\"social\" situations that could result in unexpected peanut exposure

Contaminated shopping carts at grocers
yard and garden products
exposure to pets (and their food) at demonstrations/displays/petstores
neighbors who feed nuts to the local wildlife

Unexpected maybe for newbies to PA, but not for us. Sports games, especially community leagues.
Just last week I was at Ryan's baseball game when the sister of one of his team mates called out, "Mom, where's my peanut butter and jelly sandwich you packed me." It was actually for both her and her sister or friend. They were playing with one of the league team balls near the dugout while eating their PB&J sandwiches and playing with it (the ball) so I had to watch them like a hawk and make sure the ball did not enter into play. AND, of course, Ryan just happened to be pitching that day.
He had no clue this was going on, but I did. What worries me are the things that he can't prepare for because he's paying attention to the game. That's why one of us is always there on the lookout with lots of epipens too.

I don't know how much of a danger this really is, but my 7-year DS has started washing his hands after handling library books. (He did this on his own, and I certainly wouldn't argue against his instincts about protecting himself).

my two PA girls both had dentist appts last week. while we were in the waiting room, a sales rep came into the office and dropped off a big bag of peanut m&m's to the secretary. i didn't worry too much because they were sealed up and it never crossed my mind the staff would start eating them on the spot. i looked up from reading a book to the girls and noticed everyone in the office (dental hygienists included) other than the dentist were scooping up big handfuls of the peanut m&m's and eating them while walking around the office. these were the same people who would, minutes later, be putting their (gloved) hands in both my daughters' mouths and breathing up close in their faces. i had to bring this problem to the attn of the staff (which embarrassed the sales rep, as he was still in the office). it was very uncomfortable and i still didn't feel a lot better even after everyone had washed up and things. who'd have thought we'd encounter this at our dentist's office though????

I was a bookworm when I was young and I used to find all kinds of icky stuff on the pages of children's books. Never had a problem, but I always washed my hands after reading them too.
Now that I've moved on to the cookbooks, I definately wash up after reading those, because they've obviously been around food.

Children's sermons at church. Sometimes a pastor will hand out food related to something they're talking about. There have been actual peanuts before at ours.
Picnic grounds. Once we sat down at a table to have a family picnic and noticed that the ground was covered with peanut shells.

I don't even like to think about this.
But even doorknobs scare me to death. I mean, who knows who walked before us and what was on there hands?

In my 6 years of experience, the worst places (the ones that always impact us the most negatively, that is) aren't necessarily the ones with the highest danger, per se.
The ones that I hate are the places that [i]should[/i] be safe, but [i]aren't[/i] because other people are such jerks that they totally ignore the fact (often posted prominently) that food and drink is not allowed.
So you'd think that the library, clothiers, theaters, concert/dance recital halls, and classrooms would be absolutely safe places to be. But not so.
All because some jacka$$ feels that the rules don't apply to them when it comes to shoving a packet of nutterbutters and a milkshake at their unruly, fat children. How unbelievably low-class and selfish. Aghhhhh. [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/mad.gif[/img] Since they "don't have time" for dinner, [i]we[/i] must have time for a trip to the ER. Nice.
(Sorry-- just venting, but also saying that you can't EVER let your guard down. The very places that should be safest are the worst because you just aren't looking for trouble there, KWIM?)

OMG YES!! We went to the dolphin show at the zoo...and despite signs all over saying no food or drink, and several announcements by the staff about not eating...I'd say about half of the people around us were eating PB&J sandwiches...it was horrible. I literally ended up carrying in my arms, my then 8 year old daughter out the door so she wouldn't touch any of the banisters or doorknobs on the way out!