Sep. 9--With an estimated 2 in 10 people suffering from allergies, it's not surprising a significant number include those who are allergic to nuts.
According to WebMD, while the number of adults having peanut allergies has not changed much over the years, numbers of children with peanut allergies has jumped significantly -- doubling from 0.4% in 1997 to 0.8% in 2002.
South Heart and Hettinger schools have both opted to go nut-free, due to having children with nut allergies attending their schools.
Hettinger Principal Adam Hill said
the school has been nut-free for some time.
"We've basically gone peanut-free in the whole school," Hill said. "We've taken anything out of the candy and pop machine that has nuts in it or has been made in a manufacturing plant where they make something else with peanuts in it."
While Hettinger has had the nut-free policy for approximately 4 to 5 years, South Heart recently made the switch this year.
"We do have a few students in the district that do have severe allergies to it," said South Heart Principal Riley Mattson. "We are making every effort to maintain the safety of not just those few but all of the students."
Mattson said a district-wide memo went out in August forewarning parents about the school's nut-free status, prohibiting snacks, cooking projects or sack lunches containing any kind of peanut product to be brought into the building.
Changes to the menus and school rules are based on medical consultation, Mattson said, which the school used to determine what was best for the students.
"With these students, respiratory arrest can happen in a matter of minutes and would require immediate care and emergency facility," Mattson said. "We don't want to get to that point."
Mattson said making the switch to being a completely nut-free school was brought up last year, but was only inducted as policy this year.
"This is not a new thing," Mattson said. "We went about it last year. We still had peanut butter, but we made choices for students that if there was a certain class that had a peanut or tree-nut allergy that those kids wouldn't eat peanut butter. It got to be it was a hassle doing that."
Both schools now use SunButter, a peanut butter-type product made solely out of sunflower seeds, which replaces regular peanut butter.
Mattson said there have been some complaints of the use of SunButter instead of regular peanut butter, but said the safety of the students is important.
"It comes down to safety, period," Mattson said.
So far, compliance for the new policy has been good, Mattson said.
"We're happy with that," he added. "It's just going to take some time to let them know there's a slight change in what we can and cannot bring to school."
Hill said epipens, which are used to stop an allergic reaction, have also been placed all around the school in case an emergency occurs. An epipen is an autoinjector of epinephrine that treats anaphylactic shock.
Overall, Hill said there have not been many instances of nuts getting into the building.
"We probably have one or two instances a year where someone will slip up and send something," Hill said. "We have notices on every entrance to the school and we send out plenty of paraphernalia and stuff like to let them know what the situation is."
Allergy Specialist Dr. James Larson of Medcenter One said those with nut allergies are something he sees quite a bit.
"Within those that have food allergies, nuts and peanuts are by far the most common, from what I've read," Larson said. "We see a lot of them."
Larson said those with nut allergies can have varying symptoms.
"Some people have a little tingling in their throat, or maybe itching in the mouth," Larson said. "Some people have pretty serious reactions. It's hard to tell from the history how sensitive they are. There have been people that have had a reaction from kissing someone that just had a nut."
Larson said tests can be done, but tests like skin tests can be dangerous if someone has a severe sensitivity.
"There's a bit of a risk in skin testing," Larson said. "If there's a strong family history and the patient has had a strong reaction to the nut, we will probably bypass the skin testing of the nuts."
According to WebMD, when one parent is allergic, their child has a 50% chance of having allergies. That risk jumps to 75% if both parents have allergies.
"It can be fairly intense," Larson said. "I think that's why the airplanes and the school systems are trying to get away from (nuts)," Larson said. "To minimize their liability they are almost better off not to have them (nuts) around at all."
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