Born in 1955, and I never heard of peanuit allergies until recently. As everyone above notes, peanuts were everywhere, with peanut butter sandwiches ione of the most popular types.
The whole thing about fragrances, too, seems recent. One of the doctor’s offices in the building where our framily doctor has his explicitly watrns any patients against wearing anything scented.
I can’t help wondering, myself, if this isn’t a situation like that described in Alan E. Nourse’s science fiction novel Bladerunner (which has nothing to do with the 1982 movie, except that Ridley Scott thanked Nourse for permission to borrow his title). In that novel, future generations have more obscure afflictions because natural selection isn’t killing off people who have them. In other words, people who were sensitive to peanuts would have died a few decades earlier, because people weren’t aware of the problem and took no steps against it. If you ended up in the emergency room with your throat swollen shut, you might die there, or on the way there, or else it’s get you the next time. The novel follows what happens when the government tries to get rid of the problem, asnd the logical consequences thereof. Great reading, and way too plausible to be dismissed.
I was born in '78 - I’m still allergic to all nuts (except peanuts and almonds) and fish/ seafood. When I was little, I was also allergic to citrus and dairy. I still have seasonal allergies and mild asthma, though both have improved since I got my tonsils taken out a few years ago.
I don’t remember hearing much about nut allergies (or being taken very seriously about my own - I’m pretty conscientious about asking about ingredients and have been since I was little, but it felt like the adults, including my dad, just took a ‘well, you should just keep eating them anyway, it can’t be that bad’ approach) - it was an endless source of humor to my classmates that I was allergic to ‘nuts’.
Like Mango said, I wonder if the difference might be (at least somewhat) in the perception - my allergies and asthma just weren’t taken that seriously by my teachers. Anecdote: in elementary school, we had to run around the four backstops - two laps to a mile. To this day I can’t run for shit - I was on the swim team, I exercise frequently, but my asthma does not like running. Of course, the backstops were on the edge of school property - far from the school itself. This was important, since I was not allowed to carry my rescue inhaler with me, even when running, so I would have to wheeze my way over the nurse’s office every time my asthma acted up.
My brother was born in 72 and had both peanut allergies and asthma.
A good friend of mine was born in the mid-70s and he’s always been allergic to everything. Animals and dust to a minor extent, and extreme allergies to eggs and nuts.
How fucking ignorant is that statement? Did you even read the rest of the posts in this thread?
My oldest friend, born in 1963, was very allergic to peanuts. Walnuts were even worse for him and sesame seeds were worst of all. Did you know that Burger King was the only fast food restaurant in the 1970’s with non-sesame seen buns on the larger burgers? I do because that was the only burger joint where I could eat when I was with him.
As an adult, he can tolerate peanuts but eating sesame seeds will make him puke for the next few hours.
It’s not allergies that came out of nowhere so much as imformation access coming out of nowhere. Cable television was an important information vector two decades ago. The Internet has been essentially a far larger second wave.
There are a lot of things that seem more prevalent (per capita) today than in years past (e.g. child abductions). But of course, people are better able to “compare notes” these days. Also, media is more pervasive – cause du jour is likely to get a spot on 20/20, have online support communities, etc.
This doesn’t seem quite right. People communicated before the Internet, after all, and there were many cases of allergies that people knew about and treated.
But this Peanut Allergy thing sems to have become prevalent only in recent years. I’m not saying that it didn’t exist earlier, but certainly we didn’t have schools being put on alert about it, or places banning peanuts, or warning about possible peanut use. And if significant numbers of people were having seriously bad reactions to peanuts, we’d have known about it, Internet or not.
Born in '74 And although I recall eating a ton of peanuts and peanut butter through schooling, it wasn’t until college years that I was tested and told I’m allergic to peanuts. This explained a recurring itchy-ness that came at night. It seems that my reaction was mild. Both peanuts and shellfish cause a reaction 4-5 hours after ingestion. My reaction was an itching across my back from shoulder to shoulder, and up my neck. it would usually keep me from sleeping for a few hours but would then subside.
I really never put it together with food allergies. But I’m told that peanut allergies are one of the more random allergens and that a mild reaction can turn to a fatal one without any warning, and I think it’s this reason that causes parents to flip out about peanuts anywhere near their children. cite
snip:
Now I avoid peanuts altogether, but occassionally still get the itching and realize I may have eaten a peanut or something else.
Recently at work, someone brought in an industrial sized bag of shelled peanuts. all day long, people were eating peanuts, and it wasn’t until someone was at my desk dropping shell bits on my desk that I said anything.
