Pages

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Sorry Kid, No More Peanut Butter for You

They have banned peanut butter at my kiddies school. Really sucks because probably about 3x a week my kids bring pb&j sandwiches or those pb&j crackers to school. Before they just had all the allergic kids sit at their own table away from everyone else. Now everyone must do with out it.
Yea I know it won't kill my kiddies to not eat pb on their pb&j sandwiches (it'll kill my wallet trying to find other acceptable foods and makes the pb&j just a "j" and less nutritious but ya know regular people don't count anymore). It sucks, money is tight right now. We send our kids with sack lunches 'cause it's cheaper then the school lunches and we don't qualify for any reduced lunch this year. I don't think they should stop at peanut butter though...I have a sister who is allergic to berries (eating just a few blackberries sent her to the e.r.), so based on that, I know there has got to be more people allergic to berries and so we should no longer allow any berries in the public school system. Oh and tomatoes...I've known several people who are allergic to tomatoes, so no more tomatoes or tomato products either. There are also wheat, gluten, yeast, corn and more allergies. So sorry kids all you get at school is water.
I know that's somewhat unreasonable. I know that just a trace amount of peanut butter can kill some people who are allergic (maybe they should all live on their own island...no no that's bad thinking). I just get tired of the whole catering to everyone thing. Before long peanuts, walnuts, cashews and every other type of nut will be eliminated from all stores, restaurants, home kitchens, etc... It doesn't seem unreasonable to not allow kids to bring in peanut butter products from home for their own, personal snack at school. But, if we are going to do that there then maybe people shouldn't bring peanut butter from home for work. All the restaurants, bakeries, fast food joints should stop using peanut/nuts and peanut oil. Then it continues and when does it start to become unreasonable. When do we decide that it's too much. I know parents of children who are allergic to food items think it's never too much. If I was one.....no I wouldn't, I wouldn't want to cause that much trouble for everyone else because of my kid. I would educate the teachers, schools, friends and so on. Most importantly, I would educate my kid. That is all you can do and is what you should do.
This is mostly ranting. I understand the reasoning, totally. I just don't have to like it. So I feed my kids peanut butter at home. They can have all the pb&j crackers, sandwiches, peanut butter cookies, bread, pancakes they want at home. They can have plain bread at school ( no meat, no cheese 'cause then I have to worry about refrigeration and bacteria and last I looked lockers are not kept at 40 degrees Fahrenheit and I don't trust ice packs). Yea this all just rubs me the wrong way can't ya tell. It'll be okay. I'll get over it and go on my own happy way.

1 comment:

Jaden Paige said...

I'm sorry, but I think that's ridiculous. You have every right to be upset about it. I would. Like you stated, there are lots of people with lots of different allergies, and they vary in intensity- this is no reason to stop everyone ELSE from eating those things. If you're that badly allergic, then maybe you shouldn't be eating in the caf? Idk... but this doesn't seem like a good solution. *sigh*