Hellobee Boards

@ladybee: I think all you can do is ask. I don't know, though if the policy is strict.

@ladybee: I had a daycare tell me my LO could not have almond milk at school. I was pretty livid--in the end, I transitioned her to hemp milk, but I feel like the whole nut-free thing has started encroaching on other children's nutritional needs. My little sister is severely allergic to tree nuts (not peanuts, which are legumes and not nuts) and she never went to a nut free school. Our house wasn't even nut free.

I asked if there were any kids in the infant class with a nut allergy and they said no. But that nut allergies are common to it's just a school wide rule because they'd had previous parents of kids with nut allergies who complained and wanted a whole nut free school.

I do wonder if at some point, there will be any kind of legal court case over this. If my doctor recommends almond milk (say, my child is allergic to hemp and coconut, and rice isn't nutritious and also has the arsenic issue), then whose child's nutrition is more important? The kid in the 4 year old room with the nut allergy, or my LO who needs a "milk" and this is the only one she can use, you know?

These days, half of every class has an allergy to something--dairy, wheat, strawberries, melon, corn, nuts, legumes...you can't just eliminate *all* those things from *every* kids' diet.

I would ask and go from there. Will he be using a sippy or bottle? If there are no allergies in his class, hopefully they will allow it!

Almond milk isn't allowed at our center.

@ladybee: I wonder if you could make the argument that a breastfeeding baby would be allowed breast milk regardless of whether the mom was following a nut free diet and that is allowed and the staff are able to monitor and prevent reactions in that scenario. Would you be okay with offering to pack his own bottles and milk? Then the milk wouldn't be out, there'd be no possibility of the teacher serving it to others, the bottles wouldn't even go to the kitchen.

Just brainstorming for you. I hope it works out!

Not to sound rude, I'm genuinely curious, what is the huge need for a "milk". There are so many other ways to get calories/calcium/nutrients that is it really a "need"? Is what they get at home truely not enough?

We drink milk alternatives since 1 but hardly more than a cup a day and my ped has never been concerned.

I hear you. Xander's allergic to milk too and it's annoying how milk allergies are treated. No one asks people to stop providing milk to their kids (well, besides that one daycare that came up the other day), but parents are asked to not provide other allergens. It sucks.

That said, we use hemp milk for Xander. It's the closest, nutrition-wise, to cow's milk, so I think that could be a good substitute for you instead of almond milk if your daycare ends up saying no to you.

@luckypenny: in some cases, kids aren't very good eaters and the milk/milk alternatives are a way to add calories and fats. If your LO has been a good eater and not a good milk drinker--that's fine. Some kids are the opposite.

My LO is MSPI and wasn't a good eater until the past month or so (she's almost 15 months). We had *so* many days from month 11-month 13 where she would hardly eat anything all day long, but would still drink hemp milk from a bottle.

I think daycares are putting parents in a difficult position by adopting these school-wide rules when in some cases there isn't even a kid with a particular allergy in a class. The other thread someone posted yesterday--when the daycare suddenly banned all seeds, nuts, peanuts (which are not nuts), wheat, dairy,soy, eggs and something else (I'm making that list up, I just remember it is a very long list). For me personally, these things have reached a tipping point. These policies need to be examined and some procedures should be put in place to protect the kid with the allergy without telling every other kid in the class what they can and can't eat.

I work in a public school (obviously older than daycare kids) and we have a ton of kids with allergies to everything under the sun and we have yet to have an issue with an allergic reaction because of an "airborne" food allergen. Only in 1 case have we ever had an issue severe enough to need a table that was "____ free" for that kid, but every other kid in the cafeteria was still able to bring what they wanted to eat from home.

Which is a position I fully support, by the way. It's required at the beginning of the year that the nurse give us the list of every student's allergies and we have students allergic to literally everything---corn, wheat, berries, melon, nuts, legumes, dairy, soy, coconut, banana, kiwi, gluten.

Is one type of allergy more important that another? Should we ban nuts and also ban all of the above?

and just for fun reading..... this sums up my feelings, in a nut shell

http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1869095,00.html

@jedeve: One theory being explored is that proximity to dairy farms is a big factor!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/07/140709095620.htm

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/05/07/amish-have-fewer-allergies-due-to-farm-effect/