This is a battle over peanut butter. Tiny amounts of peanut products in her mouth, eyes or nose will send her body into shock, virtually instantaneously. Her face, mouth and throat swell, breathing becomes very difficult, she becomes disoriented and, if not treated immediately with an injection of adrenalin, she could die within minutes. Even this treatment will buy her perhaps only 15 minutes to get to the emergency room. It is estimated that at least 1 per cent of all children suffer from some form of anaphylaxis and experts agree that it is on the rise in children.
Most families are supportive of such initiatives.
But there is a small and vocal minority who assert that their rights are being violated. This argument is usually focused around peanut butter, an inexpensive, convenient source of protein for children's lunches. But for the anaphylactic child, peanut butter is poison. Peanut butter is particularly deadly to anaphylactic children because it sticks to surfaces, to cutlery and to hands and faces. One Canadian child died because the jam sandwich she had eaten had been made with a knife used to make a peanut butter sandwich.