[Sca-cooks] Allergies was Beans, beans, the musical fruit....

[AEllin Olafs dotter]

Yes - some of the reaction against peanuts is a bit odd. Yes, we need to 
raise awareness - it is a more common allergy than people used to 
realize. Yes, it can be quite violent. But... Nuts are also a common 
severe allergy. I have a friend who is equally violently allergic to the 
sesame seeds being proposed as a substitute. And my mother went into 
anaphylactic shock from cucumbers...

I taught just before the peanut obsession began. In six years I had one 
child with a mild allergy to peanuts, and one with a severe one. In the 
first case, I obviously didn't use peanut butter in anything we made in 
class, but otherwise not much fuss was made. In the second, we did ask 
parents not to send anything with peanuts for parties, etc., and checked 
again when anything came in, in case someone forgot. But we didn't ban 
them from the classroom for other children's lunch. The child knew not 
to eat anything from any other kid without checking with me first (they 
weren't supposed to anyway, but you know children - this one understood 
how serious this was, and cooperated) and we had an epi pen and the 
consent form... and we never had any problem.

Peanuts aren't the only allergy. We had a child allergic (not violently, 
luckily) to apples. Have you any idea how many products use apple juice? 
Especially the all natural ones?? We had several who were lactose 
intolerant in varying degrees. We had a child on an elimination diet for 
a while, working to identify the cause of seizures... had to be *very* 
careful with that one. But we could hardly change room regs every week 
or so, to ban whatever they were trying now... we just were very careful 
about what the child ate.

Rather than focus on one item across the board, I'd rather do what we 
did - find out all major health issues, and work from there. Most of the 
time, with most groups, there are no issues. When there is one, it 
doesn't matter if it is Allergen of the Month or not - it needs to be 
addressed.

AEllin

Susan Fox-Davis wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> If they outlawed every foodstuff that caused a violent allergy, they 
> should have started with Sugar.  Kids with Juvenile Diabetes can DIE 
> from it after all.  The Sugar lobby has more political pull than the 
> Peanut lobby, at least after President Carter anyway.  <wry g>
> 
> Selene
> 
>