Well, that’s just great. No alcohol. No smokes. No fish. No caffeine. Much worse than all of those put together, no Advil. And now, NO PEANUT BUTTER?
Maybe I’ll just adopt.
My kid is allergic to peanuts, and all tree nuts. And maybe some other stuff.
It seems that the food allergies vary by region and exposure. Americans have peanuts, while Europeans have trouble with hazelnuts, and Middle Easterners have sesame and chickpeas. And so on. Once you have an allergy, more exposure worsens it, so total avoidance is very desireable. With younger siblings, you try to avoid exposure to allergens until about age 3, when the immune system has hopefully matured and can better handle the substance. It does appear that avoiding allergens in pregnancy lessens the chance of the allergy in the child.
People enjoy blaming overprotective mothers and too much clean. I agree that that may be one contributing factor, but my child has never been known for germ-freeness, and is allergic anyway. I have become paranoid in response to that, but I wasn’t before. Other contributing factors exist–genetics, better diagnosis instead of early death, and I suspect environmental damage–we’ve dumped enormous amounts of chemicals and substances into the environment (and thus into ourselves) without knowing the consequences at all. I don’t think we fully understand allergies yet. And I’d like to point out that before we understood autism and homosexuality a bit better, we blamed the mothers. It’s just what Americans do.
Why have I become paranoid? Well, the best chance for her to grow out of her allergies–which isn’t very likely but does happen in a percentage of cases–is for her to completely avoid exposure. Every time she meets a nut, it’s a step in the wrong direction, towards a worse reaction and away from potential recovery. Like beestings, peanut allergies get worse, so while she doesn’t go into anaphylaxis now, she may someday. (Yes, anaphylaxis exists. There has been at least one person on this board in the past who had it, in fact.) Currently, she just throws up absolutely everything in her system. We carry an EpiPen anyway, but have never had to use it. Instead, I distribute Benadryl everywhere.
So I tell everyone who might possibly give her food that she can’t have nuts, and so on. I have been very grateful for the help I’ve gotten from others; when DangerGirl was in a co-op nursery school, the other parents would always check the snacks and so on, and make sure that she didn’t get anything she couldn’t eat. I check every package. But the fact is that the greatest danger to her is from other people who forget and give her things; I’m not likely to hand her a cinnamon roll with walnuts, but someone else might. We’re lucky; it isn’t that bad for her. But deadly reactions do exist, and no one really wants to see a kid die because they were a little careless. So we have these rules nowadays. We’re going to have to learn to live with it, since it doesn’t seem to be going away.
For those who think parents are self-diagnosing peanut allergies in place of, say, wheat allergies or the stomach flu–when a kid seems to have a food allergy, you take him to the doctor and get testing done. Even small children can have blood tests done, although they aren’t strictly accurate until about age 4. My kid tested off the chart for peanuts and nuts, but not for wheat or other things. She eats sandwiches all the time; they’re just jam and cheese instead of PB&J. In order to get an Epi-Pen prescription, you have to take a kid to the doctor and get him looked at; you can’t just pick them up like aspirin.
Anyway I guess that’s enough for now. But I get really tired of being blamed for my kid’s allergy. I didn’t do anything wrong, and just because it makes you feel like a better parent (or human being) to blame me doesn’t mean you’re right. Parents of non-allergic kids are more lucky than good.
Very well said!
i’m allergic to walnuts, and my first allergic reaction happened in my late 20’s. i have no idea why there wasn’t a reaction sooner.
i have eaten peanut butter since i could chew and have never had a reaction.
while some people have real allergies, i have seen others whom i am sure are using a supposed allergy for attention.
but giving nuts to a kid who is allergic (imagined or not) is horrifying.
No. Really though. Did pregnant woman of a generation ago eat peanut butter in the same quantites as women today? I think not. Peanut butter as a protien substitute is a relatively new idea. Who’d a thunk it 25 years ago? 
Anecdotally, I ate peanut butter all the time growing up (Canada, sixties and seventies) and never knew a kid with an allergy.
I am 40 now, and still have peanut butter toast some five days out of seven for breakfast. Palatable protein, easy to make, keeps me until lunch (unlike something without the fat/protein) and I just plain like it.
No, but if it is the case that mom is as neurotic as all that, it hardly seems likely that she would have sent the kid off to playgroup without mentioning that Junior can’t have any peanut butter. Unless one supposes that the other mothers deliberately fed Junior peanut butter, the story seems self-contradictory.
