Posted on 04/07/2007 9:16:23 AM PDT by Graybeard58
A 6-year-old's extreme allergy is pitting concerns about the boy's safety against the right of his schoolmates to enjoy an American classic -- a peanut butter sandwich.
A nationwide increase in peanut allergies is prompting a debate playing out in his small elementary school in Seymour and across the country. But while some school districts have decided to bar anyone from bringing peanut products to school, Seymour and others say such rules are unfair to the rest of the students.
"I think more and more people are looking for protection from cradle to grave, and I really don't believe that's what society is all about," said Seymour school board member James Garofolo. "I really don't believe we can protect people ... from all the things out there that may pose harm to them."
Garofolo said local schools already have taken action, including designating peanut-free classrooms and tables in cafeterias. A total ban would be hard to enforce and open up the school district to lawsuits, if it failed to keep out peanut butter and a student got sick, he said.
Six-year-old Matthew Searles of Seymour is one of an estimated 12 million Americans, including 2 million school-age children, who have food allergies that are potentially life-threatening. More than three million are allergic to peanuts or tree nuts. The only thing they can do to prevent allergic reactions is to avoid foods that pose a hazard.
Many who are allergic can have an anaphylactic response, which can create breathing problems by constricting airways. It also can lead to a serious drop in blood pressure, a weak pulse, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and loss of consciousness.
Symptoms can be eased by an emergency injection of adrenaline. Schools are usually required to have injections available for young children, while teens can carry portable adrenaline shots such as the EpiPen.
An estimated 150 to 200 Americans die every year from anaphylaxis due to something they ate, according to the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network.
The number of schools across the country that have banned peanuts doubled from 1997 to 2002. Earlier this year, Asbell Elementary School in Fayetteville, Ark., told parents to not send their children to school with lunches containing peanut butter, and officials removed all foods with peanuts from the cafeteria.
School officials in Pappillion and La Vista, Neb., and Ardmore, Okla. took peanut products off all school menus in their districts.
In Connecticut, Matthew's mother, Lisa Searles, has urged Seymour school officials to ban peanut butter in the schools. She acknowledges the efforts by school officials to protect her first-grader at Anna LoPresti School, but says more needs to be done.
"My son's allergy is like bringing a loaded gun to school," she said. "I was just very disappointed with the board. I feel they're ignorant. If it was their child who could die, it would be a whole different story."
Searles said she is considering moving her son to another school, and she has asked a lawyer for her legal options.
She also said she has taught Matthew how to deal with his allergy and taken him to a therapist, but the family continues to worry. She's concerned that children who bring peanut butter to school for lunch will leave peanut residue on playground equipment, computers or other property her son will touch.
"He's a nervous wreck," Searles said. "His nails are chewed down to nothing. Am I going to yank him out of school where his brother is and tell him why? That's a lot for a 6-year-old kid to have on his shoulders."
Doctors who specialize in allergies say there's a slight risk to Matthew contacting peanut residue from school property. A bigger risk, they say, comes from eating foods they don't think has peanut products but does, and sharing foods with classmates.
The Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network and other national health and education groups recommend that parents, children and schools learn about allergies and how to respond to allergic reactions, but stop short of calling for a ban on peanuts. States, including Connecticut, require schools to have plans in place to respond to such reactions.
Dr. James Rosen, a West Hartford pediatric allergist and medical advisory board member of the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network, helped develop allergy guidelines for families and teachers. He is against banning peanuts.
"The concern that I have is does this make these kids have their guard down," he said. "If a school says it's peanut-free, the kid becomes less scrupulous about the food he eats."
Don’t know if this is worthy of your “nanny state” ping list or not but thought you might find it interesting.
Ping.
The child is allergic to the planet and will have to go on state financial support for life.
I’m deathly allergic to celery and carrots so I demand we ban both.
Read my lips: No freaking way!
I would be a lot cheaper to ban the kid.
“An estimated 150 to 200 Americans die every year from anaphylaxis due to something they ate, according to the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network.”
As they have been for generations. When I was a kid in school, peanut butter was a staple and no one I ever went to school with had a peanut allergy or got sick from it.
Well, William Gernstein did once and threw up. But we think that was because he drank spoiled milk and not ate a PBJ.
Some kid at a local school has latex allergies, so they stripped the school of anything rubber, including balloons during celebrations. Tyranny of the Individual. The exception now rules.
I’m allergic to bee and wasp stings myself. We need a government program to eradicate all of them. Farmers will just have to find another way to pollinate their crops.
Jimmy Carter's fault.
So this woman has so little control and so little influence over her son that she cannot teach him to avoid peanuts? Maybe her problem is that she’s an unfit parent, not that the whole school should change for her. Peanuts are dangerous for some students, and so is traffic. If kids can be trained to stay out of traffic and survive that, they can be trained to not eat peanuts. They aren’t that idiotic.
Someone help me here. I went to public school for 12 years and college/grad school for seven. In that time I had thousands of classmates. We ate peanut butter three times a week. Not one kid ever got sick. How is it possible that now enough school kids are deathly allergic to peanut butter to ban it?
So why do you send him?
This mom needs serious help. One cannot go through life thinking of "what if" all the time. Reasonable precautions yes but not this crap. The world does not revolve around her sons unfortunate allergy.
A new market for the Mexican Mafia!
For real! I grew up allergic to everything except oxygen. My parents took the responsibility of watching out for what I ate, sat next to or inhaled. Certainly not my school mates responsibility to deny themselves what I couldn’t have.
I feel sorry for the kid. Not so much for his medical issues, but for the kind of mom he has.
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