Peanut allergy in Florida

[StepTo2]

the parents that need to show compassion. The kids might still need to learn it, but how will they when their parents are outraged

I would agree with this 10,000,000%. Kids learn from their parents, period. And many of the parents weren't taught - b/c it might damage their egos.

Not all people in my generation (X) and the next couple are like this, but it seems to have gotten worse as time goes on.

[shellyd67]

Hope I agree 100%.. I failed to post that but sure do realize kids learn by example ...

[donna723]

It may have sounded excessive to me too in the past, but that was before my (then) 18 month old grandson ended up in the Emergency Room after nibbling a fast food french fry that had been cooked in peanut oil! There are so many kids now with peanut allergies that most day cares and elementary schools already take a lot of precautions. My daughter is a nurse and of course, at his age, they never gave Ethan any kind of nuts, especially peanuts, but it never occurred to them to ask if restaurant foods had been cooked in peanut oil. He chewed on about a third of a small french fry from their (former) favorite hamburger place and his whole face started to swell up! So now, they have to read every label in the grocery store, ask before ordering in every restaurant. Most restaurants do not use peanut oil at all anymore, but this one hamburger chain still does.

And Ethan's problem is not nearly as severe as some other kids' are. It can be deadly to a child with a severe allergy. I would have no problem with declaring all day cares and schools to be "peanut-free" zones. Ethan is still only two years old but it worries me about when he starts school, knowing how kids are, trading lunches, etc. A "peanut sniffing dog" does sound a little excessive though, especially if they do allow other children to bring food containing peanut butter to school!

[HaoZi]

It's kind of like that with fish/shellfish allergies, too. If fish have been cooked in the oil and someone allergic to it gets fries cooked in that oil after, they can have an allergic reaction.
At the school here, though the kids were allowed to bring peanut butter sandwiches, they couldn't sit at the same lunch table as the kid with the allergy, only kids without peanut butter in their lunches could sit with him. A lot of products are also made in the same factories that peanuts are processed in, and all it takes is some minimal contamination on another product line to kill someone, which is why you see the "This product is made in the same facility that processes peanuts" warnings on stuff.
Read this, from 2005: http://articles.nydailynews.com/2005...-asthma-clinic

Here's some good info on peanut/tree nut allergies and how easily they can be deadly: http://www.allergyasthma.on.ca/peanut1.htm

[svengandhi]

I have no problem with the kids washing their hands after lunch, especially since they're allowed to bring pb in to the school, and it's a good idea to wash up anyway. Even the mouth wiping seems like a good idea for the littler kids.

When my youngest son was in K, there was a boy with a peanut allergy. We were all asked not to send PB or any nut products to school. The boy was the worst bully in the grade, a truly horrible child. In second grade, my son, who had been bullied so badly by this kid that he dropped out of every organized sport in town, was caught sneaking a pbj sandwich into school. DD had made it for her own lunch and baby boy stole it. He quickly confessed that he wanted to throw in the allergic bully's face and make him die! Another boy was caught trying to drop peanuts in the boy's backpack and a girl bought in pb girl scout cookies and tried to put them in his coat pocket as it hung in the closet. THere were more incidents but the three I mentioned I know happened. ALL of these kids, my own ncluded, are PCs, nice kids who had no concept that they could KILL this kid - all they knew was that he was a bully and they hated him and they knew he has a PB allergy.

My DD, OTOH, is the PB princess. She's planning to be a sped teacher and fully understands that she may have to keep her PB fetish at home.

[tiredmommy]

Duckie doesn't have a peanut allergy, but she is at risk for anaphalaxsis. And I can tell you that it takes an act of faith to send a highly allergic child out the door each day. The parents that are outraged ought to be shown a slide show of children in varying stages of anaphalaxsis... they just may change their tune.