:: boggle ::
This is just… unbelievable.
And I agree… pressing attempted murder charges against the joking force feeders would be the best way to go. (The bumbling incompetents might only merit manslaughter charges.)
The trouble is here that soy is in EVERYTHING, and soy is a legume, isn’t it? A bean? It is a stabliser in so much. She would have to learn the characters and read every single label, and then it might not be safe because some ingredients are not listed here, the regulations are not so strict as the US. Last year it became law that five allergens be listed, and soy is one of them, but who knows if all companies actually obey the law??
Also epi pens here are only available to adults and only for bee sting allergies (go figure). Luckily I have a wonderful pediatrician who suddenly realised that I myself have an AWFUL bee sting allergy and need that pen… (It is legally dodgy if kid dies having been administered it but I’ll face that if and when.) Epi pens also only last about 6 months so it’s hard to stock up with them.
I would say that until she is at least an older teenager, fully aware of her problem and THAT SHE IS NOT INVINCIBLE (my friend’s brother died because he didn’t take care, it was too much bother and uncool at 17…) then she should not come to Asia.
Nuts abound, as do nut oils.
However Japan is probably safer than Thailand and Vietnam etc where nuts are a huge part of the cuisine.
Good luck
That’s part of the problem - allergies really do range from the mildly annoying through to sudden death.
Then we have the folks insisting that this is a “true allergy” and that is a “mere intolerance”. Hey, if eating it makes you feel like crap you shouldn’t eat it, that simple. And no one should be force-feeding it to you.
I know at work some folks were thinking I was some sort of nerotic-psycho-hypochondriac because of my picky, paranoid eating habits but never an actual reaction for 7 or 8 years… until I accidently ate the wrong thing. It didn’t require a trip to the hospital, but did involve vivid color changes and itching and time in the Ladies’ and me getting out my bag of medications. Oh, gosh, she’s right - she really does get sick when you feed her the wrong thing!
Have to wonder if her mom was in that group of people who have the mistaken notion that allergic people use “allergy” to mean “I don’t like the taste”.
Yes, there really is a crowd of folks out there who believe that - I’ll say “I can’t eat that, I’m allergic to XYZ” and they’ll say “But there’s so little you won’t be able to taste it! You won’t notice it at all!” Um… it has nothing to do with taste. And if there’s so little of XYZ in the dish, why do you need XYZ in there at all?
That’s part of the hell of food allergies - I actually like the taste of some of the things I’m allergic to. How awful to have a craving for something but never be able to eat it, on possible pain of death!
According to this New Jersey hospital, “The prevalence of childhood peanut allergies appears to have increased in the past few decades.” :dubious:
Could this be explained by better diagnostic science or by more machine-processed food products (ie: peanut allergens getting into more foods)?
Another theory: This cite says the allergy has increased among kids who have been kept away from peanuts by concerned adults in case they might be allergic.
:rolleyes: Any stats on whether it’s more common in populations with overprotective mothering?
You know, I get really really really tired of being accused of being overprotective and paranoid and hysterical. I’m overprotective now because I have to be in order to keep my kid alive–which isn’t exactly overprotective but realistic. I wasn’t before. I didn’t keep my kid in a bubble or away from all things dirt-related. We simply got unlucky. The preliminary signs showed up when she was 6 months old, before she consumed anything besides breastmilk and a few baby foods–long before we ever got to peanut foods.
It makes people feel so good to be able to blame parents for their kids’ health problems. Then they can reassure themselves that it will never happen to them, beause they are good parents. I seem to recall that homosexuality and autism were also blamed on bad mothers.
Hokkaido Brit, I kind of figured that would be the case. Thanks for the info. sigh 
I hope you don’t think I am making light of the situation.
I did this to myself by over exposure I believe. Mom had nothing to do with it.
One year in college all I ate was movie popcorn, I would go the movies nearly every night and eat the popcorn for my evening meal, I would eat air-popped corn for lunch. No breakfast. The year after that I started to become intolerant of corn and all of its by-products except syrup (why not corn syrup? no idea I just thank god). Now almost any form of corn in food and medications will produce the COLON-BLOW effect. Then the stomach and intestines also try to leave my body through the nearest exit. Then I feel as if my innards are burning and cramping. Th CB effect kicks in after 4-12 hrs and the rest of the discomfort takes 12 hrs to resolve itself.
I READ labels. I have to repeat myself at restuarants-they listen better than families. I refuse desserts at family gatherings and question everything in the meal.
I believe that the a**holes that do not understand need a bout of food poisoning to get a better idea of what, “I cannot eat XYZ” truly means.
There is a child in our neighborhood who for Halloween says,“I’m allergic to peanuts and chocolate-Trick or Treat!” Thank goodness for the sour candies.
