This might be a GQ, but does anyone know any figures for nut allergies in Asia? As Hokkaido Brit mentioned, Asia is full of legumes. The most popular cooking oil is peanut, and nearly everything fried is cooked in this. Mothers are chowing down peanut-oil fried foods and popping peanuts and other nuts while they’re both pregnant and breast feeding. Yet there doesn’t seem to be an epidemic of nut allergy (unless, of course, the children die of anaphylactic shock and the infant mortality figures don’t reflect this - but I doubt it). Could our problem with it (growing but not huge in the UK) be to do with lack of exposure, or could it be something else in the environment?
A couple of years ago I saw a university lecture on allergies that showed a little of how allergies do tend to follow geographical eating patterns. In the Middle East, you’re statistically more likely to run into people who have problems with chickpeas or sesame seeds, in Europe it’s hazelnuts. Don’t know about the Far Eastern countries though. In places with poor health care (Indonesia and Thailand, maybe), they may not be diagnosed properly, either.
Beware of Doug, I appreciate your apology. Please watch out with those accusations of parents, OK? We have enough already.
If I recall correctly, someone mentioned on here (?) that a lot of Asian countries tend to have high numbers of rice-allergic people, something which is pretty next to unknown here in the US. Unless rice falls under the gluten heading.
People who try to force feed the allergic folks the allergens should indeed be charged with assault and/or attempted murder. :mad:
Had you made it clear to the homeroom teacher that skin contact was all that was needed to set off the allergic reaction? It’s a bit of a stretch to expect the homeroom teacher to realize that an allergy to a food might be set off by means other than eating it.
Actually, dangermom, my family has a former family friend who really wouldn’t allow her twin daughters to eat chocolate because they might be allergic to it. My parents had known her daughters since they were born (they were one of the girls’ godparents) and the girls had never been allowed to have chocolate once, even though they had no known allergies and their mother loved chocolate. This woman, however got two cats despite being allergic to them to the point where she does have to take medication. She is the stereotypical, hyperprotective, overachieving mother. Note that she is also a former family friend.
I also don’t have any known food allergies, but I’m annoying picky about food. I’m not sure why and I regard it as my problem, not the rest of the worlds. I’m also trying to overcome it. In the interest of overcoming it, I had one segment of a clementine orange a couple of weeks ago. I spent the next several hours vomitting at irregular intervals, starting not long after the thing hit my stomach. This just added to the fun of helping a friend move.
If someone tells me he or she can’t eat something, I ask no questions; I just make sure there’s something else to eat. I know how embarrassed I get about my eating habits. I agree with what others have said. Giving someone something you know they’re severely, or even mildly allergic to is unspeakably rude and plain ignorant. Why someone would put up with this boggles my mind.
CJ
It’s different. Gluten intolerance (which is most well-known in Europe and North America, IIRC) covers wheat, oats, barley, rye, and any products derived from them.
No, because at the time, we had no idea either, though the autumn before he had been removed from a cookery class after some debate, because they were making peanut butter with peanuts they had grown themselves, and I was worried about peaunut oil being inhaled as they pounded the nuts up.
The next time I had had no consultation, so had no idea that they were even going to use walnuts. I was called out of my class at school by the school secretary when my kids teacher had been unable to reach me by cellphone (which I had left in the staffroom.) That made me realise it was serious, though his words were, “HB kid has had a bit of an allergic reaction.” I told them to wash his hands and face, strip him of his clothes and GET HIM TO THE HOSPITAL.
It was a 25 minute drive to the school and I decided to stop there to see if he’d gone to the hospital. Lucky I didn’t just drive on because there was the teacher, hanging about in the reception area, wringing his hands. When he saw me he said, “I know you said he had allergies but I didn’t know they were that bad.” I ran into the school nurses room, where my kid was sitting on her knee, facing her. He turned when he heard my voice and you have never seen the like - his face was swollen like a pumpkin, and his eyes and mouth were shut, just puffy slits, unable to open. He couldn’t see or talk.
They had not washed or stripped him either. I grabbed him and ran to the car - the school nurse got in without asking me and we rushed to the hospital where thank God the staff took one look and leaped into action, but it was at least 45 minutes after his exposure. The school nurse wanted to leave the room but I made her stay to watch as they got two IV’s running as he screamed in pain and fear, stripped him and wiped him down, got oxygen and injected him several times with various meds (steroids, antihistamines and ephedrine I think, I have forgotten now.) Then I asked her WHY they hadn’t done as I asked - she said the kid had been scared and had wanted to wait for me. Luckily at this point the doctor took over and told her off but in a manner that I was unable to do (I was trying not to hit her!)
