Children's food allergies: It takes a village or every parent for themself?

Look out for your own kid or every parent for themself?

Isn’t that the same thing?

@livelaughlove21 Oops, I meant to say “It takes a village or…” Gotta flag it!

I’m not a parent, so it seems like a really sticky situation. When it comes down to it, I’m sure most people will say “It’s not my problem.” But it seems like there are so many different types of snacks it can possibly be avoided.

I know people that are allergic to all kinds of stuff, so it’s hard to focus on one type of snack to bring. Peanut butter is obvious though. Maybe some kind of fruit slices? Or, like the editorial stated. Maybe let your kids come to you to get the snack, eat it there, then go back out to play.

On a playground, yes, I think it’s each parents responsibility to pick up dropped foods.

Why? Little kids put things in their mouths. At the playground we frequented when our son was little, parents dropped peanuts along with the things mentioned in the article.

My son is not technically allergic, but is intolerant of all the major offending foods. As his parent I had to be rather vigilant in the early years. This is a situation where you are forced to become more aware after you’ve been exposed to a reaction.

In most classrooms, schools and airplanes, peanuts aren’t allowed. I don’t personally thinking it’s too much to ask of people to keep their food to themselves on a playground.

I have a bigger question.
Why do the kids always need to be shoving something into their mouths? Can’t they play outside for an hours or two without stuffing the pie hole? Eat breakfast at home, eat lunch at a table, and eat dinner at home. It is simple.
No wonder we have a childhood obesity problem. The kids are being trained by their own parents to associate food with play.

@LuckyGuy It is a serious problem at the playgrounds. It’s like a non-stop snacking frenzy. There’s a drinking fountain right there, so I rarely brought anything along when we went unless we had a mini picnic at the park nearby.

Honestly, parents feed entire lunches at the playground. It gets a bit ridiculous.

I just wish people would stop leaving their cigarette butts out on playgrounds. I think the goldfish cracker thing is a bit insane, but nicotine is poisonous for everyone! I remember having to leave parks when my daughter was a baby because people would leave out so many butts and she’d crawl right over to them and try to grab and eat them every time. It’s also no fun going to a park full of trash and eaten food with a baby for the same reason. People should clean up after themselves at the park for EVERYONE’s sake.

I can see being worried about peanuts, as they are about the only food allergen that seems to be able to go airborne, but wheat egg and dairy won’t kill you by touching it. I think it’s overboard to hover around with a paper towel picking up everything—especially with a 4 year old—who is more than old enough not to put food they find on the ground in their mouth.

@keobooks I agree with you on the cigarette butts. One of my dogs would gobble them up as if they were treats. Nasty.

I agree with @LuckyGuy. I say the very same thing about people eating in their car. How far are you driving that you have to constantly be eating and drinking. In fact, I think the same about movies. During those two hours you have to buy a popcorn and coke that is 6 times what it should cost? I understand for some the food at the movies is part of the whole experience, but I am just too cheap I guess.

But, back to the main question at hand. I think parents should pick up or have their child pick up after themselves. Food left behind can attract a pile of ants or other insects, let alone a child might be allergic to something. If someone left a piece of food behind in a grassy park I probably would not be so strict, but in a playground anything left on the ground I would consider to be litter. Imagine if lots of kids left food behind.

I guess if your child is extremely allergic, in the end it is the parent of that child who must be extra vigilant, because you can’t rely on any area to be safe, you have to check for yourself.

But, seriously, the food is out of control. We almost never ate while playing outside on a playground when I was a child. I can’t remember doing it at all, but I guess I might have now and then and don’t remember. A piece of candy maybe? We went inside to eat. Or, we sat down on a bench and ate a snack, and threw away all of our trash.

FYI: Someone mentioned above planes not having peanuts on board, and there still are some airlines that do. Delta for one almost always has peanuts to offer in afternoon and evening flights.

I take picnic lunches out to the playground all the time with my daughter. And I’m talking about the middle of the week in the middle of the day and it’s just whatever we were going to eat for lunch at home. I’m a bit surprised people seem so shocked or grossed out by that. It’s a way to eat, go outdoors and keep the house clean all at the same time. I toss it all in the trash, mind you.

