Peanut butter on the playground
Posted on May 14th, 2007 by alison
I took my girls to the playground today and my 2.5 year old daughter made a new friend. Some kids just hit it off, and these two girls were giddy with each other. They giggled, tackled, and hugged. Both were cruising around with remnants of their lunches in their hands (I can feel the mothers of food-allergic children cringing right now) - my daughter had a last piece of gluten-free tortilla and her friend a piece of bread with jelly. Right after the hug, the little girl’s mother told her daughter to be careful because her hands were messy… with peanut butter.
Alarms went off in my head - peanut butter! I felt like I was seeing one of those TV programs where they go into the hotel rooms with a black light to see where the… um… “mess” is. Anyway, I was imagining peanut butter everywhere - on the playhouse that sits in the sand, on the sides of the slide where kids run their hands as they spiral down, on the chains holding the swings, and on the handle of the bathroom door.
Luckily for me, my kid isn’t allergic to peanut butter (according to tests). Cashews yes, and I have seen kids with baggies of cashews on the same playground, but I don’t worry about cashew butter around the place (maybe I should?)
So today I am asking the question - do parents of peanut-allergic children bring their kids to playgrounds? If so, how do they keep their kids safe? Please comment below and help the other mothers out there!
We go to playgrounds, but I try very hard not to think about peanut butter on the equipment.
We don’t go anywhere without my son’s epi-pen and Benadryl. He seems to get a skin rash from touching peanut butter, but it’s not been anaphylactic so far. (Fingers crossed.)
I’ve found crushed peanut shells on the playground, as well — that freaked me out at the time.
My daughter is deathly allergic to peanuts and I worry about this all the time. I will not discontinue taking her to the playground because of it, I think it’s important to not live in fear and to teach her not to either…but to be prepared in case anything does happen.
I cringe when I overhear parents offering their children anything with peanuts in it…or when I took my kids to the zoo a couple weeks ago and while in the restroom a mother came in saying to her daughter “you’ve got peanut butter everywhere!”
I wish that there were a way for me to educate every unaware parent about peanut (and other food allergies), that they are to be taken seriously and to rethink what they give to their kids because it may affect others.
My son also has a severe peanut allergy, and we go to the park quite often but it’s a big stressor for me. I wipe the swing handles, but give him a little “space” on the other equipment (we invented our own “secret signal”, a sort of sign language I could do from across the park to remind him that he needs to watch what other kids’ hands do, and to keep his own hands away from his mouth–very difficult for environmental-allergy kids who always wipe their noses on their sleeves!). Things became MUCH easier for us last fall, when he outgrew the phase where kids put everything in their mouths, but I still get nervous.
My best advice is for parents to approach any Rogue Peanut Surprises the same way you do any other danger at the park– when teens run crazy circles too close to my playing infant, I summon my Used-To-Be-A-Teacher voice and say, “Kids, you need to be more careful, please. There are babies nearby. Thank you.” Granted, no one disputes the danger of roughhousing near a one-year old, and evidence has shown that plenty of people (unfortunately) disbelieve the dangers of peanuts, but I still think that as parents we need to relay the urgency to others clearly, regardless of what they think. I have had to be assertive on numerous occasions, and I know it is not always easy, but consider the alternative.
For years I have been terrified of a reaction. We’ve had only one (to peanut butter). I’ve tried to talk to friend/parents about the real terminal dangers of peanut butter. I have compared it to “its like having a little kid running around with a loaded gun in front of my daughter”. People seem like the understand. They seem concerned and thoughtful. Then, the open up a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup and hand it to their child. Hmmmm. This is not working.
My 6-year old has a severe peanut allergy. At this stage in her life, she’s able to communicate and protect herself well. Its very empowering for her to know that she can wash her hands after playing on equipment. She can watch out for people eating peanut butter and avoid them.
Of course, I always have her Epi-Pen and Benedryl quick strip. I’m always alert and proactive too. But I cannot rely (at all) on other people to protect my daughter. And I can’t always be there either. So I’ve educated my daughter and she’s 95% reliable. She’ll do absolutely anything to avoid that Epi-Pen. The 5% failure is when she’s unaware of the presence of peanuts. So that’s the reality.