Leave The Peanut Butter Sandwich At Home. Don’t Be A Jerk.

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It’s 9:00 am and my five year old is already on his second peanut butter sandwich of the day. He has gone very few days this summer without peanut butter of some kind.

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Sandwiches. Banana “hot dogs”. Tortilla boats filled with peanut butter and banana. You name it. He is the PICKIEST EATER on the planet, and to get some protein into him, I’ve had to get creative.

Why am I telling you this? Because in two days he will go BACK TO SCHOOL in a nut free environment, and he will give up his beloved peanut butter for 6.5 hours a day, and the world will continue to spin.

Living with food allergies is much harder on the kids than it is on those having to avoid peanut butter in schools. If your school is a nut free zone, here's why you shouldn't complain. #nutfree #allergies #foodallergies #momlife #peanutbutter #parenting

He will be told he cannot have it for breakfast or lunch. If he wants some after school, he is welcome to it. And he will understand because he wants to keep his friends safe.

Every year, I see at least one parent complaining about their lack of rights to send peanut butter to school because it is “all their child eats.” I get it. (See first paragraph)

But here’s the thing: our children’s food preferences are secondary to the seriousness of food allergies.

I don’t care if my child needs to figure out some other things to eat or be hungry if it means that one or more of his classmates lives are not put at risk. I mean, priorities here.

Living with food allergies is much harder on the kids than it is on those having to avoid peanut butter in schools. If your school is a nut free zone, here's why you shouldn't complain. #nutfree #allergies #foodallergies #momlife #peanutbutter #parenting

I understand that there are some children for whom giving up nuts is harder, for example, children who are diabetic or children who are not neuro-typical. This post isn’t aimed at you.

Yes, there still needs to be some way to accommodate your child’s needs without compromising the safety of others, but I recognize it isn’t cut and dry for you.

This post is for the parents I see every year saying, often literally, “Your child’s allergies are not my problem, my kid is a picky eater.”

No. Just no. Your kid can survive 6.5 hours without peanut butter. A child with a life-threatening allergy might not survive coming into contact with nut residue.

So at the risk of sounding rash, suck it up and leave the peanut butter at home, and don’t make the parents of kids with allergies feel badly about it. Just do it.

It's 9:00 am and my five year old is already on his second peanut butter sandwich of the day. He has gone very few days…

Posted by Heather M. Jones – Writer on Sunday, September 2, 2018

10 COMMENTS

  1. I had read an article of a mom taking her kid to target and the kid had a peanut butter sandwich in the cart, and I thought to myself….mmmm my favorite and then saw all the comments of people going crazy saying how horrible she was and blah blah blah, and I couldn’t understand why like it’s just a sandwich! duh! but holy crackers it’s not just a sandwich, and then it hit me…my daughter got suspended from school one day for hitting a girl that was threatening her friend with a PB& J sandwich that the friend was allergic too…so yeah let’s leave the PB&J sandwich at home…

  2. *bangs head on wall*

    Slightly off-topic, but peanut butter is not a protein. It’s a fat. It’s macro breakdown is 71% fat, 15% carbs, 13% protein. Calorie-for-calorie, bread or pasta has the same amount of protein as peanut butter. A serving of Kraft mac & cheese has more protein than a serving of peanut butter!

    Yes, I’m being a jerk. I know.

    • I am one of the biggest pro-vaxxers there is. I have written extensively on this subject.

      That said, being pro-vax has nothing to do with peanut butter aside from someone once saying “If I can’t send peanut butter, you can’t send preventable diseases.”

      How about we send neither?

  3. Do you advocate for the removal of all chemicals and scented products. Kids and adults with multiple chemical sensitivity like my child suffer daily because of perfume, air fresheners, cleaning chemicals etc. there are few products other than white vinegar we can use to clean. Her disability is so bad she is unable to work, was classified as 100% disabled by social security administrative law judge. To date I have not heard of a any person with peanut allergies 100% disabled and unable to perform daily tasks like go to work. Thank god there is an epi pen for peanut allergies, there is nothing except clean air, oxygen and nebulizers for a severe reaction to chemical allergies. Orange cleaners and Clorox wipes are the worst, we had to go to the state dept of ed to get our district to ban those while she was in school.

    • Yes, I do, if there is a child in the class with a severe reaction like that.

      Most schools and hospitals around here are scent free now.

      My youngest child’s school is latex free due to a teacher with a life-threatening allergy.

      I’m an advocate for accommodating children with disabilities, and that includes severe allergies.

  4. Hi, my son can not have red 40 (it’s a food dye) but his class mates bring snacks food ect to class every day! And that seems to be ok with the school so I educated my son on what he can and cannot have and if he don’t know he won’t eat it. I think by 3rd grade 8 yrs old kids should be able to know what they can and can’t eat.

    • With nuts, it isn’t about knowing what they can and can’t eat. It is that for some kids, even the residue left on the table or on other children’s hands could kill them within minutes. It is difficult to learn when you are constantly concerned for your life.

      If your son’s allergy could cause death from residue, I would support that school going red dye free too.

  5. My child eats what she wants at school, peanut butter sandwiches included. I’m not going to bend over backwards for some one else’s kid just because they happen to have an allergy. My daughter knows not to flaunt she’s eating “bad” food and I tell her why. And I’ve also explained the meaning of “special snowflakes”. Any school notes about what’s in her lunch bag gets tossed in the garbage. And I’ve told her teachers and principal my thoughts on the subject as well. If my kid wants to bring a peanut butter sandwich, Nutella, peanut butter crackers, or anything else with nuts in it to school, then I’ll let her. She could bring worse to school-like a gun!

    • For kids with an allergy, your child’s sandwich is as dangerous as a gun.

      These kids are not special snowflakes. They are kids who shouldn’t have to fear for their lives at school.

      It seems more apt to call the person who is willing to put other children’s lives at risk because their kid can’t go without nuts for a few hours the one who is a special snowflake.

      Way to teach your kid compassion for others.

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