Blanket bans on food allergens at schools, childcare should be overturned

Blanket bans on allergens like nuts at schools and childcare should be avoided in new plan to tackle reactions in kids.

Childcare centres and schools should not be “nut-free” and should avoid blanket bans of food allergens, an international panel of experts has advised.

Immunologists, allergy specialists, parents and researchers from seven countries, including Australia, are challenging the way educators treat children with allergies.

They say schools and early care settings should remove site-wide bans and instead

only ban foods such as milk and nuts in rooms for babies and toddlers to minimise accidental ingestion.

The global call-to-arms in the prestigious Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology notes that “site-wide food prohibitions and allergen-restricted zones might contribute to reduced vigilance among students or personnel”.

Stellan Saunders has been eating peanut products from a young age, in line with recent research promoting early exposure. Picture: Jason Edwards

“In cases when allergic reactions to prohibited foods do occur, students or personnel might be less likely to promptly recognise and treat the reaction if they mistakenly believe the foods are not present.”

The experts, which include Professor Mimi Tang from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, argue that it “not possible to totally remove the risk of allergic reactions in any setting”.

“Managing the risk of allergic reactions must not be confused with totally removing the risk,” they say.

Professor Tang said it wasn’t possible to ban just one food as there were many foods children were allergic to.

“It’s counter-productive to create a bubble when children need to learn how to manage their own allergies as soon as they are old enough. There are too many variables and schools are not set up to police what kids have for lunch,” she said.

Peanut butter may be back on the venue for childcare centres and schools. Picture: Claudia Baxter

“We need to teach sensible skills like ‘don’t share food’ and ‘always ask what’s in the food’. This will keep them much safer and better empower them.”

She also said it was important to consider the quality of life of all children, not just those with allergies.

The experts also call for better training for staff, generic EpiPens for all students to use and limiting the use of adrenaline unless a child is in anaphylactic shock.

Professor Tang said one in 15 schools a year deal with a child with anaphylaxis and only one in 24 uses an EpiPen.

Maria Said, a nurse and member of Allergy and Anaphylaxis Australia, said blanket bans

“create a false sense of security” but nuts were also a choking hazard for childcare and young school children.

“It’s much better to ask parents in childcare or lower primary school grades to consider allergies and not bring in certain foods rather than to presume the food isn’t going to be there,” she said.

“This is a good option until children are old enough to look after themselves.”

Ms Said said she supported having generic EpiPens to be used on any child that needed it at school as long as children carried their own EpiPens to and from school.