BLOOMINGTON - Central Illinois schools try to make accommodations for each child with an allergy, depending on the child's allergy severity, school officials said.

Examples of accommodations are having children with a peanut allergy sit at a table in the school cafeteria where no students may have peanuts and asking parents to avoid bringing into those children's classrooms any homemade snacks and snacks that contain peanuts.

But school officials try to avoid banning peanuts and peanut products from the entire building.

"You can't just ban peanuts from all the schools," said Laura Baue, school nurse in Unit 5's Colene Hoose and Sugar Creek elementary schools, Normal. Instead, accommodations need to be addressed at each school, using school district protocols.

"We are not banning peanut products from the schools," she said. "It's a very emotionally charged issue. You want to start a fight? Ban peanuts."

District 87 and Olympia take a similar approach.

"We do not have any schools that are peanut-free," said Tina Fogal, principal of Stevenson Elementary School in Bloomington and the director of District 87's school nurses.

But some District 87 schools have been peanut-free in the past when a child with a severe peanut allergy was enrolled.

District 87 elementary schools have about 75 students with a food allergy, Fogal said. Bloomington Junior High and Bloomington High schools have about 25 students with a food allergy.

Olympia schools with a student with a peanut allergy have peanut-free tables and don't allow snacks with peanuts or homemade snacks in schools, Superintendent Brad Hutchison said. Of 2,150 children in Olympia this year, Hutchison is aware of four with a food allergy.

"We are willing to say 'no' to peanut products to create a safe environment for the children," Hutchison said, but the balanced approach seems to be working.

Dr. Mark Ulbrich, a Bloomington allergist, agrees with the accommodation approach and is not in favor of school-wide peanut bans.

"Peanuts are a good, cheap source of protein… and most kids like peanut butter and jelly and peanuts," he said. "So (bans) are great for people with allergies, but what about the people who need peanuts for protein?"

Ulbrich estimates that 1 of 150 children has a peanut allergy.

Children with diagnosed food allergies became prevalent just in the past few years, Baue said.

"In the last five years, it's catapulted," said another veteran school nurse, Susy Marcum of Unit 5's Prairieland and Grove elementary schools.

Among Grove's 688 students, 26 have a food allergy and 16 of them are to peanuts, Marcum said. Among Prairieland's 571 students, 16 have a food allergy and 10 are to peanuts.

Other food allergens among children are tree nuts, soybeans, eggs, milk and shellfish, Ulbrich said.

In the junior highs and high schools, peanut butter remains available in the cafeteria but the students are older and know how to deal with their allergies, Marcum said. In addition, there are fewer older students with food allergies.

Unit 5 has an elementary school peanut allergy protocol, which details accommodations that may be made, including meeting with parents and encouraging them to fill out a food allergy action plan that details what would be done in the event of an accidental exposure to the food. District 87 and Olympia have similar plans.

Some children with severe allergies are sent to school with an epinephrine auto-injector (EpiPen), a prescription medicine used to treat severe allergic reactions. School staff is trained in how to inject a student who has accidentally eaten something with peanuts, school officials said.

"So far, I haven't had to use one," Baue said. Some students are sent to school with Benadryl.

Parents of children without food allergies should be sympathetic of families dealing with an allergy.

"Keep an open mind and put yourself in the position of the parents dealing with the food allergy," Hutchison said.

Marcum agreed. "It could be life-threatening. You have to be aware of every single piece of food that your child eats. No one would choose that."

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Backlash to growing number of school peanut bans has unlikely allies

By Melissa Kossler Dutton | For The Associated Press

When Terri Mauro posed the question, "What's so bad about peanut-butter bans?" on her Web site, she never expected the volume of cold and angry comments she received.

"The responses are still coming in a year later," said Mauro, who considers blanket bans on peanut butter an acceptable measure to protect children with life-threatening allergies.

