I can see why this would be frustrating, but your bigger problem are those that claim to take it seriously, but actually don’t. Which is why we’re having this discussion to begin with, right?
That’s what some people keep failing to consider. The complaint is actually about saying one thing, but doing the opposite, and putting muldoonthief’s daughter at risk in the process.
I’ve never heard of such a thing, myself. Sounds disgusting.
I can’t even imagine that a daycare would promise a nut-free room and then not do it.
Sure, the girl in this case is 4, and theoretically is not putting everything she comes across in her mouth.
What about an 18 month old who also has a deadly allergy? They really don’t know any better, and unless you have someone supervising them constantly, it’s just too dangerous. I’m sure the kids move from room to room during the day (or at least they do where my daughter attends) even if they spend most of their time in one place.
My sister has a deadly peanut allergy, and we came very close to losing her on her third reaction, which happened when she was about 14. (she was out for dinner with her friends family at a fancy restaurant, and they brought around after dinner chocolates. She asked if there was peanuts in them, and was told “no” as the usual ones didn’t. The waiter wasn’t aware that they had run out of their usual supply, and had gotten different ones. She took one bite and asked to be taken home. By the time they got her there, she was not breathing and blue. The paramedics had to cut her tights off her legs were so swollen. Not fun) She can’t be around while anyone is baking anything that has peanuts in it (spent the evening on the deck on the night we figured that out) and will get a rash even from contact. I am well aware of how serious a peanut allergy can be, and I’m really really glad my daughter doesn’t have any severe allergies.
Well, I just was responding the post that made it seem like sheer numbers were so huge, when there don’t seem to be that many people who die of it…but you’re right, it’s serious.
I also wondered–what happens when your daughter isn’t in school? If even being near a peanut or near someone who has eaten a peanut is a big deal (and if all these little incidents don’t necessarily trigger an attack but add up), what happens if she goes to an amusement park, or a museum, or a restaurant, or just walks by someone who’s eating peanuts? Is that kind of contact not going to be all that serious for her? or is that considered a big deal?
There are varying degrees of severity of allergies among different people. Unfortunately, the only reliable way to determine what someone is allergic to is to see what they react to. So we had 2 options - raise her in a bubble, or raise her with care - preventing exposure to things we know will hurt her, but otherwise let her be a normal kid with added precautions (like taking an EpiPen everywhere we/she go). She’s had a reaction to peanuts, so she can’t eat those. Skin tests have shown she’s allergic to all tree nuts, so she doesn’t get to eat those either. She’s been to amusement parks, and restaurants, and other public places where people are eating nuts, and hasn’t had a problem, so we’re reasonably confident that being in the same area as others ingesting nuts is OK. When we go out to dinner, we inform the server that she’s got a peanut allergy, and ask what they use in their deep fryer, since she usually gets something off the kids menu. Never had a problem there. Babysitters know not to bring any food with them, but anything in the house they want to feed her is OK. We check ingredient lists on everything we buy, and if it contains nuts, may contain traces of nuts, or even was produced in a factory where nuts are used, we don’t buy it. Halloween is a bit tricky - we wind up taking away about 2/3 of her candy bag and replacing it with safe candy we bought for her ahead of time. We’re also training her to be aware of food on her own - she’s always asking us if what she’s about to eat has nuts in it. That should segue into her checking ingredients on her own when she can read them.
Oh, okay, thanks. I thought the reason behind the nut-free room in the day care was that your daughter couldn’t be around them at all. Or is it more that you don’t want her to accidentally ingest a nut that someone has lying around?
I would guess that’s exactly the concern.
I don’t even give my 2 year old peanut butter in the mornings before daycare, just in case her face-wash-teeth-brush routine is less than stellar. I don’t want her giving her little friends nasty rashes with sticky hands and peanut butter face. (I do the same when my sister is in town - no “peanut butter spoon” for the kid those days)
No, it’s that we don’t trust that in a room of 15-20 4 year olds, with 3 adult supervisors, that she wouldn’t accidently be given something with nuts by one of the other kids - especially if it’s not obvious that it contains nuts. Or that some other child wouldn’t get a smear of peanut butter on a table, that my daughter would place her hand on.
