When Ian was five, his food sensitivites were pretty bad. He only ate certain foods. His gag reflex was so sensitive that I had to mop up vomit off the kitchen table a couple times a week. Lunchtime was particularly difficult, because he would only eat peanut butter sandwiches. However, I wasn't allowed to pack any nut products, even Nutella, for school lunch. There were too many kids in the cafeteria with severe peanut allergies.
I can't remember how we resolved this problem though I do remember lots of phone calls with the school. I think he ate his lunch by himself in the hallway for a few months, until I figured out another food that he could tolerate.
This was my only issue with the Peanut Police. In fact, I am very sympathetic to their needs, because my BFF has a daughter with extreme celiac disease. I know what one stray gluten can do her. My BFF has to educate teachers and other parents, because people are constantly handing her kid questionable snacks and treats. She has to pack alternative foods, whenever her daughter goes to a birthday party. She had to track ingredients in everything from medicine to condiments. It's a lot of work, which is very similar to the work that I've had to do with Ian.
So, I am very sympathetic to the article in Slate about a parent who pleads with other parents not to bring snacks to the playground and to clean their kids' hands with wipes. But the commenters on the peice were not so sympathetic.
Apt. 11d 
There’s reason to believe that food allergies are over-hyped.
“The study found about 8 percent of children and less than 5 percent of adults have allergic reactions to foods. Yet about 30 percent believe they have food allergies.”
http://www.abc2news.com/dpp/lifestyle/wellness/Copy_of_Many-think-they-have-food-allergies-but-really-dont-study-says_36210848
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I wasn’t unsympathetic, but I thought she was being unrealistic. It’s one thing to tell the parents of kids in your play group to do this, so that you can let your toddler roam around like other kids in someone else’s home without having to be crazily vigilant all the time. But in public places, no matter what you’re going to have to be crazily vigilant, at least until the kid is old enough to know not to take other kids’ snacks or pick stuff up off the ground.
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Maybe allergies are overhyped, maybe they aren’t.
It’s not an imagined thing in my house. I’ve got a kid who, after an accidental peanut reaction, spent 3 hours throwing up, before we took her to the emergency room. (She’s had other reactions as well.) The tests we later had done show her with an off-the-charts peanut allergy.
Dealing with the allergy denialists is probably one of the more tiresome things we have to deal with. In general, people, and businesses especially, are understanding. But you always run into someone who insists on bringing peanuts to the pot-luck. Grrr.
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I think the allergist I had when I was a kid had a monomania about food allergies. Despite the fact that was allergic every plant, he kept testing me and testing me for food allergies. The test (at the time, it may have improved) required not eating anything but but boiled beef and adding back various foods individually. One day when I was about 12 he asked me if I’d like to eat like astronauts, which I was quick enough to realize meant another food allergy test, this time eating only artificial mash. I refused to go back, especially since I was never sure if the allergy shots actually did anything useful. It turns out that not living near a corn field takes away 95% of my allergies.
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I think the elephant on the playground is why can’t kids go for an hour without snacking?!
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I have children with food allergies which have caused reactions in their throats, i.e., they’re likely to have the anaphylactic reactions which cut off their air supply and lead to death. They carry epi-pens and antihistamines; they avoid known food allergens and foods highly likely to contain allergens. In other words, they must be prepared and vigilant. They can’t eat birthday cake. They are now old enough to have taken over the monitoring of their environment we did when they were younger. They watched us ask to see the box of any purchased treat at friends’ houses, and now ask to see the box themselves.
The Slate author needs to get a grip. There is a huge danger in protecting one’s child so much that he can’t relate to other people. If the two year old is likely to eat food off the ground, I would ask if the child is eating a varied diet which include some sort of treats. Some children with food allergies and intolerances have very restricted diets, which make stray baked goods and chocolates really appealing. A very young child at a playground might choke on a piece of mulch or a rock. That doesn’t mean playgrounds shouldn’t have mulch or rocks.
The author writes: But I am hopeful that if parents of nonallergic kids had a better understanding of how scary their children’s ostensibly harmless snacks are, they might act differently.
No. Other children’s snacks might scare a parent, but that doesn’t mean the other children’s parents have a responsibility not to scare a person with a snack phobia by engaging in abnormal behavior. It’s important to separate one’s emotional reaction to potential harms to one’s child from actual threats. No one has the time, mental energy, or authority to control what everyone else does in their child’s environment. You don’t have the right to expect other people with their own problems to share your paranoia about allergens.