The linked column of Cecil’s even includes an example of an idiot nanny killing a kid be deciding to see if the kid was really allergic to peanut butter. While I’m not particularly fond of children, poisoning one to make a point hardly seems like a reasonable thing to do. 
History of Peanut Butter Shows that peanut butter was widely marketted in the 19 teens, and PB&J’s became popular in the 1940’s. My mom certainly ate her fair share of PB&J in the 60’s while BoringFetus was leeching off her. So who’d a thunk it 25 years ago? Most everyone.
Now I am more cultured. My kids and I have peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches.
There were kids 40 years ago who had food allergies - I was one of them. And one of my biggest problems were people who didn’t believe in allergies trying to force-feed me stuff they shouldn’t.
One the other hand, while most of my food allergies will make me sick, only a few would fall into the “life-threatening” category, and I didn’t start having reactions that severe until my 20’s. So in my childhood some of these obstinate idiots out to prove it was all in my head induced some spectacular projectile vomiting and other excretory effects, but did not actually put me in the hospital
Part of the problem, I suspect, is the idea that allergies are all or nothing affairs all the time. MOST people with peanut allergies are not going to swell up and die if they are merely in close proximity to a peanut, but both allergists and over-protective parents would have you think so. And it’s not a realistic approach to life, as no one gets to move around in the adult world in a peanut-free zone.
Currently, about 1 in 5 people have an allergy of some sort. Some of this is probably better diagnosis, but the rate does appear to be rising. Personally, I’m favoring the “lack of intestinal parasites” theory - if all it took to cure my allergies was a worm or two I’d gladly house a few. Food allergies are a pain in the backside.
Probably a lot more than we think.
There are a number of over-diagnosed “conditions,” “allergies,” and “diseases” out there. A few of my favorites:
Bee stings. Most people think they’re allergic to them. But very few (less than 1%) are.
Wool. How many people have told you they’re allergic to wool? While it might be true some people are allergic to the conditioning residue left over on the wool during processing, no one is allergic to wool.
MSG. I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard someone claim MSG made them sweat, or cause heart palpitations, or whatever. Unbeknownst to them, a lot of food contains MSG.
ADHD. Real? Maybe. Over diagnosed? Very likely.
I ate a lot of peanut butter in pregnancy because I was having trouble getting the 80 grams of recommended protein otherwise. Kid’s not allergic, though.
It is my understanding that peanut butter is exceptionally hard to “contain.” It gets on the fingers and face, and gets wiped on clothes, and before you know it there can be a lot of little bits of peanut oil all over a lunchroom and school. So an outright ban always made sense to me, rather than something like a “nut free table.”
My son’s entire preschool was “nut free” and “allergy aware.” I don’t know exactly how many kids were allergic (outside of the ones in his class) but it became a safe place for any kids with allergies to go. I thought in some respects it was a nice marketing addition–unlike other daycares which might be unreasonable or dismissive, this one kept nuts out of the building altogether and had a plan in place for each child.
I can understand the concern about hypochondriacal mothers, and that may come into play when you’re talking about informal playgroups. But I’d be surprised if a school or daycare would accept a mom-given diagnosis or jump to the conclusions that Chronos describes. Before they stock epi-pens, train staff, and post allergy alerts all over school, surely they’d want some documentation from a doctor. The kids in my son’s class with severe allergies had their photos posted, with a list of allergies, possible reactions, recommended treatment, and a precise script to use when calling 911 and communicating with EMTs once they arrived. Would they do that just because mom said “I think he’s allergic to strawberries?” Hard to believe.
Exactly. When I talked to my mother the other day, she was in the process of getting ready to contact my sister’s doctor and allergist, and ask them to fax proof of her allergies, and lactose intolerance to the school nurse. Even though the school has recieved this information at the beginning of every year(she’s in seventh grade now), they still requested it again. I doubt that this is rare.
As a preschool teacher (and a brand-new EMT), no, we would not accept a mom- given diagnosis. Just because mom says, “I’ve heard about those peanut allergies and I’m not taking any chances. I want his classroom peanut-free!” is not reason enough to ban PB&Js. We need a doctor’s note and then we make sure the other parents know not to send in lunches with peanut butter or snacks with peanuts.
We also cannot ‘stock up’ on Epi-Pens; they’re a prescription-only drug, and the kids that are allergic bring in their own, with Rx labels. The teachers are all trained in how to use them, though.
