Reply to Please don’t let your children eat common allergens while playing on public playground equipment

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]When my kids were playground age I never let them have nut butters on a playground. It just seems a common courtesy. They can have it at home plenty; they don't "need" it for a snack outside. I'm sorry your kid has such severe allergies, it must be terrifying :([/quote]

Why stop at ON the playground? If the nut allergy is so deadly that whatever is eaten at home can find it's way to the park, then OP really needs a complete ban on these foods. Because the magical thinking that the park equipment is clean as long as nobody is currently eating peanut products while ON the equipment is bizarre and nonsensical and sounds dangerous to kids like OPs child. Why risk the park at all?
[/quote]

This is so moronic. I don't get why you PPs are so triggered. Someone's kid could die. She's asking for courtesy and awareness. You lose your mind bc someone asked you to be considerate. You create an outlandish hypothetical about banning peanuts. Other PPs bemoan the loss of FREEDOM. It's a MF nut. It's not the end all be all. No one is asking for a ban, just awareness of the other kids who could die from it.

Though given how hard it was to get folks to mask during COVID when millions died, I understand that asking for courtesy for children with allergies is next to impossible

I'm just in constant awe and what total self absorbed jerks Americans are. We're really freaking terrible to each other. [/quote]

Says the people gambling with their kids life to go to a park. [/quote]

children with allergies deserve to go outdoors and try to lead a healthy, active life. The fact that they bother you so much that you want them removed from society says so much about you.

You are not a good person. I mean, who is that awful to small children??[/quote]

You're either massively overstating the risk of death to your kid or you're an unserious parent who doesn't take the allergy seriously. Pick one. Because continuing to take the chance makes you a pretty shitty parent.[/quote]

My child has a life-threatening egg allergy, and egg is in TONS of things you’d never expect.  Should I just never allow her to venture outside our front door?  We carry safe food, wet wipes, Zyrtec, and her EpiPens EVERYWHERE, at all times.  According to this thread, either I’m a bad parent for keeping her in a bubble and making her develop allergies, or I’m a bad parent for taking her out of the house, or I’m a bad parent who overstates the seriousness of reactions (2 ER trips, a referral to a pediatric allergist, multiple rounds of testing and food challenges, and associated bills seem to refute that but whatever).
One in 9 children have a food allergy.  What may be a “mild” allergy can turn anaphylactic upon another exposure.  People tend to view peanut allergy as the most severe (clearly OP is one of those) but, actually, dairy has resulted in more deaths from anaphylaxis in recent years.  [/quote]

I get all that. But are you asking, as OP Is asking, that other parents refrain from giving their kids food with egg in it (something you know better than anyone is incredibly hard) in public places, and expect people to decontaminate their kids to a safe level for interaction with your kid, on the off chance that their kid interacts with your kid, or uses the same playground equipment.

I don't think OP Is overstating the allergy. I am confused as to why, if your child had an allergy like this, you'd think a viable path to safety would be exception all other parents to take an extreme level of caution with an allergen that doesn't impact their kid.

It's just not realistic and won't happen. The answer is to do what you are doing. It sucks, but it's really the only way. You will never be able to trust other people to make the world safe for your kid.[/quote]

No, we are well aware that we cannot sanitize the world of egg.  Nor can we trap her in a bubble until someone invents a cure.  We take many, many precautions, but I get where the OP is coming from…the objection is to children running around a playground actively eating food on the equipment, versus sitting at a picnic table or something.  I mean, I never let my older DD do that, even before younger DD was diagnosed…mainly because I didn’t want her to choke, but also because the idea of her dropping crumbs everywhere seemed rude to me.
But I am absolutely appalled at the blame game on this thread.  Multiple posters implying that food allergies are the fault of the parents, or they’re made up, or we are being dramatic, whatever.  My DD reacted violently to her first bite of scrambled egg, and she nearly died…likely would have, if we didn’t live just 3 miles from a hospital.  Looking back on it, she had severe eczema from the time she was a newborn and that was likely her reacting to egg via my breastmilk (I ate eggs daily while pregnant and nursing…huge craving for them then, oddly enough).  I didn’t take antibiotics while pregnant.  I started early introductions of allergens because of my own history of peanut and tree nut allergies.  I don’t have a sterile house.  Yet, apparently, somehow it is my fault.  I am anaphylactic to peanuts now, and I ate peanut butter on a near daily basis throughout childhood.  But I guess my parents must have done something to cause it, right?  The amount of vitriol being spewed on this thread is just disgusting.[/quote]

PP here. I agree the posts implying that OP's kid's allergies are her fault or that she's lying about the allergy are awful. But a lot of us are not saying either of those things. We're just saying that while we understand the problem and empathize with OP, unfortunately there is no viable way to ensure everyone is taking the same precautions with allergens that OP, or your family, takes.

I mean, my kid doesn't have allergies and I don't enjoy seeing kids eating all over the playground and spilling things and getting greasy hands all over the equipment. But I also just accept that there are a broad range of parents at any given playground (and sometimes kids sans parents, in my neighborhood at least) and that I have minimal control over how those parents do things. If another kid or parent at a playground is doing something that directly endangers my child, I will intervene, and I would support OP if she was at a playground and asked someone to refrain from bringing allergens on the equipment, or asked people to wash hands -- I'd back her up. But I know that 100% some people will get belligerent and rude, and even the peopel who don't will be back on that playground the next day doing the same thing.

It's just how the world is. I agree with all the suggestions to find less crowded playgrounds and go during off peak hours. I did that with my kid for about a year when she developed anxiety issues that made her afraid to play on equipment when it was crowded. I know that's not the same (her life wasn't in danger, she just would refuse to play and ask to leave). I mention it to just to say that it wasn't too hard to make that adjustment. Perhaps OP could do that wile working with a doctor/nutritionist on exposure to reduce or even eliminate the allergy -- it's actually pretty impressive what they can do with this now, at least for nut allergies. A child in my kid's class at school had a serious peanut allergy last year but this year it's gone, which is great and helps all of us breathe a little easier.[/quote]

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