If the child is in mortal danger from attending a public playground, don’t bring the child to that playground. Possibly developing a rash from someone else’s snack is not mortal danger. Yes, some children who have had rashes in the past might go into anaphylaxis. However, many, many children have a few rashes and never have anything more frightening. Keeping children inside all day and not feeding them a varied diet can cause severe health problems. Bring Benadryl, epi-pens, check the picnic tables and area around the trash cans upon entry. Dispose of any snacks which have been left behind by prior visitors.
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More succinctly, the other parents will think you’re weird, scary, and over-controlling, and over time the opportunities for your child to play with their children will dwindle.
I have found other parents to be very helpful in monitoring the environment for known allergens, once they know your child has an allergy. They aren’t perfect, though, and the children who only eat certain foods also have a right to eat. I have a friend whose child needs to eat nuts as part of her diet, because she has allergies to other foods (egg, corn, milk….). The kid isn’t on the growth charts for her age. In our circle of friends, children are allergic to: wheat, milk, egg, nuts, peanuts, sesame, fish, and shellfish. (Snack goldfish don’t count as fish.) Perfect safety isn’t possible. Some kids would starve.
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I think that we have to get over the allergy denialism, which, to me, means that I have no right whatsoever to question someone else’s statement that they or their child has an allergy. It might be an appropriate discussion at a public policy level, but not at a personal level
That being said, I think the bigger question of how much everyone else has to alter their behavior, how much, and in which location is a subject up for debate. That’s complicated enough. As in Laura’s example, life-threatening probably trumps throwing up because the food can’t be tolerated. But, there are lots of other intermediate clashes (my kids need to snack at the playground v someone else’s need not to have allergens near by . . . .). Negotiating these discussions requires everyone thinking about everyone else (including the person who has the life-threatening allergy, which does not trump everything, even though nobody wants someone else to die).
I think it’s very easy for humans to slip into self-centered behavior (especially when the self is one’s child and not one’s own self). But expecting everyone else to put your needs first isn’t a natural social expectation (and, frankly, that’s even true when your need is to not die — you’re still required to take steps to mitigate your risk, independently of others choices).
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Regarding the peanuts at a pot-luck, one can be expected to avoid it, but only when one is told. For us, peanuts are part of the base stock of cooking (not just as an additive, but as a part of the sauce and base; we often add peanuts to other foods to enhance the protein content). Avoiding peanuts is possible, but it’s like avoiding gluten or dairy, big categories that substantially change the food choices.
And, though we try hard to remember the peanuts, we did make a mistake and bring cashews to a preschool potluck one year (while trying hard to avoid peanuts). Turns out the school had tree nut allergies, too.
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“I think the elephant on the playground is why can’t kids go for an hour without snacking?!”
Well, possibly because the playground visit is sandwiched between a baseball game and a shopping trip and an errand to the garden shop? I think the bigger lesson in navigating these interactions is for people to be clear about their needs and the accommodations they desire and for people not to question those needs and desires (and, instead, just think about what they are willing to do to enhance the social interaction and social well-being, with the caveat that kindness is always the moral choice).
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We have snacks at the playground…we have picnics lots when weather permits too. I do clean up our spills but I’m willing to bet the days my son goes on his own if he eats a snack on the swing and he spills a couple of goldfish on the ground he just mushes them in with his toes.
It’s a process and the playground to me is the messier environment, which is what I found weird about the Slate piece. It sounded like the parent was saying playgrounds have to be clean or something. Cats poo in there you know. 🙂
I am probably just cranky but while I really, really have _zero_ problem taking care with nut-free stuff for school and playdates, I am getting tired of mothers being asked to patrol the world all the time for everyone.
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I think that we have to get over the allergy denialism, which, to me, means that I have no right whatsoever to question someone else’s statement that they or their child has an allergy. It might be an appropriate discussion at a public policy level, but not at a personal level
Allergies change. If you’re discussing allergies with another parent, it is appropriate to ask if they’re seeing an allergist. The child should be seeing an allergist. Allergies should be retested at appropriate intervals. Some children do outgrow allergies, particularly early allergies to milk, wheat and eggs.
For schools and camps, we have to file multiple medical forms every year attesting to the continued existence of the allergies, including Allergy Action Plans.
I consider it appropriate to ask when inviting a child over for a playdate, “Does Johnnie have any allergies?” If it’s been awhile since the last playdate, “Is Johnnie still allergic to sesame? Any new allergies?”
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“Well, possibly because the playground visit is sandwiched between a baseball game and a shopping trip and an errand to the garden shop?”
When we lived in DC, I used to visit three or so playgrounds on a busy day. We really used to live at the park. We’d sometimes order pizza delivered to the park from a Turkish place 2 blocks away and have family dinners there.
“Cats poo in there you know.”
Oh, yes. And in your backyard, too, whether or not you own kitties. One of my friends is currently in a state of war with a kitty gang consisting of some local feral cats and a couple of house cats.
The link between toxoplasmosis and mental illness is one of the things that freaks me out.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/toxoplasmas-links-to-schizophrenia-bipolar-disorder-and-increased-risk-taking-8102706.html
“Allergies change.”
Yes again.
It’s not “denialism” if it’s genuinely the case that only a minority of people who think they have allergies actually do have them.
One of the major issues with the allergy craze is that it keeps people away from foods that could genuinely be very good for them. I’m on a bit of a health kick, and I’ve recently been turned on to what a fantastic food nuts are. They’ve got some protein and lots of excellent unsaturated vegetable fat and they have a decent shelf life. (When I had my gestational diabetes, I tried not to leave home without a mini bagel and a handful of walnuts.)
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/nuts/HB00085/NSECTIONGROUP=2
The fact that many people falsely believe themselves to be allergic to nuts is (on the level of public health) a big deal.
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“Allergies change. If you’re discussing allergies with another parent, it is appropriate to ask if they’re seeing an allergist.”
Honestly, it’s not. It’s not my role to ask about whether they are seeing an allergist, unless I am either 1) an allergist, offering my expertise for free or other health care person, or an extraordinarily close friend, one who participates in their medical decision making. That’s true even if the rest of what you say is true. It’s also not my role to offer my opinion on mammograms for women under 50 (I think they’re wrong)unless my opinion has been asked. It is appropriate for me to be involved in a discussion about the public policy and it is appropriate for a school/public system making policy to ask those question.
Your other question — “are there any allergies I should be aware of” and the repeat question when I am making decisions is indeed completely appropriate. It’s also appropriate (if I’m planning on meal or a location to eat) to ask how specific the allergy is and what I should do to avoid it.
For example, in my social group we have both a child with severe celiac disease (has to avoid all gluten, has immediate negative reactions) and one who avoids gluten (avoids it, but can probably eat a chocolate that has a few krisps in it without concern) and one who is supposed to avoid gluten (but, oddly enough, seemed to think the pizza was OK, but not the cake — we worried about that one, in case the kid hadn’t realized there was such a thing as gluten-pizza, ’cause he’d only encountered the gluten free kind). For the first kid, one needs to research the gluten-free status of any particular item the child eats, and in general, it’s best not to give her any food that hasn’t been approved by her parent (though the kid can be relied on to forward that approval for items that are packaged & labelled, like juice boxes). For others, there might be more flexibility. What I do is try to ask and get the specifics (and ask for assistance in the form of food, if it gets too complicated for me).
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I didn’t have time to read through all the other comments but it seems to me that the things the writer of the Slate article asks for are mostly just common good manners.
My kids don’t have allergies but I think it’s generally wrong to leave food spilled anywhere, including on a playground, for other people to clean up so… I’ve been teaching them not to do that. It’s a bit of work but they’re learning.
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I would in general, only clean up large messes, or the non-biodegradeable stuff (and, goldfish, are, in my book, biodegradeable; not absolutely sure about cheetos).
I’ve always seen them as part of the park bio system (say, for the birds). I never let my kids feed birds/animals (’cause I think purposeful feeding messes with migration patterns/social behavior). But, they were allowed to drop the occasional peanut, cracker, for the birds.
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I feel like I’m not expressing myself clearly, but roughly, the problem I see here is the conflation of different levels of interactions among social systems.
First, there’s public policy, which includes rules in public places (some of which are difficult or impossible to avoid, like airplanes and schools and some of which are easier to avoid, like parks and libraries, but to which everyone should have access).
