I am doing grad work in a current educational issues class and need to do a paper on a controversial topic. Since we have a new PA at our school this has become a topic of controversy.
The issue is not that adaptations need to be made- but to what extreem. We are all in agreement of the classes she visits must be free of "may contain peanut" items. A cleaning policy has been made and there is a monitored peanut free table in the lunch room.
The controversy comes in that the parents insist that the child is so highly allergic that even a whiff of a peanut containing substance on someone's breath could set her off. EVERYONE who steps in the classrooms that the child visits must wash hands and rinse their mouth no matter the duration of the visit or possible contact. This includes parents just picking up their kids.
The hand washing takes about 10 min per class and occurs at least 3 times a day- even if the snack/lunch is thought to be peanut free. By the end of the year this will add up to a loss of 14 instructional days for 4 classrooms. The hands of many children are so dry from all natural protctive oils being washed away that they actually have open cracks in their skin. The teachers have even been told that they shouldn't wear certain makeup and the parents have asked that even the gym equipment be washed with a bleach solution just in case.
Is this reasonable precaution or just over- protectiveness? What kinds of measures do your doctors specify for avoiding contamination? What is the typical school policy like? Does your interpretation of 504 allow for this much control of other's personal rights? I need to write my report soon so please respond as soon as possible. Since I need to have supporting data I really need to ask those who just have personal opinion and not physician directives to keep in mind that I am looking for information and not just trying to be negative and open to attack. Links to research would be appreciated since the only airborne reactions I have found are caused by actual nut particles or cooking with peanut oil.
Glad you came here for information on this allergy. Reactions through inhalation and traces have long been a reality for peanut allergic people. Here are some links that may help.
Study that concluded that "Severe food allergic reactions can occur from exposure to minute quantities of allergen by skin contact or inhalation."
[url="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11379811&dopt=Abstract"]http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query...1&dopt=Abstract[/url]
Self-reported allergic reactions to peanut on commercial airliners.
[url="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?uid=10400859&form=6&db=m&Dopt=b"]http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?uid=10400859&form=6&db=m&Dopt=b[/url]
Reaction from playing cards
[url="http://www.realage.com/HB25/HB25.asp?wci=HArticle&cid=13618&sid=1006"]http://www.realage.com/HB25/HB25.asp?wci=HArticle&cid=13618&sid=1006[/url]
Clinical characteristics of peanut allergy.
[url="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?uid=9208183&form=6&db=m&Dopt=b"]http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?uid=9208183&form=6&db=m&Dopt=b[/url]
The way you describe the schools policy makes it sound like it is more draconian than it likely really is. This leads me to believe that there is a lot of gossip going on in your community and with that a lot of misinformation.
Do you have an actual copy of the written policy, as this would help you in your report?
I find it difficult to believe that people are being stopped at the door and made to rinse their mouths. It sounds a little far fetched to me and completely unlikely. You had better make sure you get your facts completely straight. Likely the kids who are eating pb at school are the ones being asked to wash up and rinse.
Handwashing 3 times a day is hardly unreasonable. Most parents without PA kids would love to have a school that actually made kids wash their hands. It means fewer diseases being passed around.
I cannot believe that children are 'suffering' from chapped hands from washing a mere 3 times a day. Those would have to be some freakishly dry children to have all the oils washed off of their hands. Here again is where there is gossip and untrue stories being spread about in your community.
As for the gym equipment, it's likely a good thing if it gets washed once in a while. And again most parents everywhere would be happy to think that their kids have a clean school.
Also, if it is not a peanut free school than it is reasonable to wash the equipment. Severe reactions from 'contaminated' gym equipment have been documented.
You seem to be caught up in the muddiness of the gossip around you. If you are going to do a proper paper---GET THE FACTS. And I mean all the facts --- from all angles. From your post it sounds like you have already made up your mind and your paper will be based on personal opinion. And not even your personal opinion but that of some adults around you. At this point I'd give it a D+.
Peanut allergy is not an isolated occurrence. The number of people and children suffering from this condition has at least tripled, (maybe more) in the last 10 years. It seems to be only a problem in industrialized countries. And it's quite possible that one day your own children could be born with this allergy---think about that. I never thought it could happen to me but it did.
