Beware the Birdseed!

Once you've lived with peanut and nut allergies for a while or read enough articles about it, you eventually hear that birdseed can sometimes contain peanuts and/or nuts. My children recently visited the Children's Museum in Easton (Massachusetts) for the Spring Fling. They were in the care of another adult  and came home with little bags of birdseed. I immediately said that we should not put our hands in the bags because they could contain peanuts or tree nuts. I poured a bag of birdseed on the ground and sure enough there were peanuts in the mix. There were whole peanuts--not in the shell--but still in their skins. I realize that if you do not live with food allergies and you do not know anyone who does, this would not seem concerning in the least. After all, it's food, not chemicals! The problem is, for people like my son and so many others, a little bag of homemade birdseed containing corn, peanuts and seeds is like a little bag of poison.

This was good reminder for me that it's a good time to check in with the kids' teachers to make sure they're aware of the potential risk for contact with nuts, peanuts, seeds and other things for food allergic students as they embark on springtime gardening and outside projects at school.