Have Food Allergies Gotten Out of Control?

OK, so I was looking for something else, found this by accident, and had to weigh in. Making your daughter eat in the rain - lame. Send her to the principles office and scrub down everything including brushing her teeth afterward. Yes still extreme, but making her eat outside does not fix the problem. The reason that schools go nut free is because they can kill. Sometimes kids are so allergic that if they even smell the nuts it can cause a reaction so severe that the child with the allergy will stop breathing altogether. My son personally was not this allergic, but I caused him to have a severe reaction just by touching his skin after I made a PB&J and had washed my hands. Seriously, I could have killed him, try having that on your conscience as a mom. I just didn't understand it was that big of a deal. So if someone says don't have nuts around my kid - don't roll your eyes and get annoyed, just understand that when they come to pick up their kid at the end of the day - they expect them to be alive. Sounds dramatic, but I will never again give anything to anyone (kid or not) without asking if they have allergies. Just my two cents, but I don't want to be responsible for killing someone else.

Thu, 2009-11-12 18:47

Imagine you're watching your beautifully little girl play with her best friend in the living room. They're laughing, sunlight streaming and then you notice a red bump on your sweet daughters little face. The red bump quickly turns into a hand print. Her face starts to swell, her eyes narrow slits and barely able to open. You're running for the epi pen and the phone to call 911 knowing she's going to have trouble breathing really soon. And this all can happen in the moments it took you to read this paragraph.

Her little friend just had a peanut butter sandwich and forgot to wash her hands. Yeah, this is extreme. But it's a reality for a lot of moms these days- moms you probably know and think are nuts themselves. It's a private hell we share, worrying and wondering how to protect our children from things so small and so everywhere in our world.

Now imagine a mean girl in high school who wants to embarrass an underclassmen. Why not slip some peanuts into that girls lunch. Maybe she'll throw up or do something really strange. What's the harm? It's no big deal right? Because her mom tells her how ridiculous these rules are anyway...

It sucks. But really, screw you for being so glib about how inconvenient it is for you to not pack your child a sandwich she could clearly enjoy at home. Screw you for whining and making fun of moms and policy which help keep our kids alive. We didn't ask for this allergy and we don't need your bullshit.

Tue, 2009-10-06 14:46

I have to agree that Mindy is super calm! I wish I felt that way after seeing the video.

We have a 5 year old with severe nut allergies and after seeing this video it really hit a nerve...
everyday when my child gets on the bus I worry. Every time she is at a birthday party or friends house, I worry. Every time she leaves my site I fear for her safety. Obviously everyone knows about her allergies and she is able to express herself in regards to them too... but I still worry. I worry that some day my daughter may die because she accidently comes in contact with a nut product and no one is close enough to help her immediately.

When I was a kid in the '80's we didn't wear bike helmets but you make your child wear one now. What about seat belts... we didn't always use them... but you sure use them now.

Does this mean that children didn't die or become injured in car or bike accidents? No it means we are now a bit more educated and informed. We take these precautions because our child's safety is so important to us.

I am incredibly thankful that our elementary school is a nut free zone! And this is just one way I help to keep my child safe too.

I worry every single day that my little girl may accidently touch or ingest a nut product and die.

Aren't you glad that you have healthy children? Be thankful and tolerant of others... like you would want us to be if it was your child with the allergy.

Thu, 2009-10-01 11:16

I just found out I am allergic to gluten. I have never been allergic to any food in all of my 20-something years of life. As soon as they took me off gluten all the medical issues I was having (thinking I was dying) have gone away. I had forgotten what it was like to NOT have a headache. I had forgotten what it was like to not have yucky tummy issues. They did have nut allergies "back in the day". My friend is in his mid 50s and has had food allergies all his life. He is allergic to a million different foods. Nuts and shell fish being two of them. He actually ended up in ICU once due to coming in contact to peanut oil and not knowing it (something had been cooked in it). I forgot and ate a peanutbutter cup in the car with him and he ended up in the ER. Needless to say I felt horrible. I thought he actually had to EAT it to have a reaction. NOPE! So food allergies are very real and very scary.

Mindy: I loved your video.

Tue, 2009-09-29 00:02

There was a book published recently-ish (past year) that dealt with food allergies. It was an interesting read, though it's more of a jumping off point. It's the Unhealthy Truth, and it touches on some interesting things. It's a very quick read (honestly, some of the chapters repeat themselves). If I remember correctly, soybeans and peanuts are related. Around '97 is when genetically modified soybeans were introduced to our foods. Around '97 is when peanut allergies began to sky rocket.

The part I found most interesting is, if you compare US food standards to the UK's, they are completely different. No Yellow No. 5, no R-BST in your milk, etc.

