Well, like I said, I heard it was a containment issue. It’s messy food, especially when small children are eating it. And the fact that it’s an oily food means it absorbs into things, stays on them, and can be spread around. Still, this wouldn’t be much of an issue if allergens affect children only when they’re ingested, but peanut allergies can cause skin reactions and the like.
Apparently, that is. I’m no doctor; I’ve just been on the sidelines when this issue has been discussed on parents lists, and have received literature about it when my son was in a nut-free center.
Zee German inlaws of mine over in Germany had never had peanut butter.
After one bleary eyed morning of trying some new bread topper that I was told was, " Schmeck Gut!" (Very good) and it was Blech. I grabbed my Emergency jar of peanut butter that I brought along for the kids in case they needed comfort food or tired of the chopped spleen spread.
The cousin took a bite and gave a face.
I was appalled that she didn’t love it instantly.
I mean, this is the country that introduced me to Nutella (:::::::::::drool:::::::::
And no one liked the PB.
Unpossible.
UnAmerican.
(they also don’t serve popcorn at the movie theaters. That.ain’t.natural.) and I allergic to popcorn as it is a migraine inducer…but the smell…mmmmmmmmm
MSG is one of the greatest things evar!!!1111!!! except for the tiny fact that a percentage of peoples like are migraine sensitive and this is a Big trigger for such pain.
My mother, who was born in about 1930, had several serious food allergies, one of which was to peanuts. She was born and raised in Australia. So, yes, the allergies were around a long time ago, and in countries other than the US. I don’t have any food allergies, but do have some contact ones.
My WAG is that there is a genetic predisposition to allergies/dermatitis/asthma, and there are other factors that determine which of these manifest, and how severely. I also suspect that there is a random component to which triggers you develop.
Peanut butter is widely eaten in Australia, and has been for at least 40 years to my memory. Not, however, with jelly or marshmallow fluff. Blech.
Believe it or not, there are some mothers who read every parenting magazine and website out there, find out about peanut allergies when their kid is in utero, and just assume their precious angel will have a peanut allergy, too. They never bother to let their child taste PB, or even get their child tested, they just declare peanuts off-limits, out of fear of seeing their child going into anaphylactic shock. That’s self-diagnosed, or “Mom-diagnosed.”
If a parent registers their child at my school and says, “He had a bad reaction to peanuts when he was two - here’s a note from his doctor and his Epi-pen” then that’s fine. His classroom will be made peanut-free.
If she comes in and says, “I’ve heard about those peanut allergies, and I don’t want to take any chances. I’ve never given Snookums any peanuts and I want his classroom and the entire school declared peanut-free. I don’t want kids two floors away having PB&Js for lunch, either” then we tell her we need a doctor’s note and an Epi-pen. They get a little crazy - it’s happened before. If the child is actually allergic, they’ll have the Epi-pen.
If it’s just a matter of, “Maybe, I think, I don’t want to take a chance” then go get him tested.
If it turns out that he is allergic, better safe than sorry - you need the Epi-pen anyway. Why walk around thinking he might be allergic, but without the proper treatment?
[QUOTE=BiblioCat]
Believe it or not, there are some mothers who read every parenting magazine and website out there, find out about peanut allergies when their kid is in utero, and just assume their precious angel will have a peanut allergy, too. They never bother to let their child taste PB, or even get their child tested, they just declare peanuts off-limits, out of fear of seeing their child going into anaphylactic shock. That’s self-diagnosed, or “Mom-diagnosed.”
Let’s not forget the internet. How many of these Moms (and Dads) get a forwarded email with the latest Danger of the Week and then panic?
Peanuts have been so common in the United States for so long that I just have a problem believing that kids are dropping dead left and right because they inhaled residue from a peanut.
I believe “jelly” in America is what we call jam. Or, at least, what jam would be, if it was made with grapes. It’s called jelly because it’s made from juices only and therefore not really jam. I’ve never seen the stuff here in Australia, or even in Canada for that matter. It seems to be a purely American thing.
In the US, jam is preserves made with chunks of fruit in it, while jelly is preserves made only from juice. Grape jelly is most common, but there are plenty of other kids of jelly–apple, raspberry, pomegranate, etc.
What you call jelly (a gelatin substance), we call Jell-o or gelatin. This makes for a lot of confusion when Americans read about calves’ foot jelly, or lamb with mint jelly.
Yeah, I know that. I speak American reasonably fluently, and we also have jam-without-fruit called jelly over here. Blackberries (brambles) are often made into jelly just because the pips are so woody, though I’m cool with them anyway.
Even so, peanut butter = yum, jam/jelly = yum, PB&J = ugh.I.can’t.believe.you.guys.eat.this… at least, as far as I can tell without trying it.
I often had peanut butter with strawberry jam as a kid, and liked it. It doesn’t seem like such a stretch to replace the strawberry jam with grape jelly.
A lot of double-blind tests have been conducted w/ MSG. And guess what? “Reseachers have failed to reproduce the adverse reactions many individuals associate with ingestion of MSG.”
So unless you can come up with some double-blind tests that correlate adverse reactions with the ingestion of MSG, I can only conclude MSG does not cause headaches.
There are also liability issues. Schools tend to take the tack that better safe than sorry. Dweezil has a known peanut allergy - broke out in violent hives the second time he consumed the stuff, at about age 16 months. We’ve banned peanuts from the house just to be safe, but we do not expect the school to make even a peanut-free table at lunch. Nonetheless, they’ve been known to designate a peanut-free table even though we assure them that his sensitivity is not that great (and it isn’t - it’s been 5 years since he’s had hives and that was probably from something contaminated at the factory).
Although apparently the school doesn’t bother to communicate with parents about “don’t send in peanuts” - at holidays, kids will bring in little candies to share, and pretty much every time, I find miniature Reese’s cups in his backpack :rolleyes:. Fortunately, my kid has always been very aware of the issues and if there’s any doubt, he’ll ask an adult before he samples something.
As to why there’s an apparent increase: I suspect a combination of weirded-out immune systems (due to too-clean environment / multiple immunizations) and increased exposure. My kids had a lot more immunizations than kids of my generation did. My son had a lot of “gently used” PB when I was pregnant and nursing. My mother, on the other hand, never ate PB that I knew of, and only nursed me for a few weeks, so I had much less early exposure.
That’s very nice- but PB is a good source of protien. The other kids aren’t allergic- why should they be denied their food of choice when one kid is alergic? Esp when the danger is so very low unless the PB is actually injested.
Now, I can see a PB free lunch TABLE or even a corner- but an entire classroom or a whole school? That’s crazy. If the Mom is that worried- she can home-school her precious then.
I agree with you about a whole school being overkill, but I don’t see a serious problem with peanut-free classrooms. Kids don’t really have to be eating in class, do they?
Some (most? all?) kindergartens have kids consuming their snack and milk in the classroom. Too much upheaval to take them to the cafeteria, I guess, especially when K is only a half-day.