Then, there’s social interactions among folks who do not know one another, or know one another peripherally. There, we run into issues when different people have overlapping standards that are not perfectly in sync.
Then there’s social interactions among friends
And, social interactions among loved ones.
The degree of accommodation one can expect varies in different social groups. Demanding the “loved ones” accommodation in all circumstances is going to fail. Demanding accommodation that sounds like preferential treatment (i.e. something everyone might want) without adequate explanation and negotiation will also fail, ultimately. Demanding accommodation that requires someone else to give up a desirable good without consensus (i.e. seats on buses) will also fail, unless systems are in place to encourage and reward the behavior.
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If you’re discussing allergies with another parent, it is appropriate to ask if they’re seeing an allergist.
BJ is right. There’s really no polite way to ask somebody if they are diagnosing themselves and their family, as fun as it is to do.
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“There’s really no polite way to ask somebody if they are diagnosing themselves and their family, as fun as it is to do.”
But people like school officials ought to be asking for medical documentation before banning nuts across the board at school. Diagnosing yourself or your kids with allergies or dietary sensitivities has gotten to be a major American pastime.
There is such a thing as Munchausen’s, as well as Munchausen’s by proxy (although I realize that the prevalence is controversial).
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If a child has a life-threatening allergy, any parent needs to hand over the prescribed epi-pen on play dates. Most parents with allergic kids have had them tested. Host parents also need to run over the list of known and suspected allergens before play dates and sleepovers, as well as warning signs of trouble, and all emergency contact numbers, including pediatrician and allergist.
One danger for allergic kids is the gradual narrowing of social contacts, as parents who aree intimidated by dealing with the allergies of visiting friends avoid scheduling play dates. I do not find it impolite for parents to enquire about allergies, because it is useful for people in my kids’ community to know that they have food allergies. In extremis, their lives could be saved by friends who retrieve the epi-pen from a backpack, or call 911 in time.
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For any kind of school accommodation, the kids are always tested and doctor-certified. There are medical forms that have to be filled out by the doctor and filed with the school, and the appropriate medications supplied to the nurse or classroom teacher. Epi-pens require a prescription.
Sure, some people with certain food sensitivities may believe themselves to be allergic without medical verification. In schools, though, any accommodation requires abundant documentation.
My son has life-threatening peanut and sesame allergies, and I’ve had to supply the documentation annually. The schools he’s attended never banned or restricted any foods, but the paperwork was required so that he could have his epi-pen and other medications at school.
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“The schools he’s attended never banned or restricted any foods, but the paperwork was required so that he could have his epi-pen and other medications at school.”
When we were living in DC, our public school handbook said that medications were only to be administered by the school nurse. The school nurse was only half-time and obviously did not accompany every single field trip. I’ve often wondered how exactly that worked.
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“When we were living in DC, our public school handbook said that medications were only to be administered by the school nurse. The school nurse was only half-time and obviously did not accompany every single field trip. I’ve often wondered how exactly that worked.”
I should know this…. I guess one of the teachers is designated the person in charge of holding and administering the meds. When the kids did the 3rd grade science museum sleepover, I talked to the parent chaperones about what to look for and how to deal with it if E had an allergic reaction to sleeping on the floor (carpets are not the dust-mite-allergic child’s friend).
When we (PTO offshoot) run a field trip to the swim club every year, we bring the kids’ meds with us. No one’s ever needed them, but we have them, then we bring them back to the nurse’s office. But this is middle school and the kids can mainly self-administer.
FTR, even though my kid is a peanut-allergic kid who has no problem being near peanuts/PB (he just can’t ingest them), I don’t question any parent’s claims about his/her kid’s allergen status.
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I had food allergies as a kid which caused horrible hives. My parents and doctor tried various restriction diets, which ruled out all the obvious culprits. The final guess was blueberries and other berries, to a lesser extent. I’m not sure if there were allergy tests back in the 80s, and if there were why I wasn’t tested that way. The pediatrician recommended I eat a moderate amount of blueberries every once and awhile, and that I would grow out of the allergies. I grew out of the allergies by age 10.
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“I’m not sure if there were allergy tests back in the 80s”
I remember hearing a high school classmate describe the testing procedure back in the late 80s/very, very early 90s.