My wife and I were both born in 1965. No peanut allergies for either of us, but I was allergic to Penicillin and she had severe issues with bee stings (emergency room-type stuff). I knew one kid in elementary school (2nd grade, I think) with a peanut allergy and we were all warned about it as a class, but there certainly weren’t any special allowances made for him. Fast forward to 2005 and we have one kid with no allergies whatsoever, a daugther with really bad peanut allergy, and a toddler son with extreme dairy allergy (as in he accidentally drank a few swallows of his sisters milk two days ago and we where up most of the night with vomitting, welts all over his body and breathing difficulties).
I’m not sure what changed, but it sure seems more prevalent today. And I was definitely of the skeptical nature about allergies until I had kids of my own and have now seen what happens when a reaction occurs.
Born in 1981, and I don’t remember any kids with peanut allergies when I was growing up. However, I do have one college friend (born in 1980, I believe) who is terribly allergic to peanuts. I guess he was "that kid’ in elementary school.
Another thought, though–I do remember seeing “This product was made in a factory that processes peanuts and may contain traces of peanuts” on food labels when I was a child. I thought the whole thing was really odd…
I’m with CalMeacham, thinking peanut allergies have always been with us but they called the result something else like “fatal anaphalaxis, cause unknown” We never knew of the kids in school because they were dead before Kindergarten.
Also, yeah, kids these days do get pumped full of all kinds of unnatural goodness on a far greater level than we were, but my kids go to a pretty granola school. Most of the parents there barely had kids because they were so busy hugging trees. Their kids there have never even had refined white sugar, let alone hydrogenated soybean oil, high fructose corn syrup or fruit touched by anyone who’s even heard the word “pesticide.” Out of all that, there’s still 3 kids in the Kindergarten (60 kids in 4 class rooms) that will die (as in they already almost did), if they ingest a barely detectable portion of peanut.
I would never have met kids like this in 1971 because they’d only be sad memories for their parents.
Born 1979. Knew kids with allergies, seasonal and food. Several peanut, some strawberry, one wheat and he was taken out of school later. Knew an albino, oddly enough.
I was suspected of having a peanut allergy when I broke out in hives and became unexpectedly nauseated one summer. Had a full allergy test and was diagnosed with an “allergy to sun exposure” and “nervous stomach”. Had to quit softball. Not happy.
My brother had the worst hayfever and allergy induced asthma I’ve ever encountered. (ragweed, cats, dogs, dust, mold, you name it in environmental allergies and he had it) He would wake up covered in blood from midnight nosebleeds and his eyes would swell shut and blacken like he’d been beaten. He started receiving weekly allergy shots around 12. At 16 he had a really bad reaction and hasn’t had a day of allergy related sniffles since.
I was born in the late 1960s and I knew several kids with allergies. Mostly cats, grass and bees, tho’. I don’t recall any peanut allergies.
In addition to the greater availability of information I think some of the allergy explosion is due to the great acceptance of people talking about their own health and making demands of their hosts.
Born in 70s. Never met anyone with a peanut allergy until the mid 90s. Anytime she went anywhere and planned to eat or drink something, she explained her situation and how to inject her with the Epi-pen should she go into anaphylactic shock.
She experienced anaphylaxis on more than one occasion, unfortunately, because of uninformed waitstaff and improper labeling. One instance occured after her high school sweet heart kissed her several hours after having a peanut butter sandwich.
Born in 1980. Never heard of peanut allergies until mid 90’s but I assumed that there are probably few things in the world which people are not allergic to.
Anyway, my nephew has had a very severe allergy to peanuts since, well - forever. He has to sit at the peanut free table at school. He can’t eat them or touch them. I don’t know if it’s the peanut itself or the shell he can’t touch but I know he can’t eat the peanut. His throat closes up so much he can’t breath. This has led to at least 2 trips to the emergency room in his 7 years. He’s also allergic to cats - also very severe.
I do know that my sister ate mostly Ramen noodles and peanut butter while preggers. She also nursed him for 3 :eek: years and ate a lot of peanut butter until he had his first trip to the emergency room at 6 months. After that, she stopped eating peanuts altogether.
Hmm, another mention of the “eating peanut butter while pregnant” thing. Curious, that. My OB (I’m nine weeks pregnant) said peanuts need only be avoided if either you or your hubby have had an allergic reaction to peanuts, strawberries or shellfish or one of you has hayfever, eczema or severe asthma, and even then, there is only a slight correlation.
(He did say giving peanuts or peanut butter to a child under two seemed to increase the likelihood of sensitivity.)
Pardon me. I should have phrased that statement as “I only became aware of peanut allergies in the 1980s.” It was one of those things where I was thinking one thing and typed another. No offense was intended.