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This is Nuts!
GUEST BLOG BY NANCY WAGNER
This morning, I was packing lunches. It is always a struggle finding food to send that is not only nutritious but also something that will actually get eaten. Peanut butter, that protein-rich staple of childhood is of course out, as is any snack containing nuts. So as I am placing a tangerine in each boy’s bag, Charlie tells me they are not allowed to bring oranges to school. I thought he was kidding, but Aidan joined in and said they’re banned. Not only that, but if they eat an orange before going to school, they have to brush their teeth or a “helper” at the school will die.
I phoned the school to confirm, and sure enough was told that a staff member has a severe allergy (this person is not involved in either of my grandson’s classes). Even so, 500 kids cannot eat oranges any longer.
I am against food bans, and the only exception is the life threatening reactions to food. However, the majority of food allergies and for that matter other allergens such as grass do not bring about a life threatening reaction.
To banned oranges and food products that contains oranges, by providing a medical record of life threatening visits to the hospital, to determined if a ban is appropriate. A family member has a life threatening allergy to peaches. Walking into a drug store is a hazard, as well as a grocery store. Peaches, oranges along with the other fruits, there is a virtual variety of A to Z in products containing fruit. The family member, wears a mask entering drug stores, malls and the grocery store, and that is if she has to.
My point is, should the staff member be working at a school? Why is she not wearing a mask, like my family member does when she leaves her house? Is she carrying a epi-pen? Or is it, just a bad case of hives, that takes one to two days to recover?
I and my family members have food allergies, to the craziest food items. At the very worst, a bad case of hives, but I don’t asked the school to banned the food items. But than again, the allergies only occurred when we digested the food, and not air born particles, that is associated with life threatening allergies in children. Being allergic to egg whites and yeast, does not stopped me from eating the foods, but I do pay for it when I over-dosed on egg whites and yeast.My youngest is allergic to penicillin, shall I asked the school to banned all poultry, pork and beef products in the school, just in the off chance the mean contained an abundance of penicillin?
On the web, a web poll - over 98 % click off - where do you draw the line.
” A recent NPR-Thomson Reuters Health Poll of 3,000 adults reported 59 percent of them would be fine with having foods that are common allergens banned from public places as a safety measure.
But, as NPR reports, what constitutes a food allergy can be hard to identify and quantify in a population:
“Food allergy has no universally accepted definition,” according to a review of the medical literature that was published last year in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association. That has complicated the task of coming up with precise figures on of the prevalence of food allergies.”
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/majority-support-banning-common-allergen-foods-in-public-do-you/
In the New Yorker, and like other articles including the medical journals - ” .Could the conventional wisdom on children and allergies be wrong?”
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/02/07/110207fa_fact_groopman#ixzz25nV8uOGU
Citric Acid covers a lot of food products, as well as cleaning products. “Orange allergy is due to a chemical present in it called salicylate”
http://www.simple-remedies.com/health-tips-4/orange-allergy-symptoms.html
“Anaphylactic reaction: this is rare, but can be a life threatening condition. Low blood pressure, dizziness, breathlessness are some of its manifestation. Immediate medical help is imminent to treat the condition.”
How rare is an orange allergy? And the other question, if oranges are banned, why hasn’t the school banned all citrus fruit from the school?