@keobooks You probably sit down and have lunch. She isn’t sitting in the sand box carrying gummy bears is she? Picnic lunch is just fine. We sometimes would buy an ice cream from the good humor man at the park, or a pretzel from a vendor, but we weren’t climbing the jungle gym while we ate.

Ahh OK. I thought eating at the park was some newly discovered taboo. I was like… WTF we eat at the park all the time! She doesn’t eat on the playground while she plays because it’s a choking hazard.. and it’s just rude to get up from the table and wander around.

@keobooks The way I understood the article, I admit to skimming it very fast, there was snack food beneath the monkey bars on the ground.

If you don’t throw your junk away, it can blow around. That’s how I assume most playground stuff gets where it’s going. But I’m probably wrong.

@keobooks Good point, that is a possibility I wasn’t thinking of. Although, I think it would be a pretty strong wind to lift food off the ground and blow it around. A food wrapper maybe would blow easily, but a peanut or a cracker? It still comes down to throwing away ones own trash. if the child is sitting with the parent while eating the trash should be easily controlled I would think? But, honestly the way I see people leave trash and drop food in restaurants, I just think a lot of people don’t care at all what they leave behind or how messy they are while they eat. I’m talking about children old enough to eat without making a mess. The parents are a mess too, that’s where the kids get it from. My family was not neat, in fact I think my dad boarders on hoarder status at this point, but out in the public they are very aware of inconveniencing others. Maybe part of the reason is my parents are from NYC and if everyone dropped litter in the city it would be 3 feet high in two days or pigeons would constantly be dive bombing into playgrounds for the gold fish crackers. Not that some New Yorkers don’t litter, of course it happens.

@keobooks @JLeslie Eating a picnic lunch at a park is a great idea. No problem – as long as the mess is cleaned up. The kids should not be snacking the whole time they are outside. That’s where I have issues. Sure, play around outside, eat lunch, then play again. The activities should be separate.
@JLeslie.I understand why some people would need to eat in the car. I used to do it if I was between meetings and traveling from on place to another. It was lunch, not a snack.

Check it out. See that car in the right lane going 7 mph slower than everyone else? The driver is a big person eating a big something or drinking a big gulp.
(Or it’s a 20 something texting.)

Hmm, what about the little kids who will keel over and die from low blood sugar if they can’t eat a snack in public? I’m sure my mother didn’t expect other parents to carry around food to save my ass…that was her responsibility.

The number of people who come in for a doctor’s visit with snacks and coffee is ridiculous. Not to mention the kids make a huge mess and there’s crumbs everywhere. I got really mad when a lady came late with her Starbucks coffee and pastry in her hand – you’d have been on time if you hadn’t stopped for that! Then I was running late the rest if my morning which inconveniences the rest of my patients. Ugh.

My son is almost 22 and even when he was in school there were no kids I knew of with food allergies. If you’re providing for the class or soccer team, then one should be mindful of the needs of the class or teammates. But if you’re going to the park, it’s you only need to worry about those whom you are bringing with you. If you’re planning to meetup with others there, you might consider sharing with them, as well – but I’d be inclined to discuss it beforehand.

As for drops or spills, I taught my son not to litter. I try to follow the philosophy of anything I bring in also comes out with me (or at least is discarded in an appropriate trash/recycling receptacle). Now a stray Goldfish cracker or crumb I’d have might let slide, thinking the birds will get it. It’s also the duty of the adults with the allergic child to supervise them closely and teach them not to eat anything until they know it’s safe.

@bookish1 But, were you eating your snack while playing on the jungle gym?

@LuckyGuy I can see when eating in the car is sometimes necessary, but I see kids that have juice boxes and snacks everywhere in every situation, and they aren’t diabetic, just to acknowledge @bookish1‘s point that some people need to eat at very specific times for medical reasons. Some people think it is just fine to eat while driving, I do it when I have no other choice, but it is my last choice. For me it is not the standard it is the exception. I guess if a kid has only 15 minutes between school dismissal and getting to their piano lesson they might eat in the car, but it all sounds so rushed to me then.

This article was a response to the article Supermouse posted. It kind of summed up what I was thinking.