Both my children have a severe food allergy. My daughter is allergic to tree nuts, and my son is allergic to eggs.   I just read a great article on why schools need to take precautions with peanut and nut allergies in order to keep kids safe:

Attack of the Killer Sandwiches

I cannot tell you how many times I have had an adult come up to me and complain about a school’s policy on allergies, and being nut-free in particular.  I have heard it all, among the most common:

1. But my child will only eat peanut butter sandwiches so what am I supposed to give him for lunch?

2. Nut-free products are too expensive, why should I bear the cost when my child doesn’t have an allergy?

3. Why can’t those kids just eat somewhere else?

I am definitely not the expert on this topic but I am able to speak from personal experience and research.  My typical responses are all found in the article I linked to above, it is a really good explanation of why we need to be vigilant as parents for all the children in the school.  I understand that I may not feel this way if my kids weren’t both severely allergic themselves, but I hope I would.  I usually end my conversations with these parents the same way – “I don’t want another child to die or be hospitalized because I didn’t take every precaution.”  It sounds like a pretty severe statement but this is an issue about children’s safety and there really isn’t anything more important to me.  So get your child eating ham and cheese during the week, suck it up and spend the extra $1 on the nut free snack, and read the article so you understand that putting the kids in a different room isn’t going to make them any safer.  And thank you!  I appreciate it.