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There were allergy tests in the late 70s. However, even now, testing food allergies can be tricky. There are blood tests and skin tests. For food challenges, the patient should be in a hospital or near enough to get to one really quickly. Our allergist won’t administer desensitization shots to patients who don’t bring Epi-pens to their office.
My nightmare is the danger of friends offering cookies or snacks. In the last two months three people have died of anaphylaxis: http://allergicliving.com/index.php/2013/04/10/tragic-spring-3-food-allergy-related-deaths/.
Yes, I would ask if someone who suspects an allergy has visited an allergist. People who are allergic to nuts will often avoid nuts. It’s possible to suspect you’re allergic to an allergen which has the potential to kill you. If you don’t test for allergies, you won’t have an epi-pen on hand. It’s possible to know you’re allergic to peanuts, but not know you’re also allergic to pistachios. Pistachios killed a local teenager in our area in 1999: http://www.cspinet.org/nah/04_01/.
Amy P, all the teachers at our kids’ elementary school had training in recognizing the signs of an anaphylactic reaction. If a child with an identified allergy is assigned to their room, the teachers have Epi-pens. Staff in the lunch room are also trained, and carry Epi-pens. Teachers carry Epi-pens on field trips. Locking away allergy and asthma medication is a dangerous practice. On the CDC website there is a link to a policy guide for schools: http://www.nsba.org/foodallergyguide.pdf.
I would not doubt that a child had an allergy, if parents reported it, but there is sometimes pressure from grandparents not to go the extra step of visiting an allergist. (The grandparents may have read articles like the one Amy P listed at the start of this comment thread.) From the Nutrition Action health letter: According to a new study of 32 people who died following an allergic reaction, fatal anaphylactic shock follows a clear pattern.1 All but two reactions were triggered by peanuts or nuts. Most of the victims were teenagers or young adults who had asthma, and most knew that they suffered from food allergies. Twenty-seven ate the food away from home. And only three were carrying emergency self-injectable epinephrine.
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I was allergy tested in ’86. It was all the skin pricks.
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(Apologies if this turns out to be a double-post. It just disappeared when I pressed “post.”)
There were allergy tests in the late 70s. However, even now, testing food allergies can be tricky. There are blood tests and skin tests. For food challenges, the patient should be in a hospital or near enough to get to one really quickly. Our allergist won’t administer desensitization shots to patients who don’t bring Epi-pens to their office.
My nightmare is the danger of friends offering cookies or snacks. In the last two months three people have died of anaphylaxis: http://allergicliving.com/index.php/2013/04/10/tragic-spring-3-food-allergy-related-deaths/.
Yes, I would ask if someone who suspects an allergy has visited an allergist. People who are allergic to nuts will often avoid nuts. It’s possible to suspect you’re allergic to an allergen which has the potential to kill you. If you don’t test for allergies, you won’t have an epi-pen on hand. It’s possible to know you’re allergic to peanuts, but not know you’re also allergic to pistachios. Pistachios killed a local teenager in our area in 1999: http://www.cspinet.org/nah/04_01/.
Amy P, all the teachers at our kids’ elementary school had training in recognizing the signs of an anaphylactic reaction. If a child with an identified allergy is assigned to their room, the teachers have Epi-pens. Staff in the lunch room are also trained, and carry Epi-pens. Teachers carry Epi-pens on field trips. Locking away allergy and asthma medication is a dangerous practice. On the CDC website there is a link to a policy guide for schools: http://www.nsba.org/foodallergyguide.pdf.
I would not doubt that a child had an allergy, if parents reported it, but there is sometimes pressure from grandparents not to go the extra step of visiting an allergist. (The grandparents may have read articles like the one Amy P listed at the start of this comment thread.) From the Nutrition Action health letter: According to a new study of 32 people who died following an allergic reaction, fatal anaphylactic shock follows a clear pattern.1 All but two reactions were triggered by peanuts or nuts. Most of the victims were teenagers or young adults who had asthma, and most knew that they suffered from food allergies. Twenty-seven ate the food away from home. And only three were carrying emergency self-injectable epinephrine.
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(This may be a triple post. It keeps disappearing. I will remove some links.)
There were allergy tests in the late 70s. However, even now, testing food allergies can be tricky. There are blood tests and skin tests. For food challenges, the patient should be in a hospital or near enough to get to one really quickly.
My nightmare is the danger of friends offering cookies or snacks. In the last two months three people have died of anaphylaxis: http://allergicliving.com/index.php/2013/04/10/tragic-spring-3-food-allergy-related-deaths/.