I noticed that you are from Michigan. There is an organization called Food Allergy Education (I think based in Ann Arbor) that would be a fabulous resource for you:
[url="http://www.faemi.org/"]http://www.faemi.org/[/url]
Are you willing to post your paper (or summary) on this site??
Good luck,
Gail
dadekieft,
Good luck on your paper - I do hope it will be unbiased and present both sides of the situation.
I will add my personal situation re: what we have asked of our son's school.
My son is contact and ingestion reactive to peanuts and tree nuts. His classroom is peanut/tree nut free ("may contains" are allowed for the other kids' snacks - I provide my son's). At lunch, he sits at the end of his class table, with safe lunches around him, meaning no obvious peanut/tree nut products. After lunch, all those who ate an "unsafe" food wipe their hands with baby wipes. He has a computer keyboard cover for his computer class. The aide makes sure all kids in his class wipe their hands upon arrival to school - in case they ate peanut/tree nut products for breakfast, or on the bus to school. (I have to add here that my son's teacher just thanked me this past week for having the kids wipe their hands upon arrival to school (aside from the situation re: my son). She said they haven't had near as many colds, etc...)
We weren't sure our son was going to be able to attend school at all, but we did our work, the school did theirs, and it is working out wonderfully. At one point, we needed to find out if our son could even be in the cafeteria with P/TN products. So, I took him into the cafe on a day that they were cooking and serving a PB cookie. He was fine. That let us know that we didn't need to request anything pertaining to airborne exposure.
My personal opinion on the situation you described... If the parents know *for sure* that all the things they have requested are *absolutely necessary*, then that's just the way it has to be for their child. Yes, it can get that bad. However, I think that if they are just being "extra careful" then... well, I would personally think they should re-think what they are asking of everyone else. (JMO - please don't blast me, everyone!) We all know what it's like to deal with this day in and day out, because we HAVE to. I would think that makes it a bit easier for us than for those who DON'T have to day in and day out. (Oy, I can feel it comin'! [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img] )
[This message has been edited by Lam (edited January 25, 2003).]
hey...i have a wonderful solution...will save you all a lot of time washing up all that equipment and those cracked little hands (yeah, right), etc..... how about making the easiest change possible and just eliminate peanuts/peanut butter from the school day. sounds so simple because it is.
sorry for the attitude...i woke up that way this morning. : ) seriously though, i know there are a lot of people here who will disagree with me (but please don't yell...i'm supersensitive) : ) from my perspective, which i realize is that of a PA child's parent (two actually), it seems like that would be the simplest solution to helping protect all the kids at school. is it really that difficult? it's peanuts. my gosh.
for the record, i'd be willing to do whatever it took to protect even one child in the school, even if the child was not mine. peanuts, treenuts, latex, fill-in-the-blank, whatever...if it is messy, can be airborne, can cause serious problems for someone else then i'm willing to cooperate.
joey
my child did have an airborne reaction. a big one. we simply sat down near one of those small asian restaurants in the cafe/food court of a shopping mall. we ate nothing, touched nothing. she simply inhaled and we were on our way to the hospital. after that incident i would be very hesitant to take either of my PA daughters into a cafeteria filled with the aroma of fresh baked peanut butter cookies. everyones' situation IS different, as you stated, which is why i think it would be better to have a plan that covered every possibility.
also, my child goes through her school day exactly like yours does (same seating arrangement in the cafeteria, same snacktime rules, etc...) and it is working so far. the only differences for us are that the lunchtrays never contain peanuts/nuts or may-contains (as far as we really know) and that there is no handwashing/wiping in place. there are peanut butter sandwiches in a huge percentage of the lunchboxes but my daughter never sits near those. so far, we've not had any reaction from peanut butter residue anywhere. but, i'm always aware that it could happen at any time. it will one day. i hope we are all prepared and that her reaction will be one that is not as severe as some of hers have been in the past.
i think that's why i get so frustrated. here i am, the mother of some really great little girls and i know that one day i will get that call saying there's been a problem. i worry a lot. it will happen because the school has not been helpful enough and because i have not been aggressive enough. makes me feel like a horrible mother. the best i've been able to do so far is get the school to agree to a minimum degree of safety and educate them how to use her medications if/when the need arises. joey
River- I wish I could say it was all biased opinion. But that is the way it is. The PA child joined the day care my children attend here at the school a few weeks ago and everyone was told they MUST wash hands and rinse mouth before entering the classroom that included me and all I had to do is sign them in. The family even provides the cups. The only exception they give is if you say they brushed their teeth and washed their hands just before coming to school. So it is by personal experience that I know this to be true, and yet it is so unbelievable at the same time.
