No they didn't, and our school offered government-provided, surplus peanut butter with which they made 5 cent sandwiches. However, that does not mean that the problem wasn't there. They just didn't know what caused the kids to be sick. My cousin died from previously undiagnosed diabetes during that era, and she was under the doctor's care in a hospital at the time! Medical personnel are much more knowledgeable these days.
My little granddaughter spent several days in the hospital last winter because well-meaning friends brought dinner to the family that included brownies that had no visible nuts. Her mother was restricted to bed with a strained back. The brownies were Little Debbie's and had been removed from the wrapper and placed on a pretty dish before they arrived at the home. My son served them to the kids after checking them over carefully, but there were invisible ground nuts in them. Poor little Lydia wound up in the ER, unable to breathe, and spent a couple of days on oxygen. This was a case where the brownie had been baked in a facility that also baked items that included nuts, and they are not always as careful as they should be about cleaning everything between recipes. It's those pesky oils and essences again. They just linger. (And nobody got sued over this incident.)
With all your background in nutrition, I'm sure that you could come up with a suitable substitute protein for your child's lunch. Or, you can continue to keep your child home and continue to blame the "unfair" folks who run the schools who are "distriminating" against your child who is on the self-imposed limited diet. It's your choice, and you have made it. I'm glad you are happy with it, but it may limit your child's experiences in the future.
I can assure you that no one with severe allergies wants the world to change for them. They just want to stay out of the hospital and out of the grave. To use your own words, "This is not a matter of [my] the child's desires. It is a matter of her health"
>>Or, you can continue to keep your child home and continue to blame the "unfair" folks who run the schools who are "distriminating" against your child who is on the self-imposed limited diet. It's your choice, and you have made it. I'm glad you are happy with it, but it may limit your child's experiences in the future.<<
Oh my sure there is many a homeschooling mother on this board who will disagree with "limiting a child's experiences in the future".
I never used your words in quotations above, you did. Seems like a little projection going on there. And my daughter is not on a "self-imposed" limited diet. That is a presumption you are making again.
I never said that there were unfair folks, I stated that sending a child to school who is in as much danger as you portray is reckless. Many of the school districts today go to the extreme and many a parent plays on it. We must restrict the many instead of restricting the child in danger.
I have friends with children who have dietary restrictions. They feed their children their own food and do not inflict their problems on others. I'm sorry that your Granddaughter ended up in a hospital, but that is the boundries one must take with a sick child. Nothing in the mouth execpt what a parent provides.
The danger from those nuts would still exist in a school situation. No visable nuts right. What parent would know that they were there and what six year old might not offer a goodie to her friend.
Sending that child to a school is simply putting her in harms way.
Both of my daughters are allergic to mosquito bites and will die from bee stings. Do I send them out into a field unprotected without an Epi-kit close by? My daughters have the same risk of death, but do I put them into the situation? I don't think so. And neither do I tell the school that no child may go on a field trip to a local pond to catch tadpoles because mine can't go. We ran into that when she was in school and she did not go.
Some degree of reason is needed here.