction, they'd be innoculated and never show up as allergic.

Of course, I was born in 1964 and my first nut reaction was at 18-24 months so there are exceptions to that rule. And because of my food allergies by niece and newphew were not given peanuts or nuts until they were 4 years old and BOTH of them are fine and not allergic. They are now 15-17 years old, so that was old thinking. You do what is best based on the information you have now. Now my sister would have chosen to have her children start eating those items and eggs and milk by the time they were 10-12 months old to 'innoculate' them against the allergies.

And I know a few adults who developed an allergy to a specific nut in their 30s after eating them all their lives!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now I want a peanut butter jelly sandwich. Thanks, op.

We keep those frozen ones in the freezer for emergency cravings.

After some thought, I made a PB & Banana. It was heaven. OP would unfriend me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like not eating peanut butter in public should become thought of as a social norm instead of an accommodation. If this is lethal why take the risk. That’s insane. I feel like it should come with an FDA warning label.

BUT... where does this start and stop? For other children peanuts are fine but some or all of the following are life and death:

eggs (including baked into muffins and cookies)
dairy (yes, this means milk but also yogurt, cheese, cream cheese, ice cream...)
meat (yup - this is real)
soy
legumes like peas, beans, etc - and like peanuts, since they are a legume not a nut
seeds (like sesame seeds or pine nuts - again, a seed not a nut)
tree nuts - including almonds, hazelnuts, macadamia, cashews, pecans, pistachios, brazil.... and whatever nuts I'm forgetting right now
but some people (like me) are allergic only to almonds, not to ALL tree nuts - so it gets more confusing

I direct a preschool program - and we won't allow peanuts or tree nuts or both when a child who attends is allergic to one or more of these. BUT.... we currently have a child who is allergic to eggs and peanuts - but we only say no to peanuts - not eggs. Is that right? It's a double standard, isn't it? But children with allergies have limited food choices because of their allergies (and depending on the # of allergies this can be a problem) BUT we shouldn't require all children attending a preschool to stay away from the same foods for no reason and create limits to their food too, right?

I mean, at one point we had a child who was allergic to SEVEN items on the list above - which obviously seriously limited her food options - is that what all 75 other children at our school should do? Obviously not.

I was actually in an elementary school today that had an "allergy safe" classroom that banned, no joke: tree nuts, peanuts, cow's milk, eggs, and strawberries. I assume the idea was to put all the kids with allergies in one room and then keep it free of their allergens, but man, I felt for those parents--as if allergy parents don't have enough to watch out for, they now also can't send every other protein that their kid isn't allergic to?? Oy. (And I guess yay that there is apparently no kid allergic to soy this year?)

My children's preschool class (which has a reasonable policy of banning foods in individual classrooms if a child in the class is allergic) did ban all nuts in response to a tree nut allergy, and I know the parents of the tree nut allergic child (the only food allergy in the class) tried in vain to get peanuts added back because it was all their child would eat since he couldn't have almond or cashew butter and refused to eat sunflower seed butter. No dice, though.

right, I forgot strawberries in that long list! and some kids are allergic to canteloupe and bananas, too.

I do think it's WRONG to put all the "allergic" kids in one room as those kids who have some but not all allergies have such a limited amount of foods they can eat. PLUS - elementary school children should not be eating other kids' foods, should know what they are allergic to, and should be able to keep themselves safe. I started at 5 years old when I went to kindergarten. Seriously. Yes, my parents were there but if I went to a friends' house, I had to ask if there were any nuts in the dinner - it was on me. We only ban nuts or peanuts in a specific classroom IF there is a child with an anaphylactic reaction to said food because we are a preschool and children that age aren't old enough to self-regulate and control their desires to grab food from other plates. Our egg allergic child was placed at a table without eggs because she desperately wants eggs and will grab a hard boiled egg from someone else's plate first thing. So if a child had eggs in his lunch, we sat them at the other table from that allergic child.

AND PEANUTS ARE NOT A NUT! THEY ARE A LEGUME. I need to buy a sign on an airplane and have it fly above every school in August and September each and every year. Sigh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
My son has a lethal allergy to many nuts, including peanuts. We carry his Epipen everywhere.

I would not bring any nuts anywhere.

You wouldn't bring nuts anywhere because of his allergy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now I want a peanut butter jelly sandwich. Thanks, op.

We keep those frozen ones in the freezer for emergency cravings.

After some thought, I made a PB & Banana. It was heaven. OP would unfriend me.

Only if you were at a park

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP back: the other thread had people saying that they don’t allow their kids to eat PB in the morning before daycare since it could transfer from clothes or hands. There was no hand wiping going on here and 3 year olds aren’t dainty eaters. Would you bring an extra shirt if they got dirty with it to ensure you didn’t cross contaminate? Unlike pine nuts or gluten, a kid can become dangerously sick though simple contact.

Where did you get this bunch of nonsense? I know kids who can get dangerously sick through simple contact to gluten (no play dough or macaroni art) and I am allergic to tree nuts and will have a reaction by simple contact of pine nuts. Peanuts aren't the only allergen where one can have a reaction via contact.

That being said, I eat peanuts in public but make sure to clean my hands well afterward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is severely allergic to tree nuts, as are several kids in his preschool, yet the school only insists that foods brought in be "peanut safe", and they even served banana nut muffins and a muffins for moms event. I guess peanuts are the most common target for allergy panic, and putting actions in place against them creates a sense of security.

As for me, I don't avoid bringing allergens to public places. I would not eat peanut butter on an airplane, but I'd bring sandwiches to a picnic. When your child has an allergy, you use common sense in monitoring what they eat and what they have contact with, but it's beyond your control in public places so you carry benedryl and an epi pen. Even with my child's history of severe reactions, I don't expect the public at large to accommodate.

Milk free, gluten free, egg free bread on your sandwiches, right? Because not all kids with allergies need to be removed from peanuts?

My kids don’t eat sanchiches. They get complex carbohydrates elsewhere

classic dcum line there. congrats!

[Anonymous]

I bring peanut butter to the park every time we picnic in the park.


This is getting ridiculous!