imthatgirl
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2008
Does anyone here live in this district. I am completely blown away by this article
http://www.wftv.com/news/27152881/detail.html
http://www.wftv.com/news/27152881/detail.html
It is sad that this child has this allergy. As a parent I would worry everyday about her going to school.
The 1st paragraph states that the parents protesting claim that the little girls condition can be hazardous to their childrens health.
hmmm.... washing hands after eating? Hazardous? Rinsing out mouth after eating? Hazardous? I think pediatricians and dentist will be glad to hear that an entire school is practicing such health habits.
These parents are upset because their children are being forced to do something outside of what they feel is normal. A quick handwash and mouth rinse is not going to stop these kids from learning.
In my children's school district, peanut products are completely banned from schools. There are many children with the peanut allergy in our school system. So many peanut free products are available that it is easy to pack school lunches and snacks. Its the 'norm' here.
Frankly, I'm surprised that the school hasn't banned peanut products from the school knowing that there is a child with a severe allergy. I'm sure that the parents who are protesting would feel very differently if it was their child with the allergy.
This is the crux of the issue for me. We deal with a LTA to shellfish in an area where they are literally everywhere. WE make the accmodations for our DD, and WE teach her not to eat anything we don't give her, WE make sure she can recognized when she has been exposed by contact and to go to the nurse at school or mom for help. We DON'T ask for "shellfish free schools". It is OUR responsibility NOT everyone else's, and it not fair to ask them to radically change thier children's diet for my DD when she CAN be safe without doing so. The vast majority of allegry children DO NOT need a school enviornmnet completely free of thier allergen to be safe at school, but many parents believe that if their child is allergic to something, that is should immediately be banned form school. WE choose to tach our child to live in the world with her allergy rather than try to eliminate the allergen from her world. I think she is much better prepared to deal with it herself as a teen and adult this way.It's a tough list. It really eliminates most granola bars, Dunkin donut holes (which the kids love for birthdays here), a lot of crackers and cookies, along with all homemade cupcakes and cookies. It's difficult to include anything besides fruits, veggies and meats for lunch. This is particularly problematic for vegetarian families, we have quite a lot too. The list is basically what the child with the allergy can eat, and it is very limited. So, I can understand why parents would be upset.
They never insisted that other families had to make adjustments - they always made the adjustments - I imagine that's why these parents are so mad.
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This is the crux of the issue for me. We deal with a LTA to shellfish in an area where they are literally everywhere. WE make the accmodations for our DD, and WE teach her not to eat anything we don't give her, WE make sure she can recognized when she has been exposed by contact and to go to the nurse at school or mom for help. We DON'T ask for "shellfish free schools". It is OUR responsibility NOT everyone else's, and it not fair to ask them to radically change thier children's diet for my DD when she CAN be safe without doing so. The vast majority of allegry children DO NOT need a school enviornmnet completely free of thier allergen to be safe at school, but many parents believe that if their child is allergic to something, that is should immediately be banned form school. WE choose to tach our child to live in the world with her allergy rather than try to eliminate the allergen from her world. I think she is much better prepared to deal with it herself as a teen and adult this way.
This is the crux of the issue for me. We deal with a LTA to shellfish in an area where they are literally everywhere. WE make the accmodations for our DD, and WE teach her not to eat anything we don't give her, WE make sure she can recognized when she has been exposed by contact and to go to the nurse at school or mom for help. We DON'T ask for "shellfish free schools". It is OUR responsibility NOT everyone else's, and it not fair to ask them to radically change thier children's diet for my DD when she CAN be safe without doing so. The vast majority of allegry children DO NOT need a school enviornmnet completely free of thier allergen to be safe at school, but many parents believe that if their child is allergic to something, that is should immediately be banned form school. WE choose to tach our child to live in the world with her allergy rather than try to eliminate the allergen from her world. I think she is much better prepared to deal with it herself as a teen and adult this way.
I completely agree...totally and completely, lol. Approximately 12 people a year die from food allergy related issues. 12, thats it.
No, I don't think that I would. That being said I don't thin ka lot of people undersatnd just how rare that is. Less than one in one million children with a food allergy have severe enough reaction to contact for it to be life threatening. Life threatening inhalation reactions can occur, but at typically the resoult of a large concentation of allergen particles in the air. For instance a child severely alergic to peanuts in a packaging facility. It is very very highly unlikely for a child to die from contact with a contaminated surface. Typically that kind iof contact results in a skin reaction, and in severe cases, some swelling. DD gets hives, and DH gets hives with localized swelling from contact. The reaction is worse with raw shellfish than cooked. We don't fish with shrimp anymore since I married DH and had DD.Princessmom, as a parent who has a child with a food allergy I would like to ask you......if it were possible that your daughter would die by just being around shell fish...wait not just being around shellfish, but being near someone who was near it in the AM.....would you be sending her to school for 6-7 hours a day?
I think this is what really makes me scratch m,y head about this whole thing.
The problem I have with this idea is that what the school is doing is NOT keeping the girl any safer than a peanut free classroom would. Mouth rinsing, especially in small children actually spreads the allergen around more than not doing so. Also, you cannot "kill" the allergen with antibacterial products, os using them is not going to increase the effectiveness of the clean unless they are used in concentrations great enough to actually break down the protiens in the allergen, Those kinds of cncertarions would be harmful to skin.The article does say that this little girls allergy is severe and only 2% of people who suffer from peanut allergies are as allergic as she is. Where I do believe she needs to learn how to protect herself, she is only in 1st grade and her allergy is more more life threatening than most, and what the school is asking is nothing more than an inconvenience, that may or may not help save a little girls life. I wouldn't want to be one of the parents who fought this and something happens to that little girl.
unfortunately we live in a world where people will die. It sucks, but it happens.