Marita Ishac and seven-year-old daughter Stephanie who has a nut allergy. Picture: Cameron Richardson Source: News Limited
PARENTS are in revolt over school lunchbox restrictions with four out of five complaining schools are overly concerned about food bought to school and one in three objecting to the banning of nuts.
Even the Allergy and Anaphylaxis Association says school-wide bans on nuts in lunchboxes aren't effective and the president of the Primary Principals Association Norm Hart says they are ''wrong'' and can't be enforced.
However Marita Ishac, the mother of seven-year-old Stephanie who suffers from a severe allergy to pistachio nuts, says nuts should be banned.
''The reaction comes on so quickly it's scary,'' she said.
''They should be more sensitive. If they want their kids to have nuts serve them at home,'' she said.
The widespread angst about school food bans was uncovered in a Galaxy survey conducted on behalf of health fund Medibank Private's 24/7 advice line for Food Allergy Week.
It found 79 per cent of the 1000 people surveyed believed schools were overly concerned about the food bought in by pupils and 30 per cent disagreed with banning nuts from packed lunches.
At the same time nearly 40 per cent of respondents admitted they wouldn't know the signs of someone suffering a serious reaction to food and 47 per cent said they wouldn't know what to do if it happened.
''Lunchbox restrictions are an acutely hot topic but this must not be allowed to dilute the seriousness of food allergies,'' Georgia Karabatsos, Medibank 24/7 Health Advice Line Medical Director says.
The president of the Allergy and Anaphylaxis Association Marita Said said there was a ''lot of hysteria'' about food bans and her organisation did not promote them.
''I think schools have thought this is the answer, they are petrified because we have had children die at school or on school camps,'' she said.
Such bans often saw children with allergies stigmatised and bullied and they allowed a handful of parents to focus on the ban rather than the restrictions of the child who had the allergy, she said.
Instead of a school-wide ban schools should look at implementing voluntary restrictions in the allergic child's class and only if they were too young to be fully aware of their diet restrictions, she said.
One in 10 children now developed a food allergy in their first year of life and schools should try to educate all students about allergy problems, how to read the signs and what to do if an emergency happened, she said.
The president of the Primary Principals Association Norm Hart said schools were taking more interest in what was in student's lunchboxes because they wanted parents to work in partnership with teachers to educate children about how to eat a healthy diet.
However, he said school wide bans on nuts were ''wrong'' because they gave a false sense of security to the families of children with an allergy and other parents.
''You can't enforce it, and if you say a place is free of whatever and its not you have a problem,'' he said.
Marita Ishac says she discovered Stephanie's allergy to pistachios when she reacted badly after eating a Lebanese sweet at the age of two.
''I hadn't given her nuts before and she had an itchy throat, then started blotching and her ears started to swell,'' she said.
Mrs Ishac now carries an epipen at all times and has given one to the school in case her daughteR has an attack while at school.
Marita Said says the anaphylactic reactions that are most dangerous are those where there are breathing difficulties or any swelling of the tongue or throat and onlookers should immediately administer an epipen or call an ambulance if they encountered a person suffering these symptoms.
More information on reducing risks for allergy sufferers can be found on the following websites: allergyfacts.org.au and foodallergyaware.com.au.
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