Peanut bans in schools often lead to a flurry of angry phone calls and letters to local newspapers. Some communities even circulate petitions asking school officials to change their minds.

"People are a little unhinged about this," said Mauro, who edits a Web site for parents with special needs children.

More schools than ever are banning peanuts and peanut products as the number of kids diagnosed with the potentially life-threatening allergy has climbed dramatically in recent years. While doctors try to figure out the reasons for the rise, the situation pits parents against each other and puts school districts in the middle.

Lisa Searles was shocked at how mad parents got in April 2007, when she asked the board of education in Seymour, Conn., to ban peanut butter at her son's elementary school.

"People were extremely rude," she said. "They just thought it was a ridiculous request."

People left nasty posts on local message boards. One online writer suggested ending the issue by putting all the allergic children in a room together and feeding them peanuts, Searles said.

When officials at Rock Creek Elementary School in O'Fallon, Mo., banned peanut butter, Jennifer Kaiser took a more reasoned approach. She attended a meeting and suggested the school find a compromise that would allow students to continue to pack peanut butter sandwiches and keep students with allergies safe.

"I thought there were better ways to handle it," the mother of two said. "As a community our job is to teach our kids to live in the world."

Banning peanuts, she said, "is not teaching children how to grow up in the real world."

Parents opposed to the bans have an unlikely ally - an advocacy group for people with food allergies. The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network in Fairfax, Va., recommends schools treat each student's allergy individually and adopt plans that emphasize continued vigilance rather than food bans.

The increase in peanut bans corresponds to an increase in students diagnosed with peanut allergies. Between 1997 and 2002, the rates of peanut allergies in children under age five doubled, said Dr. Hugh A. Sampson, president of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.

Today, there are 400,000 school-age children with peanut allergies.

Peanuts and some other foods can cause the body to go into anaphylactic shock, a life-threatening condition where a person's blood pressure drops and his or her airways narrow. The condition can normally be relieved with a dose of adrenaline, also called epinephrine. Children and adults with severe food allergies carry shots of epinephrine.

After the Seymour Board of Education shot down her request for a peanut ban, Searles has focused on other ways to keep 7-year-old Matthew safe at school, including trying to teach him to inject himself with adrenaline.

"I feel pretty confident," she said. "He's a smart kid."

The main worry for Searles, like many parents, is that her son would have a reaction without actually eating a peanut product. It's possible for Matthew to have a reaction from touching a table or utensil with peanut butter on it and then putting his hand into his mouth or rubbing his eyes, Searles said.

Sharon Terzian in Warwick, R.I., has a daughter with a life-threatening allergy to latex. She understands the concerns about peanut butter but disagrees with food bans.

"We know we can't put her in a bubble and send her to school," she said. "There's a personal responsibility for any kid."

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Can't do the PB in PB&J? Try a pretzel sandwich

By J.M. Hirsch | Associated Press

Whether or not your child has food allergies, you're likely to encounter a no-peanut butter rule at some point. But getting a kid who is hooked on PB&J to take soy nut or sunflower seed butter seriously isn't always easy.

So sometimes you have to get a little wacky, as in this not-peanut-butter-pretzel-dried-cherry-and-marshmallow sandwich dreamed up by my peanut butter-addicted 3-year-old.

This recipe makes enough spread for two sandwiches. Refrigerate the excess for later use.

SO NOT! A PB&J

Start to finish: 10 minutes

Servings: 1 sandwich, plus spread for 1 more

1/2 cup soy nut or sunflower seed butter

1/2 cup dried cherries

2 tablespoons honey

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 slices bread

2 tablespoons marshmallow spread

4 to 5 short, thin pretzel rods, broken into small pieces

In a food processor, combine the soy nut or sunflower seed butter, dried cherries, honey and salt. Pulse until well mixed.

Spread half the mixture over 1 slice of bread. Top the spread with the marshmallow, then sprinkle the pretzel bits over it. Top with the second slice of bread. Refrigerate remaining spread.