One 5-year-old's allergy leads to class peanut ban [lunch searches?????]

SF Chronicle ^

[donnalee]

This is a tough issue, I don't think I'd allow my child in school until he was old enough to realize the danger. I wouldn't trust even the nurse or teachers to realize how serious this allergy is.

My sister's husband had this allergy.
They went to Vt for their 1st anniversary for a weekend. When ordering dessert, they asked what contained no nuts - he was served cheesecake. One bite and he collapsed, the ambulance was called and he had stopped breathing. Seems the crust was ground nuts!

He was revived but in critical condition and spent over 6 weeks in the hospital. He lost his vision , not good for a draftsman! Thankfully, he did recover his sight back to almost normal but it took about a year.

This left me stunned that an allergy could be so bad. At the same time he was still recovering, we saw an old Perry Mason episode, a woman's husband had this allergy and she murdered him by putting peanut oil in her lipstick. Talk about the kiss of death. My brother-in-law was told not to go in a room with nuts of any kind, even a bowl of uncracked nuts !

They are divorced now, finally we all enjoy chocolate fudge with walnuts at Christmas time! (He was allergic to chocolate too - I'd have to die!)

Gee, re-reading this, I'm getting offended - maybe he thought our family was nuts?

[donnalee]

This is a tough issue, I don't think I'd allow my child in school until he was old enough to realize the danger. I wouldn't trust even the nurse or teachers to realize how serious this allergy is.

My sister's husband had this allergy.
They went to Vt for their 1st anniversary for a weekend. When ordering dessert, they asked what contained no nuts - he was served cheesecake. One bite and he collapsed, the ambulance was called and he had stopped breathing. Seems the crust was ground nuts!

He was revived but in critical condition and spent over 6 weeks in the hospital. He lost his vision , not good for a draftsman! Thankfully, he did recover his sight back to almost normal but it took about a year.

This left me stunned that an allergy could be so bad. At the same time he was still recovering, we saw an old Perry Mason episode, a woman's husband had this allergy and she murdered him by putting peanut oil in her lipstick. Talk about the kiss of death, then I knew it could happen. My brother-in-law was told not to go in a room with even a bowl of uncracked nuts present!

They are divorced now, finally we all enjoy chocolate fudge with walnuts at Christmas time! (He was allergic to chocolate too - I'd have to die!)

[Adder]

I don't mean to sound harsh or cruel...please don't take it that way. But I don't care if it was just the class. The fact remains that these kids and their parents were under the onus of watching out for this one kid's problem. If it was that severe...and do we know that it truly was...the affected kid should have been dealt with, not putting the rest of the class thru hoops.
The mother in the article said that not wanting to be accomodating was "ignorance". Thats not true. I am not sending my kid to school to watch out for her kid, I don't particularly care about her kid's special condition to the point that I have to alter my lifestyle to accomodate her and her special needs. Her expecting the whole world to watch out for her kid is selfish and shows a complete lack of respect for the rights of others.
Yeah, I can hear it:You just have to give up peanuts while my kid might have to give up his LIFE. Gee: if its that severe, maybe he should be in a hazmat suit.

[CSM]

Since you are confused about who/what you are, the committee of chairpersons of the Walnutter party have decided that you must stay in the Pecanist religeon. Sorry, we can't have confused individuals writing the walnut platform.

[CSM]

They have the best commercials too!

[Conspiracy Guy]

I am willing to offer her a few days to clear her head.

[toothless]

I think I'll eat some peanut butter right now.

[DBrow]

"It doesn't matter. The kid won't last long enough to get a good education anyway. "

Ramius, that is just not true. There are three or four people just on this post who have peanut allergy- the number of deaths is quite low, on a per year basis.

This kid will survive just fine if he learns a few things about his allergy.

I think many people get the impression that if the kid touches a piece of wood that another kid has contaminated, he just drops dead, maybe in a little puddle of foam.

No, he may get hives or get sick but in all likelihood will not die from a casual contact. Most peanut alergic kids grow up to be peanut allergic adults- a few become less sensitive with age, some become more sensitive.

Someone with peanut allergy looks and acts just like everyone else, so you have no way of knowing who around you has the problem.

I have posted lots of information about peanut allergy on the thread. Please back up and look at it.