Yes, I would ask if someone who suspects an allergy has visited an allergist. People who are allergic to nuts will often avoid nuts. It’s possible to suspect you’re allergic to an allergen which has the potential to kill you. If you don’t test for allergies, you won’t have an epi-pen on hand. It’s possible to know you’re allergic to peanuts, but not know you’re also allergic to pistachios. Pistachios killed a local teenager in our area in 1999.
Amy P, all the teachers at our kids’ elementary school had training in recognizing the signs of an anaphylactic reaction. If a child with an identified allergy is assigned to their room, the teachers have Epi-pens. Staff in the lunch room are also trained, and carry Epi-pens. Teachers carry Epi-pens on field trips. Locking away allergy and asthma medication is a dangerous practice. On the CDC website there is a link to a policy guide for schools: http://www.nsba.org/foodallergyguide.pdf.
I would not doubt that a child had an allergy, if parents reported it, but there is sometimes pressure from grandparents not to go the extra step of visiting an allergist. (The grandparents may have read articles like the one Amy P listed at the start of this comment thread.) From the Nutrition Action health letter: According to a new study of 32 people who died following an allergic reaction, fatal anaphylactic shock follows a clear pattern.1 All but two reactions were triggered by peanuts or nuts. Most of the victims were teenagers or young adults who had asthma, and most knew that they suffered from food allergies. Twenty-seven ate the food away from home. And only three were carrying emergency self-injectable epinephrine.
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(This may be a quadruple post. It keeps disappearing. I will remove some links.)
There were allergy tests in the late 70s. However, even now, testing food allergies can be tricky. There are blood tests and skin tests. For food challenges, the patient should be in a hospital or near enough to get to one really quickly.
My nightmare is the danger of friends offering cookies or snacks. In the last two months three people have died of anaphylaxis: http://allergicliving.com/index.php/2013/04/10/tragic-spring-3-food-allergy-related-deaths/.
Yes, I would ask if someone who suspects an allergy has visited an allergist. People who are allergic to nuts will often avoid nuts. It’s possible to suspect you’re allergic to an allergen which has the potential to kill you. If you don’t test for allergies, you won’t have an epi-pen on hand. It’s possible to know you’re allergic to peanuts, but not know you’re also allergic to pistachios. Pistachios killed a local teenager in our area in 1999.
Amy P, all the teachers at our kids’ elementary school had training in recognizing the signs of an anaphylactic reaction. If a child with an identified allergy is assigned to their room, the teachers have Epi-pens. Staff in the lunch room are also trained, and carry Epi-pens. Teachers carry Epi-pens on field trips. Locking away allergy and asthma medication is a dangerous practice. On the CDC website there is a link to a policy guide for schools.
I would not doubt that a child had an allergy, if parents reported it, but there is sometimes pressure from grandparents not to go the extra step of visiting an allergist. (The grandparents may have read articles like the one Amy P listed at the start of this comment thread.) From the Nutrition Action health letter: “According to a new study of 32 people who died following an allergic reaction, fatal anaphylactic shock follows a clear pattern.1 All but two reactions were triggered by peanuts or nuts. Most of the victims were teenagers or young adults who had asthma, and most knew that they suffered from food allergies. Twenty-seven ate the food away from home. And only three were carrying emergency self-injectable epinephrine.”
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All my responses have disappeared.
There was testing in 1980. Skin pricks.
Some allergies are dangerous to test. Ibuprofen allergy is terrible.
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“Some allergies are dangerous to test. Ibuprofen allergy is terrible.”
That’s good to know.
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I come into this conversation from a weird perspective because only as an adult I’ve developed a SEVERE allergy to Tylenol (like, to the ER for inadvertently taking Tylenol) and am just in the last few months exhibiting an intolerance to dairy.
My older sister has been thru the wringer on this; she also started with a dairy sensitivity and within two years is now off, like, half the food on the planet. I’ve never heard anyone talk about an allergy to “nightshades” – potatoes, tomatoes, peppers – but she now has this, along with allergic reactions to dairy, yeast, gluten, corn, refined sugar, soy, blah blah blah. She basically eats organic chicken and steamed veggies these days.
I feel about allergies like I feel about the cancer industry – what have we done to the environment that this is happening? We appear to be actively poisoning ourselves. Why is no one talking about that?
