I never heard of this until the 90s. I will assume that it has happened before, but throughout my life I never encountered a peanut allergy.
I grew up in the 70s and 80s, and never ever heard of peanut butter problems with fellow students.
Did you?
I was born in 1968 and only met one person with a peanut allergy growing up. I met her in 1983 and she was about my age, maybe a year younger.
No. I was born in '73 and I only knew one person with food allergies, and none of them were for peanuts.
Never heard of them (born in '64). Everyone ate peanut butter sandwiches; they were also on the school lunch menu. No such thing as a “no peanut” rule in any of my schools.
Early 60s kid here. No nut allergies. No ADHD. No tartrazine grief (and EVERYTHING we ate was flourescent in colour). Very little asthma too.
Mind you lots of us had our tonsils out at the drop of a hat. Swings and roundabouts?
Born 1970, and I knew of a couple. However, these allergies were mild.
I myself had food sensitivity leading to migraine headaches, but peanuts and peanut butter weren’t a problem for me.
Grew up in the 70’s and 80’s.
Never heard of peanut allergies, ADHD, and none of my friends were on Ridlin.
I think I knew a girl who was allergic to bee stings, and a couple guys who were allergic to cats.
Born in 1964, lived in Michigan and Florida. Never heard of peanut allergies until about 5 years ago. And peanuts used to be everywhere. There were always kids bringing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to school. No one ever got a whiff of one and died.
Born 1950. Never heard of peanut allergies. Like Hampshire, I knew a couple of people who were deathly allergic to bee stings, and I know lot of people (including my daughter) who are allergic to cats.
The latest thing that seems to be making the rounds in a lot of meditation centers is scents, e.g. in deodorants, insect repellents, etc. They want people to not wear these products on retreats (bad for me, because I get stinky real fast). Also, I see that some inhalant drugs that are scented are now being offered in non-scented versions. I’ve never encountered anyone with one of those allergies either.
I’m not skeptical, BTW. As a hay fever sufferer, I’m very sympathetic.
Born in 1970. My best friend as a child would get hives from everything. Including, as I recall, peanuts. I dont think this stopped her from eating a lot of the foods she was allergic to, and nobody said anything about it being dangerous (of course that’s my childhood impression).
I was born in 1969. I only remember one girl in my 3rd grade class who was allergic to chocolate. I remember one girl who was my sister’s friend who had “allergies”. I didn’t know what that meant then, but I think it must have meant seasonal allergies.
My first encounter with peanut allergies was when I was pregnant in 97/98 and kept hearing advice that if I ate peanuts/peanut butter while pregnant I would risk my child having a peanut allergy. The risk was so very low that I ate it anyway and he doesn’t have the allergy. A few years later my friend had a son and he has peanut allergies. He’s four now. She carries an Epi-Pen and keeps him away from peanut butter as much as she can, but doesn’t expect everyone in the world to change for her kid.
60’s kid 70’s teenager, never new of anyone with allergies only adults with a bit of hay fever. No signs of ADHA either and I went to four different state primary schools (not selected intake).
Hm.
I’m allergic to most tree nuts (happily, I can eat almonds. The Mango likes almonds), but not to peanuts. I’m also allergic to most kinds of fish- I have to make careful inquiries before eating any kind of seafood salad in order to make sure the critters contained therein are of either the bivalve shelled or chitinous variety.
I think there are two possibilities with the peanut allergy phenomenon.
One is that peanut allergies are quite rare, but the world being the way it has become, everyone is expected to change their peanut-butter eating lifestyle to accomodate those rare allergy sufferers (as opposed to simply taking precautions in the presence of an allergy sufferer- if the guy next to me is deathly allergic and extremely hypersensitive, I might move a few yards away to eat my peanut butter and jelly tortilla wrap, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to refrain from packing it in my lunch bag because somebody out there somewhere, whom I’m unlikely to meet, may be allergic to peanuts.)
The other is that allergies in general are becoming more common, and since peanut butter is such a common food, it’s noticeable that more children are allergic to peanuts than in the past. The increase in asthma cases is well-documented. I’ve heard hypotheses for why this may be so ranging from environmental pollutants screwing with people’s immune systems to the fact that in the past twenty years or so our culture has become so germ-phobic that we use antibacterial soaps and detergents for just about every freaking thing so children’s immune systems first off don’t develop properly because they are never exposed to pathogens to develop antibodies for and second, having nothing meaningful to do, open up the whup-ass on whatever substance happens to be handy, which, in many cases, can be peanut butter.
Grew up in the 80’s, never knew anybody with peanut allergies, and peanuts were absolutely everywhere. Only knew one person with food allergies, she was my age and it was strawberries.
My brother, born in 1959, was allergic to legumes of all kinds. That includes
peanuts, peas, beans (including soybeans). When he reacted, he got hives
over his entire body. Once, his throat started swelling shut and he was
taken to the hospital for observation. From what I remember, he was 10 or
12 when it started. He was on shots for a while but outgrew it in his 20’s.
My older sister was allergic to penicilian (sp?) from an early age. My
younger sister was allergic to milk (figured it out when she was about
14). I had terrible hay fever as a teenager and developed an allergy
to penicillian in my 30’s.
My mother had a jolly time bringing us up. Just try to find a margerine
with no milk solids and no soybean oil.
Just so you are aware, peanuts are not actually nuts. The are a type of legume, like peas or beans, and therefore probably don’t contain whatever it is that makes you sensitive to real nuts (though, apparently. the allergies are often seen together.)
And to answer the OP, I never heard of peanut allergies until I walked into a Dairy Queen in Missoula about six years ago and noticed a prominent sign stating, “Warning: Many Foods Served In This Resturant Contain Peanuts.” I actually took it to be some kind of advertising stunt (like “Warning: Taste Explosion Ahead”) but some time later actually learned that it is a serious concern.
Jeez, I had peanut butter and honey sandwiches just about every day at school for six years. I wonder who was suffering my ignorence? :eek:
I’ve got a friend, though, whose wife will not serve the kids peanut butter; instead, she buys almond or cashew butter. She also won’t let them have honey, non-organic milk, non-free range chicken, bleached flour, or any other of the multitude of modern health scourages. :dubious:
I don’t know; either I’ve lived a far more dangerous life that I previously realized, or people are getting hypersensitive about allergies. Of course, for someone who does suffer real allergies, I imagine no precaution is too much to avoid that misery.
Stranger
Born in the UK in 1975. Have never known anyone with a peanut allergy, though I do know plenty of asthmatics, myself included. I always thought it was more common in America because more Americans eat a lot more peanuts than Brits.
I don’t have time to look for a cite right now, but I’ve heard that serving children soy products at young ages increases their chances of having a peanut allergy. The increased popularity of these products may have something to do with the recent apparent explosion in peanut allergies.
And I do mean recent. To the OP, I was born in 1985, and I never knew anyone with a peanut allergy.
Born in '65; never knew anyone with a peanut allergy.
We had those delectable little peanut butter goodies in our school lunch trays and we craved them.
Born in '84. The only person I can think of off the top of my head is my ex-boyfriend, born in '81, who has to pick the peanuts out of peanutty stuff or his throat gets sort of itchy.