This one, I really don’t understand. Take my sister, as an example. She genuinely is not allergic to coconuts. She doesn’t claim to be, and if she accidentally eats some, it doesn’t cause her any illness. But, she really really doesn’t like the taste. There have been times when my mom and I have been eating something, and my sister spits it out in disgust, and sure enough, unbeknownst to any of us, there’s coconut, way down on the bottom of the list of ingredients.
And do you know how we react to this? We don’t try to serve my sister anything with coconuts in it! Certainly, this is not as critical as with an allergy, so we’re not quite as diligent with reading ingredients, and sometimes, accidents happen. But we don’t deliberately feed her anything with coconut in it, because that would just be inconsiderate. As far as our deliberate choices go, it doesn’t matter whether a person is genuinely allergic, or just doesn’t like something. Either way, the appropriate response is to not give that food to that person.
Is it bad that I just laughed my ass off at this?
I’m sorry. Different people have different feelings about gallows humor. But man, that hair thing is some funny stuff . . .
My apologies. I certainly didn’t mean to single you out, more the subculture of mostly well-to-do, educated, urban/suburban, super-achieving, ultra-worrying “My kid’s GOT to get into the A No. 1 kindergarten or his chances at Harvard are ruined” stereotype of parenthood.
I actually hadn’t read your post (and several others), not that that’s any excuse, or supposed to make you feel any better… :rolleyes:
Actually, hair styling at the funeral home was one of the first things that my mom, sister, and I chuckled over after my father’s death. He always had his hair parted on a particular side, and I think the only time I saw his hair not like that was in old photos of him in the Army with buzzed hair. Mom had provided them with a photo for the viewing, but when we looked at him in the casket, his hair was unparted and combed back. The three of us all agreed that this must be changed, and I said he’d be likely to come back to haunt us if we let him be seen and buried like that. The comment happened to strike us enough to chuckle a little about it, because it did look seriously wrong to us.
(And I’m sorry but I found the crack about superpowers to be funny. I’m going to hell, I guess.)
I know a few people, my mother included, who have peanut allergies. So, they’ve made me aware that labels in the U.S. sometimes read “contains peanut oil, or is made in a facility that processes peanut oil”, or something to that effect, since even a small amount of cross-contamination can be a problem.
Are there any other common alergens for which they say “contains chemical X, or is made in a facility which processes chemical X?”, or are peanuts more commonly that fatal to some people?
I’ve seen labels like that for shellfish. Handy for me, since I keep kosher…
And I truly don’t get why anyone would even contemplate any other response.
I heard about a study a few years back saying that kids who were exposed to pets early in life were significantly less likely to develop allergies to animals. No cite, though.
Milk. Wheat. Eggs. Several others, I’m sure. Some of it is about allergic responses and I think some of it has to do with those who keep kosher or eat vegan.
Not to be too snarky, but what does any of that have to do with this thread?
:dubious:
My goddaughter is allergic to bee venom. We didn’t find out until she was 7 years old, luckily. If she had been stung as a toddler, she might have died. As it was, only the fact that her mom is an RN saved her life. Lisa was able to get her to an ER before most parents would have realized what was happening.
She now always has an epi pen in her house, and her purse, and at her daughter’s school. She would keep one in the car but heat breaks down the active ingredient…
Anaphalactic shock is no joke.
In my son’s preschool classroom, there are multiple notices about one child’s allergies to nuts, especially peanuts. It’s not just about what HE eats, but also what he makes during crafts, who he sits next to at lunch and what THEY eat, etc.
The connection is that the parents who say “My kid’s GOT to get into the A No. 1 kindergarten or his chances at Harvard are ruined” are allegedly the same ones who put their children in a bubble out of intense fear of them touching anything vaguely dirty, and then their kids end up with fatal allergies. It’s a valid point, as science has on a couple of occasions noted a general trend that kids exposed to allergens and grubbiness very early in life tend to be healthier later. Beware of Doug’s post about the parental stereotype is meant to clarify what he meant by that, and also to clarify that he wasn’t accusing any specific parent of “causing” allergies through such methods, and also to note that it was indeed possible for children to develop allergies without being overly sheltered.
The connection is that the parents who say “My kid’s GOT to get into the A No. 1 kindergarten or his chances at Harvard are ruined” are allegedly the same ones who put their children in a bubble out of intense fear of them touching anything vaguely dirty, and then their kids end up with fatal allergies. It’s a valid point, as science has on a couple of occasions noted a general trend that kids exposed to allergens and grubbiness very early in life tend to be healthier later. Beware of Doug’s post about the parental stereotype is meant to clarify what he meant by that, and also to clarify that he wasn’t accusing any specific parent of “causing” allergies through such methods, and also to note that it was indeed possible for children to develop allergies without being overly sheltered.
Dunno about vegans, but it’s not intended for people who keep kosher. That’s what kosher certification is for. Some of us, who are marginally less strict in our observance and will eat non-kosher-certified products after reading the label and determining that there are no ingredients in them that would make them non-kosher, use it that way, but it’s not intended to be used that way.