Welcome to a Nut-Free World

My toddler’s preschool is loudly nut-free. There’s a sign near the entrance. It’s written in uppercase letters in the parents’ handbook. And it’s reflected in the catered hot lunches they serve to students everyday. Nuts are even banned from gifts to teachers. Last winter holiday I tried very hard to find a box of assorted chocolates to give to staff (turns out almost all of them contain traces of peanuts), and ultimately had to settle for a box of cream-filled ones.

When I take my kids to indoor play centres, there’s almost always a sign at the door declaring it a “nut-free zone.” Schools, summer camps, community centres, and birthday party venues are also all nut-free.

It’s all for good measure: peanut allergies are one of the most common food allergies, affecting roughly 3 percent of kids in the U.S. And for some, an allergic reaction can cause life-threatening anaphylaxis, requiring use of an EpiPen and emergency medical attention. I know if one of my kids had even a slight allergy to something, having that food banned from their school would give me peace of mind.

However, the lengths we go to avoid nuts in shared spaces for kids nowadays makes me think about just how common nuts really were in my childhood, especially when it came to the everpresent peanut butter (and jelly) sandwich.

There are very few lunches I remember bringing to school when I was a kid. That wasn’t because my parents let me buy my lunch or return home midday; it’s that I had very little variety. On any given week, I’d open my Looney Tunes lunchbox and find either a bologna sandwich, a ham sandwich, or a peanut butter sandwich. Every so often, I might get a Lunchables kit – the one with slices of ham, cheese, and crackers, or if I was really lucky (and there was a sale at the grocery store), the one with a cold, dry, deconstructed pepperoni pizza.

But most of the time, I ate peanut butter sandwiches, and if I’m being honest, it was the only lunch that I never got tired of. At around noon, I’d unwrap a sandwich made of Kraft smooth peanut butter on pillowy white sliced bread with the crust cut off. It was packed alongside a juice box of Minute Maid fruit punch, a package of Dunkaroos or Soda Licious fruit snacks, and a cheese stick or a couple of Ritz crackers.

I wasn’t the outlier. Not only did many other kids bring peanut butter sandwiches to school for lunch, but almost all of us swapped snacks at recess that contained nuts or traces of them. Peanut M&Ms and Reese’s peanut butter cups, trail mix and granola bars, brownies and other pastries were all currency on the playground. On top of that, we ate them right next to kids who had nut allergies, and most of the time, they were expected to fend for themselves. It was a different, perhaps crueler, time.

Have peanut allergies gotten worse? Because it definitely feels like they have.

Looking into the research, the findings are actually mixed. There was an apparent spike in peanut allergies in the early 2000s, but more recent research suggests rates may now be declining.

I know there will come a day very soon when my husband and I will wake up even earlier than we already do to pack school lunches. It seems a lot of parents nowadays pack a bento box with no less than half a dozen different foods for their kids – a modern, healthier take on Lunchables, I suppose. Peanut butter sandwiches (on white bread with the crust cut off) will need to be reserved for weekends at home.

If they’re bringing any sort of sweet sandwich to school, there are tons of “nutty” spreads that are popular alternatives to peanut butter, including the soy-based Wowbutter and sunflower-seed SunButter, that we can try. My kids luckily don’t have allergies (that we know of) but I’m glad that any of their classmates that do are able to worry a little less, at least when it comes to peanuts and tree-nuts.