Don't mind me, I'm just over here behind my monitor wishing I had more eyes to roll. Parents in Newfoundland are throwing temper tantrums over the school board banning peanut butter replacements like Wow Butter. But what will they feed their kids? I mean, they've already banned peanuts! WHAT'S NEXT!?
Here's the thing: we've never been allowed to send peanut butter replacements in my kids' lunches (despite eating them at home) and do you know why? It's because some careless jackass of a parent decided one day that instead of sending a replacement, they'd send real peanut butter. That's right. That's how compassionate some people are regarding the life of an allergic kid. So instead of having to police every single lunch to make sure that it isn't a life-threatening sandwich, the school boards we've been in decided to ban the replacements along with the real deal. And yes, it's totally crummy that it has to be banned because my kids love eating Wow Butter, too. But you know what? My kids are still healthy even though they can't eat Wow Butter sandwiches at school. Crazy, right!?
And can we really talk about the "but it's healthy!" argument? Most peanut butter isn't a healthy option, people. The vast majority of what you're buying is full of salt and sugar (delicious, delicious salt and sugar) so arguing that the school has limited your healthy lunch options is ridiculous. And the replacements, though slightly better, aren't some kind of miracle health food your kid absolutely needs to eat. Find a new protein source, and let it go. I have a picky child, too, and even I manage to find something to send, while working around his classroom limitations (dairy, eggs, nuts and peanuts), his own allergies, and his insane list of preferences that seem to change on the daily.
If there were teachers dedicated to properly monitoring lunch rooms, if there was better education for non-allergic families, if hygiene and cleaning practices were improved, if a little more compassion and understanding was practiced, then sure... I could see arguing to allowing peanut butter replacements. But as it stands, the majority of classrooms are monitored by kids in grades 7 or 8 at my kids' schools and that doesn't give me much confidence. In my son's classroom, the only kid anaphylactic to dairy had messy yogurt containers that belonged to another student sent home in his "boomerang" lunch bag, can you even imagine that? A kid who can die from ingesting dairy had dairy in his lunch bag. And that's with educated adults supervising the room! If an adult can't understand the importance of taking great allergy precautions, can we really expect children to get it? No, we can't. And there are no school budgets for supplies, let alone for furthering the training and understanding of people regarding allergies. (But there is this free course from Anaphylaxis Canada that I urge everyone to share with their teachers and school administration!)
So sadly, we're left with banning foods from classrooms (which, no, isn't really helpful in the bigger picture) because of the actions of a few inconsiderate, reckless people. I won't read the comments on that article I posted. I just can't handle reading anything more from completely ignorant parents.
Wanna know why I hate reading the comments sections of allergy articles? Read this article. Find out what I think about food bans, as the mom of an anaphylactic child.
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