I do agree that hand washing is a good policy, espcially before eating but within 3 days my girls hands were so dry I had to be sure to put lotion on them. They do not allow them to just to use wipes either- the 504 states soap and water. The kids who have to deal with this the most are in a peanut free room and most avoid peanut products for lunch and snacks as well- but all must wash regardless, since this IS the actual 504 policy and not just the complaints. The 504 also does state that teachers will be given a list of "safe and unsafe" makeup and cosmetics.
As for my paper- we do have to take one side or the other for this one. I'm trying for a middle ground though- arguing for reasonable adjustments to the school setting and a state recomended policy, advised by physicians, for schools to work with.
Trying to decide what is reasonable is the trick. I have read the abstracts you attached- but there is not enough empiracle (spelling?) data there to reach a conclusion. If you have a way to obtain the full paper I'd like that. The difficulty comes in amounts and forms of the peanut product and kind of contact. I have seen a few research papers that have linked reactions to those near large amounts of actual nuts or near products being cooked with peanut oil, and even the card player who is in direct contact with peanut product on the card and licking his finger, but that is not enough to support the idea that a child who touches the table that was touched by a child who ate a potato chip will cause a reaction. If there are people truly so allergic then it would seem they would never be able to touch a library book which cannot be washed and is often read with a snack. They also would have to be sure that every item purchased would have to be washed in case the cashier had snacked on some peanuts and then touched the product the PA family bought. It seems unlikely that any PA family is that concerned- but if they fear it that much at school it would only seem they would have the same reaction with their whole life. If the child has a reaction and needs medical treatment do they make sure the paramedics had time to rinse their mouth before they allow them to come within breathing range of their child? Sorry if it sounds rediculous - its the philosophical/scientific side of me, but the questions need to be considered and it is sometimes hard for the person in the situation to look at it objectively. If the allergies were this severe any child living near the peanut producing/processing plants of Georgia would essentially have to live in a bubble.
I do believe there is a chance for a reaction but if the what levels of reaction do we try to prevent. Doesn the presence of a child who has asthma attacks near cats mean we also have to have vacumes at the doors for those with cat hair clinging to their clothes? Or does a child who has a wheat allergy which has been linked to ADD cause the whole school to go wheat free because it is reducing the quality of education he receives. I have severe allergy to ragweed (on the prick test I had a welt the size of a half dollar)- I sometimes get so bad I can't breath well enough to swallow even- does that mean the school must supply air conditioning to reduce the pollen in the schools? Does the presence of a child with AIDS in a class mean that anyone with a known cold virus may not attend school because if the AIDS child caught it -it could be deadly? I know all these seem rediculous- but that is what could be expected by parents if we make policies without scientific data to support the claims. And since many people with extreem alergies usually have many allergies it would seem it would be hard to tell if it was truly peanut that caused a reaction.
We are all aware of the dangers of a PA child directly ingesting peanut product and are all for giving as much supervision as possible to avoid this- it is just all the super precautious adjustments we question.
I know I probably sound biased as this is a computer and unable to evoke cues from voice and body, but I really am trying to take the best position possible. Keep in mind I have seen just as many physician groups policies that state peanut free is unreasonable as I have seen those that encourage it. SO the question remains- WHERE DO WE DRAW THE LINE?