I have a few food sensitivities and foods I won't eat (I'm Jewish, and keep kosher). People rarely care unless it affects them - if my refusal to 'just try' pork keeps them from getting a pepperoni pizza, for instance. Otherwise, people are content with their obliviousness and don't like having it pointed out to them that their choices might affect others. People, in general, also don't like being made to feel guilty for their food choices (even though that's never how the statement "I don't eat bacon," is meant to come across, it's how it's taken.). Anyway, sorry to babble!

Sat, 2009-09-26 12:54

I have no doubt nut allergies are real. I just wonder where they come from. And there is a comment here that they were happening in the '70's. maybe but, I had no experience with them and that's all I can address is my own experience.

Thu, 2009-09-24 23:50

Well, I honestly think the kinds of kids that had reactions just by being in the same room with nuts probably didn't survive childhood, even in recent decades, because not enough was known about it, and severe reactions to anything are more severe for children. I don't think there are more children with allergies, I think, like many things, it's gotten more media attention and more emphasis is being put on it. There was a kid in my kindergarten class who was allergic to peanuts, and my teacher had to keep this huge needle thing up on a shelf in case he had a reaction. And he did have a really serious reaction, but at home. And I have an (adult) friend who is allergic to every nut she's come into contact with as of right now. Those kids have always been out there, we just didn't know it.

And, there is a point where they have to draw the line. I mean someone is allergic to almost any food, and you can't ban all food, right? But, the reaction that a nut allergy elicits, *especially* in a child, is so very severe, prevention is very important.

Right now, while the causes are still being studied, it's probably easier to ban nuts from anywhere that children frequent than to deal with the death or poor health of a child who is allergic and may not yet know it, or may not yet have had a serious reaction. And really, think about it, this is so much more likely to be a product of parents of allergic kids than of the schools themselves.

Thu, 2009-09-24 13:28

Of course food allergies existed when "we" were kids (I think Daphne and I may be similar ages). The panel participants are viewing a completely different era with a modern day lens.

In the 70s nobody talked about health issues like they do now - other kids were oblivious to health issues in their peers - allergic kids were considered "neurotic" and not "really" at risk. Food allergies were simply not taken seriously - and they were often just as life-threatening as the food allergies we hear about now.

In the 70s food allergies were the kid's problem. Kids with food allergies had to police themselves and avoid contamination if possible - eating in the hallway or outside instead of inside the school. Kids self-medicated in the 70s (once inhalers were actually available in the 70s) and did not have the support of the schools. Most kids and families dealing with health issues didn't discuss it because it was not a supportive environment.

Of course I knew kids then with severe allergies - and I know kids (and adults) now with severe allergies - they're not that uncommon, but a lot of parents (then and now) don't feel comfortable sharing that information because there's still so much negativity to deal with.

Two kids I knew died from allergies or Asthma attacks in my childhood - and most of my childhood friends in school had no idea those kids died - they just "went away" - it wasn't discussed, and there was no such thing as grief counseling for peers at school back then.

Thankfully our school and the parents in our neighborhood are supportive, understanding and educated so they can help my kids and all the other kids with food allergies, and nobody seems to think it's "out of control".

Wed, 2009-09-23 21:38

The reason, I think, that you're seeing more schools become altogether Peanut Free is because, according to a book I read (Food Allergies for Dummies) is that a food allergy falls under the Americans with Disabilities Act. This means that the schools aren't allowed to segregate the allergic kids and make them all sit at one table, just like they can't make all the Autistic kids (or whatever) sit at one table away from the other kids.

I think it's also because even extremely intelligent adults that I try to explain the idea of cross-contamination to JUST DON'T GET IT, so trying to explain this to kids or even teenagers probably won't do any good, so it's best just to eliminate the risk.

The increase in severe food allergies isn't all in your head. They don't know why (but living in a 'too clean' environment is commonly blamed) but food allergies (also other allergic diseases, like asthma) are definitely on the rise. Americans eat a lot of peanuts, so it tends to be the #1 severe food allergy in America, whereas in other countries, allergies to their most common ingredients, like sesame are more prevalent.

~Nicole (diagnosed with tree-nut allergy in 2007 at the age of 25)

Wed, 2009-09-23 14:58

Wed, 2009-09-23 11:56

I think that if there is a child with a life threatening allergy in a classroom, it is the obvious answer to ban all nuts from that classroom. I have also heard of allergies as severe as the one lady_ariana mentioned. Again, common sense being that the child's life outweighs anything else and nuts should be banned from the entire school in that case.

All of that said, it has been my experience that the Nut Free Zone has always been a sweeping rule involving the entire school whether there is an allergy present or not. My kids have been in large and small classrooms and in classrooms where I know no child suffered from a nut allergy. It would have been fun to send a peanut butter cookie sometimes. I'm sure the school nurse has enough to do but it might be a nice thing, when we fill out those emergency cards at the beginning of the year, for someone to do a little investigating into IF there are any nut allergies and how severe they are.

But yeah, WTF is it with so many more kids having these allergies now?

Wed, 2009-09-23 10:38