Do Peanuts and Schools Mix?

Taking aim at a time-honored fixture of the school lunch box, a growing number of schools are outlawing the peanut butter sandwich in an effort to combat a steady increase in allergic reactions among children.

Experts estimate that about 5% of the nation’s children under 6 are allergic to peanuts, making it one of the leading food allergies for youngsters. In severe cases, exposure to the legume can be life-threatening.

Most of the peanut bans appear to be taking place in private schools. But public schools are beginning to address the issue, and some have imposed voluntary bans on peanut products.

Such moves are far from being universally supported--even among allergy awareness groups.

The Food Allergy Network, a nonprofit organization based in Virginia, opposes such bans, saying they are unrealistic, difficult to enforce, and require parents and teachers to scrutinize the ingredients of every lunch item.

Peanut growers say their products are healthy food choices for the vast majority of children.

“Peanut butter is high in protein, has the right kind of fat . . . parents don’t have to worry about it spoiling, and it’s economical,” said Jeannette Anderson, president of the American Peanut Council.

But for children like second-grader Ariella Rams, peanut butter can be deadly--even if it’s only an ingredient in cookies or soup.

Ariella’s school, Lomarena Elementary in Laguna Hills, has asked children in her grade to refrain from packing peanut snacks and lunches.

“The bottom line is Ariella’s safety,” said Principal Sharon Vestermark. “It has in many cases been an inconvenience for the other parents, but we have to put the life of this child first.”

Her mother, Gay Yellen-Rams, said: “The right to life supersedes the right of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”

A few private schools, including the Trinity School in New York City and several schools in Canada, are among those that do not allow peanut products. A Minneapolis school now requires students munching on peanut butter sandwiches to sit at a separate table.

In Huntington Beach, a private school banned lunch swapping after a former student died at home from eating a protein bar with a trace of peanut butter.

And the Orange County Department of Education plans to equip, by this fall, every school in the district with injectable medications to counteract life-threatening allergic reactions. A North Hollywood school has the medications and has trained its staff to use them.

To the allergy-uninitiated, all this may sound like a great deal of fuss by overprotective parents and liability-terrified schools. But allergists say the threat is real, and growing.

Childhood deaths in the United States, Canada and Europe due to extreme allergic reactions have increased, according to a report completed this month from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

Those severe reactions, known as anaphylaxis, are characterized by a rapid drop in blood pressure and sudden swelling of the upper and lower respiratory tracts. For such children, even touching peanuts or inhaling their scent can set off a reaction.

Because the study has not been officially released, the academy would not provide numbers or other details, but it recommends that schools identify children with severe allergies and have a game plan for treating them.

Dr. Hugh Sampson, a food allergy specialist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, said that reactions to peanut allergies in children have risen over the last 10 years, along with other types of food allergies. He attributes the jump in large part to the fact that children are exposed to more types of foods at an early age.

Giving infants highly allergenic foods can affect the immune system’s response to the food, allergists say, and many recommend against introducing peanut products to children until age 3.

Peanut allergy reactions tend to be more severe and more long-lasting than other allergic reactions. Most allergies to milk, eggs, wheat and soy are outgrown by age 3--not so with peanuts. The reactions tend to worsen with age, experts said.

The legume--despite the name, peanuts are not nuts--presents a special problem at schools, where it is an ubiquitous item in lunch boxes and where students often swap food.

Even so, peanut bans are unpopular among most parents, who can find packing a school lunch tough without them. Even fussy eaters tend to like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which have the added advantage of not spoiling quickly in lunch boxes.

Ariella, the Lomarena Elementary student, is philosophical about her dangerous allergy. “My sister says that it’s good I’m allergic to peanut butter because it doesn’t taste so good anyway,” she said.

Although school officials have been supportive, her mother has caught some flak from parents who said she was being overprotective.

“They have to think if it was their child who could possibly die from an allergy,” Yellen-Rams said.

That fear became reality for Barbara Flanagan of Fountain Valley, who is preparing for the two-year anniversary of her son’s death.

Joey Flanagan, 12, nibbled on a supposedly peanut-free protein bar and complained of itchy hands and painful ears. Seven minutes after biting into the bar, which turned out to have trace amounts of peanuts, Joey was dead.

Though Joey’s death occurred at home, it prompted his school, Saints Simon and Jude in Huntington Beach, to outlaw all food swapping and enforce the ban rigidly.

Sherrill Remba of Studio City learned about her daughter’s allergy after a kindergarten project last year. Rachel Remba joined her class in making bird feeders by spreading peanut butter on a pine cone and rolling it in birdseed.

“She developed hives around her eyes just from touching the peanut butter,” said Remba, who is a dietitian. “I didn’t even know how serious peanut allergies can be.”

The Los Angeles Unified School District will provide parents with a full list of ingredients and a nutritional breakdown of a school hot lunch, said Carol Noelting, deputy director of the food services branch.