i have thought about this a lot today (where do we draw the line). for me, i think i'd be comfortable with there being no actual peanuts (meaning peanuts, peanut butter, peanut containing foods, etc..) in the cafeteria and classroom. if a child were to bring a may contain item in his/her lunchbox or as a classroom snack (that my child would not be eating), i believe i would be okay with that. i can't say everyone would be okay with that, but i would. you are right in the sense that it would be too difficult to remove every single allergen in the world (like the cat hair example you gave). i think most of us (i'm guessing of course) would be satisfied with eliminating the really big risks from the school environment; those being the messy peanut butter and other things that have peanuts listed as an actual ingredient. some people might object to may contains being in the school but i have as yet not found a way to avoid those in any environment. as long as my child is not eating those or handling them, i feel that she is safe. joey
dadekieft,
I'd like to recommend this excellent document: "Managing life-threatening Food Allergies in School" by the Massachusetts Department of Education. It shows what a competent school should be expected to do to protect the life of an anaphylactic child. [url="http://www.doe.mass.edu/cnp/default.html"]http://www.doe.mass.edu/cnp/default.html[/url]
In my personal opinion, I think the hand-washing 3 times a day is excellent for hygiene alone and absolutely necessary to protect the allergic child. My daughter ended up being taken out of Kindergarten in an ambulance because the children were not washing. I am lucky she survived.
The mouth-rinsing does seem to be excessive to me for an in-and-out visit. I can see it for someone coming into the class, like a parent volunteer or for the children. "Poison kisses" are a very real threat -- and little kids suck their hands and fingers all the time.
Be assured airborne reactions are a reality. We had to rush my then-3 daughter out of a pet food store when she walked near an open bin of shelled peanuts -- her throat was closing on her and she had difficulty breathing -- the most common way an anaphylactic child dies, by the way -- simple manual strangulation. Please keep that in mind when fighting against restrictions. She has had a similar experience when a plate of peanut-covered donuts was put out at a class party. She complained about the "cloud from the bad cookies" getting in her mouth and that she couldn't get away from it. On the way home she had an asthma attack so bad we almost ended in the hospital.
What it comes down to is that all children deserve to be safe at school and all children deserve an education. FWIW, my daughter was driven out of her first grade class by the butt-ugly meanness of people, who objected to the simple request to have a non-lethal party snack for her class. When you write your paper, I hope you will also keep in mind there is cruelty and there is compassion in dealing with the disabled, and that we can make a difference with the views we choose to espouse.
Good luck on your paper.
Kay
dadekieft,
Just popping back in to check on the other responses.
What you said can be true in lots of cases:
(Quote from you) "Trying to decide what is reasonable is the trick. I have read the abstracts you attached- but there is not enough empiracle (spelling?) data there to reach a conclusion. If you have a way to obtain the full paper I'd like that. The difficulty comes in amounts and forms of the peanut product and kind of contact. I have seen a few research papers that have linked reactions to those near large amounts of actual nuts or near products being cooked with peanut oil, and even the card player who is in direct contact with peanut product on the card and licking his finger, but that is not enough to support the idea that a child who touches the table that was touched by a child who ate a potato chip will cause a reaction. If there are people truly so allergic then it would seem they would never be able to touch a library book which cannot be washed and is often read with a snack. They also would have to be sure that every item purchased would have to be washed in case the cashier had snacked on some peanuts and then touched the product the PA family bought. It seems unlikely that any PA family is that concerned- but if they fear it that much at school it would only seem they would have the same reaction with their whole life. If the child has a reaction and needs medical treatment do they make sure the paramedics had time to rinse their mouth before they allow them to come within breathing range of their child? Sorry if it sounds rediculous - its the philosophical/scientific side of me, but the questions need to be considered and it is sometimes hard for the person in the situation to look at it objectively. If the allergies were this severe any child living near the peanut producing/processing plants of Georgia would essentially have to live in a bubble."
There ARE people (my son is one) who DO react to touching a surface that was touched by someone else who had eaten an unsafe food. There ARE people who can't enjoy the public library. There ARE people who have to wash off all their groceries because the person at the register was eating a Reese Cup while ringing up their groceries. There ARE people who have to tell medical personnel not to touch their child, or breathe in their child's face if they've recently eaten a P/TN product. There ARE people who have taken to living like a hermit just to live.
Not trying to have an attitude here, just sharing facts. Most of us dealing with PA do what NEEDS to be done, others of us go a step farther to be extra-careful.
Can you ever really be TOO careful when you're talking about the life of your child?
It's hard to *have* to ask people to help you keep your child alive.
[This message has been edited by Lam (edited January 25, 2003).]
Please note that cat hair does not cause anaphylaxis. Ragweed does not cause anaphylaxis. Children with ADHD may have a wheat intolerance, not a wheat allergy.
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