Do you know about the Food Allergy Made Simple Podcast?
The Food Allergy Made Simple Podcast has several episodes about navigating food allergies at school. Check out this episode with surprising information about allergen bans at school.
This is a new and interesting take that you’ve never heard before!
Peanuts in Schools: Are Allergen Bans Enough?
Get ready for a ride friends, because this episode is juicy!
This Episode is for the nut and peanut allergy parents whose school has a “no nut policy”.
It’s also for parents that manage other allergies because I think you’ll learn some important information too.
I’m sharing experiences we’ve had with nut bans throughout all our years in elementary school and jr. high, as well as some surprising evidence-based studies that might just turn what you think about nut bans upside down.
If your school has a nut ban, OR, you wish you could ban your child’s allergen at your school, THIS episode is for you!
What I’m sharing today is a little surprising, and I’m not going to lie it even feels a bit frustrating.
BUT I do this to help all of you so I need to share what I know and have learned. Please listen all the way to the end because there’s so many important things to know here, and I don’t want you to miss anything!
You’ll hear our experiences with a nut ban, but I’m also going to dig deep into research and share a few trusted evidence-based documents and studies. Lets start with what we’ve experienced with peanuts in schools.
Let’s get to it!
What We’ve Experienced With Peanuts in Schools
I hate to break it to you, but even with peanut and nut bans, there are ALWAYs nuts at school.
We had a “nut-free” school all through elementary and Jr. high and even though many tried to follow the ban, there were ALWAYS nuts around (including things like Nutella, PB&J, trail mix, Halloween treats with peanuts, and every kind of nut etc).
So nuts were present. Even so, other school policies acted as if the nut ban meant that there were no nuts there. Of course, this changed after I talked with them, BUT in the beginning, this is how it was:
they didn’t tell substitute teachers about food allergies and where the EpiPen was kept.
Or
They didn’t take precautions like asking kids to wash their hands and face before AND after eating to remove traces of nuts on kids' hands, so they wouldn’t get all over the playground and other school surfaces.
Or
They didn’t take the time to train teachers so they understood how to keep kids safe and included.
So with this reality in mind, I feel like the biggest problem with peanut and nut bans at school is that it can create a false sense of security because teachers feel like they are covered by the ban so they don’t need to worry about important food allergy safety steps.
💕REMEMBER, This isn’t because teachers and staff are trying to be complacent, they just don’t know what they don’t know because they haven’t been educated well.
The bottom line is that there are essential things that need to happen even if there are peanut and nut bans, and unfortunately, there isn’t enough food allergy awareness in schools.
So that’s what I’ve seen and heard from not only my experience, but also from other food allergy mama’s experiences who I’ve mentored or talked to.
BUT on this podcast and in all my work, I like to take an evidence-based approach and so i think its important to see what the evidence-based studies show about nuts and peanuts at school.
First, I want to mention an interesting document that I found in Pub Med Central. It was a debate by 4 Allergists ( 2 for each side). It was a debate about whether peanuts should be allowed in schools. I like this article because it gave both sides of the argument and used evidence-based journal articles to support their positions. I’ll post a link to that in the show notes so you can check it out. I recommend looking at it to see both sides of the story.
I also want to talk about a study that was done a few years ago. In this study, they looked at how many times epinephrine was used in schools in Massachusetts with peanut bans and how many times epinephrine was used in schools without peanut bans.
The final result showed that epinephrine use in schools didn’t decrease when there was a nut ban. It did show, however that schools with peanut-free TABLES did have a lower amount of epinephrine use, BUT even those weren’t fully reaction-free.
Impact of School Peanut-Free Policies on Epinephrine Administration
NOW, I don’t think this study should be used as the be-all and end-all because there could be many reasons for why epinephrine use didn’t decrease, and the study didn’t go into any of the reasons. In fact, they even said that there needs to be more studies before decisions can be made about school policies.
So let's go to another evidence-based document. This is one of the most recent documents because it came out in 2023. This is the Anaphylaxis Practice Parameter Update and it mentions banning allergens at school.
A little background here is that The Anaphylaxis Practice Parameter is a very detailed document that takes into account many, many studies and goes through a rigorous review process with a group of doctors. It talks about a lot of topics, and only touches on food allergies at school a little bit.
Overall, this document recommends that Schools DO NOT implement site-wide food-specific prohibition because current research does not support consistent benefits.
But there’s a caveat to this, it says that when there are children who are too young to self-manage, it might be appropriate to have allergen-restricted zones (i.e. milk-free table).
Now, allergen-free tables are a whole other debate that I won’t get into here, because they can be a problem if they aren’t done correctly. They can cause kids to feel isolated and alone, unless they are done well. So maybe we’ll chat about that on another episode.
OK, so what can we take from all of this? First, there are good reasons for and against allergen bans, and overall, I feel like they are still a really good idea for young kids.
IF THERE’s ANYTHING I want you to get anything from this episode, it’s that Whether there is a peanut and nut or ANY allergen ban, we need to do more. We can’t fully rely on the bans to keep our child safe, AND of course, they also do nothing for inclusion either.
So what do we do about it?
First, the education of your teacher and school is a MUST. They need to know what steps to take to fully keep your child safe, so they’re not just relying on a BAND-AID solution.
The bottom line is that a nut or allergen ban isn’t going to work alone to keep kids with allergies safe.
The only way to do this right now is for parents to educate the school.
First, it’s important to understand how much the teacher and school know about food allergies so they aren’t leaning on the ban as a crutch.
There also needs to be proven strategies and accommodations in place, like washing surfaces and hands after lunch and adequate training for teachers, substitute teachers, volunteers and support staff.
And there are nitty gritty things to consider too.
There’s JUST too much that can be missed if we rely on nut or allergen bans alone.
Here’s the thing…
If you have relied on your school nut ban for your child’s safety in the past, OR you thought it might be ok for this year, I want you to know that it’s ok. It’s so easy to feel secure because of a ban, but after what you learned today, I hope you don’t let that happen this year. Make this the safest year yet by educating your teacher and your school so you and your child can be fully confident.
If you’re not sure exactly what to say, or you don’t want to spend hours researching what you need to talk about with your teacher and school, grab the School Allergy Plan Template and School Success Pack upgrade. I’ve created this plan with 14 years of experience and over 100 hours of trusted research, and it’s available to you right away.
You’ll get a thorough list of food allergy accommodations and a comprehensive list of strategies that need to happen at school to keep allergy kids safe.
You don’t have to do this alone!