We have a general list in the office of all kids with allergies, symptoms to look for, and the treatment (Epi-Pen or Benadryl or something else), and each classroom has a list in an semi-inconspicuous place of the children in that room with their allergies. (My preschool is in a church, so they wanted to be somewhat discreet)
We also go over it at our initial teacher’s meeting (which just happened to be yesterday). The director went over the list by class - “David and Mikey in this class are allergic to peanuts, Jane in that other class is allergic to bee stings, Lizzy in your class is allergic to strawberries, this one poor sap in the Kindergarten is allergic to everything, …” and so on.
I took EMT training over the summer and am now a certified EMT. When all the other teachers found out, they all deferred to me and said if any of the kids go into anaphylactic shock, they’re coming to get me - some of them are squeamish and the thought of jamming that needle in a child’s leg and holding it there for 10 seconds freaks them out. I feel like I need to keep an Epi-Pen in my pocket all the time, just in case.
Correction: When a kid seems to have a food allergy, a sane, sensible, and responsible parent takes him to the doctor for testing. From what I can tell, dangermom is in that category. But unfortunately, not all parents are. And also unfortunately, those parents who aren’t sane, sensible, or responsible (or some combination) often seem to have the loudest voices in the various media. So yes, I would be willing to say that most of the cases of peanut allergies most folks hear about are self-diagnosed and inaccurate. Not all of them, certainly, and I would never advocate feeding the kid the “allergen” food “just to be sure”. But most of them.
I am 76 years old and have been eating peanut butter every since I could open the jar by myself. Perhaps even before that. In my school years, I remember eating many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Other kids eating them as well and I never knew of any PB allergies during my school years. I introduced my wife to PB&J when we were on a car trip around the USA a few years ago and now she is an avid fan of PB&J like myself. I think we buy a big jar of PB every 2 weeks or so and I think we are addicted to it.
How are these parents getting Epi-pens, Chronos?
I don’t think you can say most. Some, perhaps. But you know what, life with allergies is really kind of a hassle; I doubt many people do it just to get attention. You have to scrutinize all foods, remember to inform everyone possible and impossible, carry medicine everywhere, and get Medic-Alert bracelets and re-fill prescriptions…generally make a nuisance of yourself and spend time being careful and updated which would be more amusingly spent surfing the Internet.
It becomes obvious over time, anyway. For example, the last run-in my kid had with a peanut was not something she ingested–she touched something that had touched peanuts and then rubbed her eye. The eye promptly swelled up until she looked like…well, nothing on earth. It took most of a day to go back to almost-normal. A kid with allergies is going to have some problems every so often, while a kid with no allergies is not going to have the same kind of thing happen.
Having lived in the U.S. my whole life, I am amazed to discover that peanut butter is not consumed in huge quantities world wide. I saw one post that indicated it is consumed in some parts of Canada, but I take it that it is not in other parts of the world. Incredible.
I don’t think **Chronos **was the one brought up Epi-Pens. I know several people who claim life threatening food allergies who don’t carry and Epi-Pen. I even know a couple who have *diagnosed *life-threatening food allergies who don’t carry and Epi-pen. Never underestimate the stupidity of folks.
Again, these are all things you do if you are a good and conscientious parent like you are. But lots of the shrieking harpies I know do not do all this. There’s one in particular who is convinced her angel has a dairy allergy and won’t let him eat a thing out of my fridge because I stock milk and cheese. I have to find and buy all dairy-free snacks and keep them in a separate sealed box within the fridge - until she orders pizza. Even though I remind her to order him cheeseless, she says, “oh, don’t worry about it.” :rolleyes: So, what she’s saying is that when it’s convienent for her, his allergy somehow goes away? Whatever.
Absolutely, food allergies are real. Absolutely, one should never “test” an allergy unless one is an MD or allergist with appropriate meds on hand.
But not everyone who says they were at Woodstock was, and not everyone who claims a food allergy actually has one.
Do you have any cites for this or is it just IMHO? While I suspect that there are plenty of vocal, helicopter parents and some of them might even self-diagnose or just over-diagnose, it seems a stretch to claim this as the reason “Why the Increase in Peanut Allergies”.
Likewise, this seems to be a stretch too:
If I understand correctly, you are suggesting that there is an (erroneous) increase in peanut allergy awareness because parents/teachers/volunteers make several ridiculous leaps in logic rather than send the kid to a doctor? Especially considering the allergic reaction can be fairly severe. Again, I suspect that there are cases of overzealous parents that get a peanut “lockdown” at their kid’s school, but I find it hard to believe it would be common enough to cause an increase in peanut allergy sensitivity.
Why? So a kid is allergic to peanuts? Why does that mean other kids can’t eat their PB&J sandwiches? :dubious: