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My wife has seen a teen who went into a coma from eating brownies. They had no nuts in them, but the pan had been used before to make peanut butter cookies and and when it was washed not all of the peanut oil got removed.

So, using your previous example with the chair: a kid eats a brownie baked in a pan previously used to make peanut butter cookies, being a kid residue remains on his hands and he touches a chair, when the allergic kid touches the chair.... Therefore, prohibiting peanut butter from the kindy class is useless. This child, if indeed that violently allergic needs to be homeschooled -- or, perhaps we should just make it illegal for children who attend the same class as this child to have peanut butter in their homes.

And, yes, I do doubt the mother. I've had to deal with mothers like this before and without exception they've been trouble. A friend of mine has a child who is severly allergic to peanut butter and she doesn't play these games. She makes the necessary adjustments and finds a way to live in this world without expecting the world to change for her.

I am violently allergic to aspartame (aka NutraSweet). My parents discovered this when I was in kindergarten and a playmate offered me a piece of sugarless gum. I'm in my mid-twenties and still have to check labels on soft drinks, yogurt, juices, etc. There were times as a kid where I had to not allow myself to drink "bug juice" at camp, etc. because I didn't *know* if it contained aspartame or not - I was taught by my parents that it was better to be safe than sorry. My mom and brother have the same allergy, it appears genetic somehow (my mother never touched aspartame in her life until I was 2 or 3).

When I was in (public) elementary school, a girl in my class was diabetic. We were not allowed to bring in candy at Halloween or Valentine's Day, because this girl could not have sugar. We could bring in cupcakes on our birthday as long as the girl's mom knew she had to send a treat in for her daughter. Instead of helping her find appropriate treats to bring in to the classroom for her birthday, her mom baked cupcakes with Nutrasweet and didn't bother telling the teacher. I ate one unknowingly (the whole class did) and had a wicked reaction to it. Of course, the mother of the diabetic girl had the gall to blame me for having a "weird" allergy! So, we could have a candy-free classroom for the diabetic girl, but it was OK to bring in diet soda, Nutrasweet cake, etc. despite my allergy because I "just had an allergy, not a life-threatening disease."