When she left to go back to school she was crying with shock and shame. The head teacher and kid’s homeroom teacher came to the hospital with her that night to see how he was, and to apologise.
This is a long rant, it’s not meant to be. It is just so frustrating because I had actually told them numerous times and in writing, that the allergy was dangerous and had to be taken seriously. They all admitted that they had thought I was just a neurotic mother till that point.
I will say one good thing for the school (and you have to remember that this is Japan where allergy policies and treatments are very behind), they have never once suggested that my kid be left out of something.
The entire school goes off for three days to a remote mountain lodge where the kids hike and swim in the river, etc. This year, the first time after the allergy incident, we had literally HOURS of meetings where the menu was combed and combed again, we made contingency plans and his meds were reviewed. All the time I was waiting for someone to say,“This really isn’t safe and we don’t want the responsibility” but it never came.
When he went away of course I was very worried but he cannot be wrapped in cotton wool, and so I sent him off. That very night at about 11pm I got a phone call from his home room teacher - “Um… It’s about your son…”
“WHAT??? Has he had an allergic reaction???”
“No, no, not at all! It’s just that he’s broken his foot.”
Augh!!! (Entirely kids own fault, he jumped off a bunk bed!)
So is it a bad idea to give toddlers food with peanuts because an allergy might develop only if there is a prior family history? Or in any scenario? I’m not exactly sure but I’m pretty sure I had peanut butter when I was that young(I have no food allergies that I know of).
Well, actual peanuts should be withheld until age 4 or so just because they’re a choking hazard; little people don’t have molars or the grinding chewing action to pulverize the nut well, or the self-discipline to sit quietly as they eat and not literally inhale the nut. Peanut butter, OTOH, was once a common protein source for toddlers. The current recomendations are to avoid peanut butter and oil until age two for all children, regardless of family history. This is just one of a list of common allergenic foods, which should all be delayed until two years of age, dairy products, soy, shellfish, wheat, tree nuts and egg whites being the others.
There is one current of thought which says that pregnant and nursing moms should also avoid allergenic foods in their diets, but this is very controversial right now, and some studies have shown that this actually increases the child’s chances of developing an allergy later on. Cite: “Research shows mixed results about whether maternal food restrictions during breastfeeding will lessen the risk of food allergies in babies. In fact, a study presented at the 1996 meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology showed a surprising result: The children of breastfeeding mothers who withheld allergenic foods from their diet later showed an increase in food allergies.”
The exception seems to be milk allergies which have a family history: “At present, there is some scientific basis for believing that cow’s-milk products in a mother’s diet can cause colicky symptoms in a baby, and therefore it would be wise for a breastfeeding mother with a family history of cow’s-milk allergies to withhold dairy products from her diet, at least during the first year. It would be wise for a breastfeeding mother to seek nutritional advice from a doctor or nutritionist before going on a restrictive diet; otherwise she (and perhaps her baby) could run the risk of nutritional deficiency.” (Same source)
Lots of toddlers eat peanut butter every day. What you do is ask the parent if the kid has any food restrictions before you give out treats. Actually, this is a nice thing to ask anyone before you feed them.
If you’re the parent, and you have a normal kid, I would say go ahead and try it out. There’s no point in withholding all these foods if you have no evidence that they will make your kid sick. As with any food given for the first time, you have to watch for adverse reactions (just like you do with baby food), but nut allergies at least tend to be a little obvious. The first time my kid was given peanut butter, her face got all red. So we didn’t give it to her any more, but a friend did (though I had told her, she just forgot), and she instantly threw up everything in her system. Her first accidental exposure to walnuts brought on an extravagant case of hives.
Now that we know about her allergies, we are very paranoid about new foods. But there’s no point in that if there’s no evidence of allergies in the first place.
(We have no family history of food allergies, except that my brother has Crohn’s disease. My daughter did exhibit a lot of sensitivities early on, though.)
Yes, it is. But you’re in bad company. I long ago secured my one-way ticket to a dark, really really hot place due to gallows and other black humor (let’s not even go into ethnic, religious or sexual preference humor).* I figure not much worse could happen to me now.
- For those who thing that making jokes against a population segment makes me prejudiced, let me assure you that I hate everyone equally. No prejudice involved
I have a friend who’s allergic to cats. She at least sniffles all day if she’s exposed to cat allergens (dander or whatever it is). So what do her parents and sister do? They have a cat, and they let it roam around in her room while she’s at school, so she can’t sleep because she’s up all night sneezing, and then they make her take the cat to the vet. Cat urinates in car, and now the car is full of allergens and cat urine. She has a long commute to school and also drives to work, so now not only can she pick up allergens from her car to carry around to her classes and her job, she can also spend a bunch of money trying to get the car cleaned so it doesn’t smell like piss.