Cupcakes Banned!, or No More Food at School B-Day Parties

Hi,

Here's a short essay I wrote on a new policy banning food at birthday parties at my son's school. I hope you'll enjoy:

http://www.wbez.org/blog/mark-bazer/201 ... -parties-9

-- Mark

Mark, funny and nicely written article. I can't help but think that the pro-cupcake crowd should get together with the reform-the-school-lunch-program crowd and work out a compromise.

Darren72 wrote:Mark, funny and nicely written article. I can't help but think that the pro-cupcake crowd should get together with the reform-the-school-lunch-program crowd and work out a compromise.

You are assuming that you can compromise with zealots.

I'm guessing another reason for this kind of ruling is that with the apparent increased incidence of (or at least reporting of) allergies, schools are concerned about lawsuits that could result from allergic reactions.

In large part, the ban has to do with the increase in school allergies, but there is a faction that wants no cupcakes in school at all simply for health reason. To top that off, our health department is starting to sniff around and ban whole-classroom homemade snacks of any kind (which means no homemade pear or beet chips as well as no homemade cake.)

Our school's wellness policy is very, very reasonable: mini cupcakes - and if a kid shows up with larger cupcakes (sometimes they even show with the jumbo-sized ones) cut them into single-portion servings. We've also had fruit popsicles as a birthday treat. As a school lunch zealot, I have no problem with this. Snacks are supposed to be healthy, meaning fruit or vegetables or whole-grain crackers/pretzels. Candy is not allowed period, and I don't have a problem with that, either.

Middle ground is an excellent option.

David Hammond wrote:I'm guessing another reason for this kind of ruling is that with the apparent increased incidence of (or at least reporting of) allergies, schools are concerned about lawsuits that could result from allergic reactions.

That occurred to me as well, but why wouldn't the school just come out and say that? (Unless they don't want to put the allergic kids on the spot.) But I can't help but scratch my head at the sheer increase in food allergies (and I'll include gluten intolerance in that group). I don't recall one kid with a peanut allergy all through school. And now, no one can apparently eat gluten. And Venus Williams has a chronic illness that ... hmmm... bears no relation to the fact that she's old (for an athlete), does not train properly and/or well during the off-season and still plays tennis? What a strange world we live in.

Here's the flip side of the debate, written by a friend of mine who I met in the blogosphere. I don't know that I agree with a total ban, but I do see her point: http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/bellaire ... 1fbcc.html

She points out that If a kid has 25 students in his class and there are 180 instructional days, that means about 1/7th of the school year = cupcake (or donut or cookie or ice cream) day. That's not counting Halloween, Valentine's Day, Easter or any other day where kids tend to bring treats to school anyway.

As a mom with a kid in school, the allergies are a real thing: there have been a couple of incidents in the past several years where an allergic kid had to be treated because some kindly friend offered him a snack with the allergen in it, fortunately the protocols for treating the kids have improved. There is an exponential increase in life-threatening allergies at our school from my son's grade (I think we have one) down to kindergarten (I think one of the earlier grades has five or six kids;) these aren't over-protective parents whose kids are over-diagnosed, these are kids who go to the hospital if exposed to the allergen. Some of these kids get contact dermatitis from touching a surface the allergen has been on.

Mhays wrote: To top that off, our health department is starting to sniff around and ban whole-classroom homemade snacks of any kind (which means no homemade pear or beet chips as well as no homemade cake.)
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Chicago Public Schools bans all whole-classroom homemade items.

CPS health regulations do not allow the serving of homemade food to children in school during regular school hours. If you are sending food for a class party, the food must be purchased from a licensed vendor (grocery store, bakery, or fast-food chain).

aschie30 wrote:

David Hammond wrote:I'm guessing another reason for this kind of ruling is that with the apparent increased incidence of (or at least reporting of) allergies, schools are concerned about lawsuits that could result from allergic reactions.

That occurred to me as well, but why wouldn't the school just come out and say that? (Unless they don't want to put the allergic kids on the spot.) But I can't help but scratch my head at the sheer increase in food allergies (and I'll include gluten intolerance in that group). I don't recall one kid with a peanut allergy all through school. And now, no one can apparently eat gluten. And Venus Williams has a chronic illness that ... hmmm... bears no relation to the fact that she's old (for an athlete), does not train properly and/or well during the off-season and still plays tennis? What a strange world we live in.

This is a touchy topic. The Wife taught in a classroom last year where a child had a rather serious allergy and the parents requested that no teacher or administrator mention a word of the child's condition for fear he (or maybe it was a she) would be ostracized, which sounds like overly-sensitive bullshit to me...and a potential danger to the child who may be exposed by another student, unwittingly, to the allergen.

Mhays wrote:As a mom with a kid in school, the allergies are a real thing: there have been a couple of incidents in the past several years where an allergic kid had to be treated because some kindly friend offered him a snack with the allergen in it, fortunately the protocols for treating the kids have improved. There is an exponential increase in life-threatening allergies at our school from my son's grade (I think we have one) down to kindergarten (I think one of the earlier grades has five or six kids;) these aren't over-protective parents whose kids are over-diagnosed, these are kids who go to the hospital if exposed to the allergen. Some of these kids get contact dermatitis from touching a surface the allergen has been on.

