<p>My son got an email today that there will no longer be peanut products served in his college dining hall. (There is only one dining hall on campus.) Before anyone jumps down my throat, :), I understand that some people have severe peanut allergies. In the past, the college seemed to handle this by designating a very specific area where peanut butter could be used. There are "nooks and crannies in this dining hall. What about the many vegetarians (many on campus) for whom peanut butter is a very good source of protein? </p>
<p>I’m wondering if the college has just gone overboard here. For those of you with students with severe peanut allergies, what do your kids do? I’m not familiar with other campus decisions, obviously. Is there a way that students with peanut allergies can protect themselves? They might confront this “peanut problem” in almost any public place.</p>
<p>It is possible that in the incoming class there are students whose allergy is more severe than average, and for whom even a very slight cross contamination could prove fatal, and the dining services have decided that it is easier to not have the peanut items there at all, than to try to contain them.</p>
<p>But if they limit peanut butter in the dining hall, what’s next? Banning it from the dorms in case a student with a more severe allergy comes into contact with it?</p>
<p>I can understand 100% why they would do this, but as an extremely picky vegetarian it would make me very sad if my dining hall did that. Peanuts and yogurt are my only sources of protein because I don’t eat most vegetables. At least I still have my stockpile of peanut butter in my room…</p>
<p>^agreed. At some point in life, with care and consideration from those around, it does mean that the allergic individual will have to be pro-active. Certainly there could be a peanut area, or a non-peanut area, to keep cross contamination from happening. If it’s psychological (“we don’t want someone to be stigmatized”) then I think it’s going to far. It would be like outlawing stairs because some students couldn’t use them.</p>
<p>I actually found out today that there are people who are functionally allergic to water (yes, for real, google aquagenic urtacaria.) We’re not going to outlaw showers, though.</p>
<p>I don’t have a child with a food allergy but I have to wonder if they are banning peanut butter does this mean other students could demand they ban the foods they are allergic to?
There are eight foods that account for 90% of all food-allergy reactions in the U.S.: cow’s milk, egg, peanut, tree nuts (for example, walnuts, pecans, almonds, and cashews), fish, shellfish, soy, and wheat.</p>
<p>Vegetarianism is a choice. A life-threatening peanut allergy is not.</p>
<p>I’m sure you would be even more sad if someone died.</p>
<p>This is a difficult problem. Obviously, the allergic individual cannot live in an environment completely free of peanuts unless they isolate themselves from other humans. But is it not reasonable to try to accommodate them when possible, like in an institutional dining hall?</p>
<p>I have a niece who has a life-threatening peanut allergy. I have seen what her parents have gone through, trying to protect her and teach her to protect herself. Nevertheless, when she was in elementary school, she once broke out in huge welts all over her body because a child who had been eating peanut butter touched her on her neck. How are her parents supposed to protect against that? They can’t make other people’s children wash their hands after eating. What do you do?</p>
<p>I think it is a tricky situation to impact the diets of X thousand students due to allergies. I have a nephew with the allergy so I am sympathetic but I think the School should offer other accommodations. As a parent of a student that uses peanut butter as a source of protein I would have a hard time with a college placing a dietary restriction in my child like that. I would hope there would have been some advanced notice. I do not think it has to be all or none. The school could get creative with accommodations.</p>
<p>Yes, it is unfortunate, Consolation - I too, am close to people that are severely allergic to nuts. Once, a friend of mine broke out in hives because one of us lent her a lotion that had traces of peanut oil on the container. I have to watch myself very carefully around them because I care about them. But it’s exhausting to do every day.</p>
<p>And what if I told you I was a vegetarian for health reasons? Maybe I am, maybe I’m not, but generalizing about vegetarianism like that is just rude.</p>
<p>But yes, an outright ban is a little outlandish. Some kind of middle ground should be reached but either extreme is just that…extreme.</p>
<p>Well…there are a ton of products that have peanut products in them…but are not peanut butter. I hope the dining services folks are also carefully looking at product labels, and are also eliminating these other things from the foods offered. Plain M and Ms have peanut in them. May products contain peanut oil. Still others are made in plants where peanuts are used for other products. Look at the many food labels that say “may contain peanut products”.</p>
<p>This is not easy. And for students with very significant life threatening allergies…all of these need to be removed.</p>
<p>Just wondering if the number of people with a severe peanut allergy has reached a tipping point? Interested to hear from the Dr.s on this forum.</p>
<p>People with these extreme allergies are most certainly the exception. Do they get the same protection in any buffet restaurant? Perhaps it is they who should eat in their room, or be careful, rather than the grand majority. I know that may sound a bit offensive to some…sorry. I think when we start catering to a tiny minority…well, where does it stop?</p>
<p>Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 900
“I don’t have a child with a food allergy but I have to wonder if they are banning peanut butter does this mean other students could demand they ban the foods they are allergic to?
There are eight foods that account for 90% of all food-allergy reactions in the U.S.: cow’s milk, egg, peanut, tree nuts (for example, walnuts, pecans, almonds, and cashews), fish, shellfish, soy, and wheat.”</p>
<p>MichiganGeorgia - don’t be silly. I am allergic to shellfish and my daughter needs a gluten free diet. But neither of us are in any danger if we sit at a table with 10 other students who are eating shrimp or pasta. Peanut allergies are a whole different level. It’s silly to compare them to allergies that require ingestion. </p>
<p>Consolation - the Tower dining hall at Wellesley is peanut-free and offers gluten free options. (Students are allowed to have PB in their rooms, though.).</p>
<p>I agree with those saying that this is a ridiculous overreaction on the school’s part that negatively affects thousands of students for some (mostly imagined) benefit of the half of 1 percent that (statistically) will have a peanut allergy - not necessarily a severe allergy, mind you, just an allergy of some type. The number of people with a severe allergy is lower still. </p>
<p>Yes, peanut allergy exists, and for a small number of people, it can be severe (but as the statistics show, usually not life-threatening). These people likely know they have such a reaction and have likely been prescribed an EpiPen for the possibility of a reaction - like anyone else with an allergy they need to adjust their habits to avoid exposure, not demand that everyone around them do so. But most cases of allergy are minor, and most children outgrow their allergy by adulthood.</p>
<p>Actually, Pizzagirl, shellfish and other allergies can be just as severe as peanut allergies. For many people gluten free is a choice. Those with celiac disease do not have a choice to be gluten free but celiac disease is not life threatening like anaphylaxis. Shellfish allergies can also be provoked by inhalation.</p>
<p>^agreed. Any allergy can be severe and life threatening. My co worker had an anaphylactic reaction to a grilled fish that was prepared on a grill that had some sort of seafood that was previously prepared on It. She is not allergic to fresh fish, but to seafood.</p>