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I think the hygiene hypothesis makes more sense. Our modern lifestyle protects us from many of the dangers the immune system is designed to handle. The immune system gets over-active (or confused.) See: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070905174501.htm.
Jen, it sounds like your sister has Oral Allergy Syndrome. One of my children has it.
http://www.foodsmatter.com/allergy_intolerance/oral_allergy_syndrome/research/pollen_allergy_link.html
http://www.aafa.org/display.cfm?id=9&sub=20&cont=728
In OAS, the immune system reacts to certain fruits and vegetables. The particular assortment of fruits and vegetables varies according to whether the person is allergic to birch pollen, ragweed pollen, grass pollen, or natural rubber latex. Treatment for the pollen allergy may help alleviate the reaction to certain fruits or vegetables. (Allergic people must visit allergists!) On the positive side, Oral Allergy Syndrome rarely leads to anaphylactic reactions.
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I think the hygiene hypothesis makes more sense. Our modern lifestyle protects us from many of the dangers the immune system is designed to handle. The immune system gets over-active (or confused.)
Jen, it sounds like your sister has Oral Allergy Syndrome. One of my children has it.
In OAS, the immune system reacts to certain fruits and vegetables. The particular assortment of fruits and vegetables varies according to whether the person is allergic to birch pollen, ragweed pollen, grass pollen, or natural rubber latex. Treatment for the pollen allergy may help alleviate the reaction to certain fruits or vegetables. (Allergic people must visit allergists!) On the positive side, Oral Allergy Syndrome rarely leads to anaphylactic reactions.
I know of this because a child has it. Allergy shots are helping. There is a treatment–it can take a couple of years of weekly visits to treat. I had links in my original post, but I think the links led to this post ending up in the spam folder.
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There were allergy tests in the late 70s. However, even now, testing food allergies can be tricky. There are blood tests and skin tests. For food challenges, the patient should be in a hospital or near enough to get to one really quickly. Our allergist won’t administer desensitization shots to patients who don’t bring Epi-pens to their office.
My nightmare is the danger of friends offering cookies or snacks. In the last two months three people have died of anaphylaxis.
Yes, I would ask if someone who suspects an allergy has visited an allergist. People who are allergic to nuts will often avoid nuts. It’s possible to suspect you’re allergic to an allergen which has the potential to kill you. If you don’t test for allergies, you won’t have an epi-pen on hand. Pistachios killed a local teenager in our area in 1999. He knew he was allergic to peanuts, but did not know he was allergic to pistachios.
Amy P, all the teachers at our kids’ elementary school had training in recognizing the signs of an anaphylactic reaction. If a child with an identified allergy is assigned to their room, the teachers have Epi-pens. Staff in the lunch room are also trained, and carry Epi-pens. Teachers carry Epi-pens on field trips. Locking away allergy and asthma medication is a dangerous practice. Children have died at schools and at camps due to such policies. On the CDC website there is a link to a policy guide for schools.
I would not doubt that a child had an allergy, if parents reported it, but there is sometimes pressure from grandparents not to go the extra step of visiting an allergist. (The grandparents may have read articles like the one Amy P listed at the start of this comment thread.) From the Nutrition Action health letter (the link to which I took out to avoid the spam folder): According to a new study of 32 people who died following an allergic reaction, fatal anaphylactic shock follows a clear pattern.1 All but two reactions were triggered by peanuts or nuts. Most of the victims were teenagers or young adults who had asthma, and most knew that they suffered from food allergies. Twenty-seven ate the food away from home. And only three were carrying emergency self-injectable epinephrine.
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People who are allergic to nuts will often avoid nuts.
So true! My son had always avoided cookies with nuts, and I thought it was just a preference or texture thing. Then he had a true allergic reaction when he ate (ok, I made him eat, which he never lets me forget) carrot soup that contained pistachios, and he ended up in the ER for several hours. Now we carry epi-pens.
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“Most of the victims were teenagers or young adults who had asthma, and most knew that they suffered from food allergies.”
That’s interesting that most of the victims were of an age where they would be expected to take over their own allergy management. I’m starting to be curious about the gender breakdown, also. I’m wondering if it’s one of those things like snake bite and lightning strikes where the victims are predominantly male.