I'm not claiming that food allergies don't exist at all -- it's the apparent increase in them that puzzles me. If we really have had a serious increase in food allergies (over prior generations) perhaps our medical profession should be devoting more time to researching the source. Is it the mother's diet during pregnancy? Is it what we feed our kids when they're young (ie, unvaried diets)? Because although I admit that I'm kind of a no-bullshit person when it comes to medical issues (I rarely see the doctor, prefer homeopathic remedies to prescriptions) and that in part comes from living with a parent who has had years of auto-immune diagnoses heaped upon her, the primary course of treatment for which are heavy, mind-numbing drugs, which only cause greater issues. So, I guess, I'm not willing to cede all to what I see as the medical profession's uncontrollable need to heap grave diagnoses on every little cough, ache, or red splotch on our bodies. I also don't accept that we are on the fast-train to a peanut-free society -- just yet. FWIW, Europeans (as well as other cultures) generally scoff at these newfangled American food allergies, and they seem to be doing just fine. Having said that, I understand and accept that there are those who smell a peanut and need to be rushed to the hospital, just as there are those who can die if stung by a bee. But my unscientific hunch is that these people are fewer and farther in between that it would seem.

I realize I'm veering off-course a tad here -- and as Hammond says, it's a touchy subject -- but if the ban on cupcakes is at least somewhat allergy-driven, I'd really like to know why we at least seem to be experiencing such an increase in kids with food allergies.

P.S. I often get dermatitis (not life-threatening) from drinking red wine. But as anyone who knows me will tell you, that sure as heck don't stop me.

aschie30 wrote:

Mhays wrote:As a mom with a kid in school, the allergies are a real thing: there have been a couple of incidents in the past several years where an allergic kid had to be treated because some kindly friend offered him a snack with the allergen in it, fortunately the protocols for treating the kids have improved. There is an exponential increase in life-threatening allergies at our school from my son's grade (I think we have one) down to kindergarten (I think one of the earlier grades has five or six kids;) these aren't over-protective parents whose kids are over-diagnosed, these are kids who go to the hospital if exposed to the allergen. Some of these kids get contact dermatitis from touching a surface the allergen has been on.

I'm not claiming that food allergies don't exist at all -- it's the apparent increase in them that puzzles me.
... I often get dermatitis (not life-threatening) from drinking red wine. But as anyone who knows me will tell you, that sure as heck don't stop me.

We're talking about kids with epi-pens here: kids with intolerances (for instance, Sparky is lactose-intolerant) or mild allergies (one kid used to get a mild rash from strawberries) are noted but not considered for classroom food bans.

As for medical science, yes, there is a LOT of work going on trying to figure out the increase in allergies - but as the explosion is a fairly recent phenomenon and research is a long-term thing, it hasn't been much help. There are all kinds of theories (yes, one of the most popular is to blame the parents for poor prenatal care, poor feeding and generally poor management of their child, but that's the same for any given childhood disease) http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/08/03/fo ... index.html

Mhays wrote:We're talking about kids with epi-pens here: kids with intolerances (for instance, Sparky is lactose-intolerant) or mild allergies (one kid used to get a mild rash from strawberries) are noted but not considered for classroom food bans.

But this is sort of what I'm getting at ... and most likely a catalyst for school-wide bans of things like cupcakes. Epi-pens are not hard to come by. Most doctors will prescribe them simply upon request. I have an epi-pen, because my throat inexplicably swelled shut when eating seafood many years ago in an incident I can't seem to replicate. Dermatitis, while it can be uncomfortable (or not), is hardly life-threatening, and shouldn't, as a matter of course, necessitate visits to the ER. We live in a world where common colds are dubbed "chest infections," and common cuts are heavily bandaged when they used to be treated with hydrogen peroxide and a band-aid. I think there is a bit of overreaction societally to what are common medical ailments, and because we're dealing with children, we're gravitating towards a world in which over-protection seems to be the only answer.

Gosh darn, I don't know how I survived, riding in cars with no seatbelts, not wearing a helmet when riding a bike, and worst of all, attending a school that occasionally permitted homemade cupcakes to be served.

Um, as the wife of a paramedic, an allergic reaction requiring an epi-pen is not the same as a bruise or a rash: a child died last year in Chicago. If you don't administer the pen in exactly the right way with the right timing, the reaction can be fatal.

I'm sure you would like to have the last word, here - but anaphylaxis is no laughing matter. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10931122

Does this mean an end to bake sales also?

My second grader came home with a form letter stating that dairy and egg products we not allowed for snacks as there was a child in his class with said algeries. I called the principal to see if that meant that any use of dairy or egg products were banned in class or if only something like a hard boiled egg was banned? She had no idea and asked the nurse to follow up and get back to us... A day later the nurse called and said that any snacks would be OK with the mom of the kid ???? huge over-reaction by the school to a small issue for the child.

aschie30 wrote:...common cuts are heavily bandaged when they used to be treated with hydrogen peroxide and a band-aid...

Reminder that all medical advice you read on the internet is worth exactly what you paid for it.

Hydrogen Peroxide apparently kills healthy tissue when you use it to clean a wound. It is not needed, as it doesn't do a good job of disinfecting.

Big wads of gauze are often used because people have hair that keeps bandaids from adhering, they get irritation from latex or adhesive, or it's just easier to do. I get an itchy rash from some adhesives on sensitive parts of the body (like my throat).

(note that cleaning and disinfecting are two different things - the bubbles of the hydrogen can physically lift some debris out, but it doesn't actually do much in the way of getting rid of bacteria)

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/first-aid-cuts/FA00042
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/456300_3

To keep this on food, hydrogen peroxide is a very effective purgative to be used when Your Dumbass Dog Eats Something He Shouldn't

Who was giving medical advice?

Back to food...

I think I was, suggesting to not use Hydrogen Peroxide on wounds.

leek wrote: To keep this on food, hydrogen peroxide is a very effective purgative to be used when Your Dumbass Dog Eats Something He Shouldn't

YUP

All I know is that my 2nd grader has been back to school for more or less a week, and there have been three birthdays in her class already, each resulting in brightly colored lips and uneaten lunches at the end of the day. Allergies, health, messes ... I just want her to eat her lunch, dammit!