[DBrow]

"Knowing how 5 year olds are, that alone would make me keep the child home --- a small child might not have any understanding about the dangers of a prank he might play. How does peanut butter allergy kill? Couldn't the child carry benadryl at all times and prevent the reaction?"

No, don't keep him home, teach him how to deal. I am peanut allergic and so are several others on this thread, and we learned to cope and to deal.

It's not as horribly lethally dangerous as the mom in the story thinks, or at least as the reporter wrote.

I have already posted lots of stuff on peanut allergy, what it is and how it works, so to save my time, please back up and read some.

Yes, Benadryl and EpiPens can stop or mitigate a reaction and if this kid does not have benadryl, Chlortrimeton, and an Epi Jr. his parents need a session with the strap until they wise up.

Even with meds, the reaction is no fun and can keep the kid out of school for a while, so he must learn avoidance strategies, including asking the people around him to keep their peanuts to themselves. Most people are very willing to comply if asked politely, and the few jerks can be avoided. As for pranksers, I learned that if mashed potatoes have lumps, look closely. in fact I check out all food pretty well before sticking a fork in it, it is something that you just learn to do, and this kid must learn. His parents must teach him- fer hemsakes, there are parental support groups all over to help them cope.

What the mom is doing is going way beyond what is needed.

[DBrow]

". It is about learning to get along in a dangerous world. "

Yes indeed, 100% with you. As I keep saying in other posts, tis is a survivable problem that the allergic individual can handle. I do think, though, that it is a minor accomodation to provide some safe space.

As I have said earlier, I never had a peanut free table but I never had to cope with food in the classroom except at halloween and Christmas.

No way would I lock my kid away, keep him out of the public view- I'd teach him how to cope.

[SoothingDave]

Perhaps the reason people are no longer being reasonable is that they have to park a half a block away to go shopping while empty handicap parking spaces remain in front of the stores.

Just in case y'all missed it.

SD

[FITZ]

It's not as horribly lethally dangerous as the mom in the story thinks, or at least as the reporter wrote.

That's what I think --- maybe they mother just needs to get an education about the allergic response and help the child deal with his problems and save himself. The minute he starts breaking out in hives or itching is when he needs to take a good swig of benadryl or use one of those over-the-counter asthsma inhalers with epinephrine. Exposure to peanut butter but without letting the histamines get carried away might be the only way he's going to outgrow that allergy.

[Paved Paradise]

Since it is impossible to reason with people like you, I choose not to do so. Think about it sometime. It's called "reality."

[Paved Paradise]

It means what it says.

[nina0113]

Nobody begrudges an actually handicapped person a space - everyone resents the perfectly healthy jerk who scrounges a temporary pass & parks there anyway. I'm always tempted to vandalism when I see somebody pull a tattered hang tag out & put it on the mirror, then leap out & race across the street.

I remember once seeing a very flashy sports car parked in a handicapped space, and thinking, what a jerk he was to park there - suppose someone really needed it? When I got close to it, I saw that he did have handicap tags, and there was writing across the rear window that said "Kiss My Crippled Ass". Gotta admire that kind of spirit.

[SoothingDave]

Nobody begrudges an actually handicapped person a space

Read the post again, that is exactly what is being said.

Perhaps the reason people are no longer being reasonable is that they have to park a half a block away to go shopping while empty handicap parking spaces remain in front of the stores.

SD

[Cinnamon Girl]

Very unfriendly.

[dennisw]

Arrognace has a lot to do with it. "Because my child must suffer so must yours. Because my child cannot eat peanut butter neither can yours"

IHMO peanut butter jelly sandwiches are one of the joys of childhood. I didn't know how to make other sandwiches but I sure knew how to spread peanut butter on bread

[nina0113]

No, they begrudge EMPTY spaces for handicapped people who don't exist. I've never seen more than one wheelchair-bound person in my regular grocery store. Visualizing the parking lot as best I can, there are 16 handicapped spaces - might be 20. Four would be more than enough. The excess is what encourages people to keep or forge the handicap hang tags.

[Paved Paradise]

I know, but you'll get over it. In real life, I'm actually quite nice; in fact, I wouldn't mind giving up peanut butter to help some poor little kid, unlike a lot of you whiners.