For fun, next time you go to the supermarket - check the warnings on the ingredients of everything you buy. You’ll be surprised how many things that you wouldn’t expect contain nuts, or may contain nuts, or were made on equipment that also processes nuts. So just avoiding things with obvious nuts in them or “nuts” in the name isn’t sufficient.
It’s pretty mindblowing: so many things you would not expect to be off limitis that are. We’ve had plenty of discussions about it when we’ve taken our baby girl to get snacks for the week. Anything Little Debbie is right out: it all either has nuts or is processed in a plant that also processes nuts. She loved anything Little Debbie for snack.
Thankfully, between the classmate with the peanut allergy (who, she says, is her boyfriend) and her with the diabetes, we’ve been able to steer her toward healthier snacks.
My sister has complained of the new prevalence of the “warning: may contain peanuts” on everything - used to be she could rely on the warning; if something said it had peanuts it did - now pretty much everything has that on it. Gotta CYA, after all.
I’m surprised more companies haven’t gone the way of Nestle with the guaranteed “peanut free” products (I think Quaker has some as well) I would think there would be a huge market for it.
The reality is that the market is fairly small. What is the incidence of peanut allergies? From what I have seen the highest estimates place it at about 1.0% to 1.6% of the US and I’ve seen reports that indicate that it might not be that high. Additionally a significant portion of those kids outgrow the allergy. (Various estimates from 10% to 40%, choose the number you like, I don’t really care.)
Worth posting this link again to: The Straight Dope: Are peanut allergies for real?
Interesting article on the Peanut Allergy: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/38370/title/Food_allergy_advice_may_be_peanuts
There are also studies that show controlled exposure to peanuts will lessen the reaction. However this does not mean hand the kid a snickers. It appears that over a several week period starting with an extremely small amount of peanut in flour they were able to the kids in the study to handle small amounts over 10 peanuts without a problem. If I find the article, I will link it.
Something that hasn’t been mentioned that I wouldn’t have thought of: cooking oil. We use canola – store brand. Have since my heart problems back in the early 1990s. (And occasionally olive in certain dishes.) But that made me notice what other cooking oils contain. And it’s a mixture, of whatever’s available cheapest: usually corn and/or safflower oils, but with other things that might be included. Given the topic of this thread, guess what oil is one of the ones explicitly noted as a possibility?
That can also be a problem eating out. Back in high school on a class trip we wound up changing restaurant plans at the last minute because our original choice used peanut oil in the kitchen. (Fortunately our group was small enough that we could get by without reservations without too much trouble).
But when you consider all of the elementary schools and daycares that are peanut free, the potential market is much larger than just the families that have children with allergies.
What is the substance in peanuts that triggers the allergy? Is this substance found in other foods as well?
That sounds pretty horrific and I’m glad no serious (or fatal) harm was done.
However…put me down as another person who had no idea about reactions in just being around nuts.
I figured if a person ate the food, then yeah…but even just being in the same room? I didn’t know that.
So I guess my question is…How many people do you need to claim that they didn’t know something for it not to be considered “common knowledge” anymore? I could probably tell you 10 or 20 other people I know who WOULDN’T have known that.
Do any of those people work in a daycare that claims to have a nut-free room? I guess the point is, they should have known better than to bring nuts into a nut-free room, no?
<anecdote hijack>
When my daughter was in daycare, each kid had a specific spot at a lunch table, marked with his or her name. One of the boys was allergic, so his place card had a reminder of that fact. Unfortunately, it made it look like the staff had given him a nickname: “NO NUTS COOPER”.
</anecdote hijack>
Proteins. Peanut proteins trigger so much immune response in some people that the airway closes up with the swelling. Mast cells and basophils release…stuff… (histamines, prostoglandins and, uh, leukotrines*) which cause a bunch of the fluid part of the blood to rush into the tissues. This excess fluid causes swelling. If this happens in the respiratory tract, the airway can close up because of the swelling and you won’t be able to breathe. If it happens in the gut, you can have vomiting, diarrhea and/or cramping.
I believe, technically speaking, anaphylactic and inflamed gut allergic reactions are always and only caused by histamine response to proteins. Rashes or other weird reactions are not, strictly speaking, “allergies”, but may be better termed “intolerances” or “sensitivities”. It’s only an allergy if it makes you have a histamine response.
*Now dang it, why couldn’t I remember that one on my anatomy test today?!
That is so sad, but funny at the same time. 