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AmyP, search for “nut allergy death,” and look at the images. No, they are not predominantly male. Nor are they only teens.
Take-out food with nut ingredients or cross-contamination is also a frequent cause of death for nut allergic people. School food is usually bland. Many school cafeterias are nut free these days. Going out to eat can be dangerous because the server doesn’t necessarily know all the ingredients which went into a dish. Cross-contamination is a worry.
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E first showed signs of being allergic when he was about a year old, and I let him have a peanut butter cookie by mistake. I thought it was a sugar cookie, and until then, I wasn’t hyperaware of peanuts. He got horrible congested. I speculated then that he had some sort of peanut issue, so I just continued my plan, which was peanut avoidance till he was older. But then he ate a Reese’s Pieces by mistake at a Friendly’s. Again, he got severely congested and was coughing. And once my husband let him have a piece of a Balance Bar that had peanuts, and I came home from work, took one look at E, and said to my husband “What did you give our son?”
I tell these stories because it’s interesting to me that though E was having typical allergy symptoms, and even symptoms of anaphylaxis, he never progressed to a point of not being able to breathe. In the Friendly’s incident, we were on the road from MA to NY, and we’d stopped in the Friendly’s at Mystic. We made it to about Bridgeport before we realized he really needed Benedryl. He was about 3 then, I guess. If anaphylaxis had crossed my mind, I would have freaked out.
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My brother (who does not have children FWIW), told me he read an article stating that the science behind the advice for pregnant women to avoid peanuts & nuts and other possible allergens is extremely dubious, and actually leads to higher incidences of nut allergies. On a common sense level that seems to make sense, though common sense is often wrong. The hygiene thing I’m sure is part of it, except I don’t know how much more hygienic we’ve gotten in the past 20-30 years vs. the past 100. One difference in the past 20-30 years is I know of is the peanut avoidance advice. My mother was the type of person who wouldn’t even look at alcohol and gave up coffee (and she normally drinks 5 cups a day), but she ate peanut butter and nuts all throughout her pregnancies. I wonder if it’s a bit like the food pyramid, where lots of people following in good faith advice from the experts are actually creating the problem they’re hoping to alleviate.
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B.I., peanut butter avoidance might be part of the cause. However, one of my children tested positive for allergies to a nut I’ve never eaten, and no one on this side of the Atlantic eats frequently. My mother hates nuts, and I’m not wild about them. I eat PB sometimes, but it’s never been a staple.
My husband and I both have asthma and allergies. All hail assortive mating!
Other factors may come in to play.
The hygiene thing I’m sure is part of it, except I don’t know how much more hygienic we’ve gotten in the past 20-30 years vs. the past 100.
There are more antibiotics in the food chain than there were 100 years ago. If meat on the market has fewer bacteria, due to use of antibiotics to make animals grow bigger, what’s the effect on the consumer? We’re also eating more packaged food, prepared in commercial kitchens. Commercial kitchens may on average be more hygienic than average home kitchens, run by total amateurs. Our gut is apparently intimately involved in our immune system.
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“My husband and I both have asthma and allergies. All hail assortive mating!”
That does sound like a likely culprit.
“We’re also eating more packaged food, prepared in commercial kitchens.”
I suspect that leftovers are much less of a phenomenon in the American diet than they used to be. And leftovers are potentially even germier than fresh-cooked food.
And consider the potluck–don’t we suspect that there is less potluck eating than 20 or 30 years ago? Ditto bake sales.
“I don’t know how much more hygienic we’ve gotten in the past 20-30 years vs. the past 100.”
My family is, but aren’t food allergy sufferers (yet). When I was a kid, I spent a fair amount of time literally sloshing through liquid cow manure. My kids don’t do that. I also grew up with dogs and cats, but my kids aren’t.
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I ate a lot of PB through both pregnancies and when the kids were born. I just didn’t feed them peanut butter (or, I planned not to–see child #2). My husband had asthma/respiratory issues growing up, but my lungs have always been pretty solid.
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Oops, I think I wrote it was not remembering very clearly when I wrote above, the article said that not eating peanut butter or nuts during pregnancy and also not feeding peanut butter and nuts to children at a young age contributed to allergies, contrary to current doctor’s advice. Introducing peanut butter/nuts from a young age actually reduces peanut allergies, as apparently they are low to non existent where peanuts are a major staple in cooking.
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