Karen seems to have overlooked a rather relevant update from Joel Stein, titled "A Nut Allergy Skeptic Learns the Hard Way" : http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2007417,00.html

Also, by Stein's wife: http://www.babble.com/babble-voices/joel-stein-cassandra-barry-more-stories-about-some-kid/my-kids-nut-allergy-is-bringing-you-down/

A nut allergy and a peanut allergy are not the same thing. Peanuts aren't nuts. They're legumes.

Also, by Stein's wife: -- marion at September 28, 2013 11:47 PM

So you have a husband and wife commenting on their kid's allergy.

Is that evidence or datum?

I used to think so too. But a trip to the ER this summer means I am awaiting the results of an allergy test for my kid. We suspect peanuts. Id be happy to email you photos, Amy.

There is a theory that Vitamin D deficiency has a role in peanut allergies. In Ecuador and Guatemala kids don't wear sunscreen, and get Vitamin D from the sun.

She doesn't understand science very well. An allergy has nothing to do with genes. It's largely an overreaction by your immune system, specifically the IgE immunoglobulins. The ones that are supposed to handle parasites, which rich Americans aren't exposed to. In Ecuador and Guatamala, they are.

I agree that many kids whose parents freak out about allergies aren't actually at risk. But she needs to do a little more research to back her position.

DD #3 here took to telling people she was allergic to peanut butter for a while, because she didn't like it. I nipped that in the bud, strongly. I did not want people worrying about her.

Jim P., not just any husband and wife. It's the author of the linked piece and his wife. Their child has a severe nut allergy, now, and they have reversed their special snowflake position. Which is good----I've never understood the whole bit that food allergies are just a ploy for attention. Talking about your child's food allergies, or any other condition, too much is a ploy for attention, sure, but that doesn't make the condition any less real.

I think that it is important to be clear about preferences, sensitivities, and allergies. When people lie or exaggerate about a medical situation, people diminish it which can lead to serious consequences or death.

Our friends son had a life-threatening reaction to peanut butter after has teacher had him wash a table that had peanut butter on it. He rubbed his eye later which led to a reaction so strong that he turned blue and was minutes away from death.

A little girl recently died at camp because she took a bite of a rice crispies treat made with peanut butter. She spit it out without swallowing it, carried an epi-pen, and had a father who was an MD a few feet from her who called a helicopter, yet none of these measures were enough to save her.

It is interesting to me that I have been called a bitch for refusing to give ice cream and home-made milk chocolate cake to two little girls who were our guests for lunch who told me that they were allergic to milk. I was told that they were probably lactose intolerant and could have eaten the dessert, but I'm not taking any chances. There really are some people allergic to milk.

Thank you Momof4.

Amy, do you mean Munchausen Syndrome? It's pretty rare, I think. I dunno. That "special snowflake" charge is also lobbed at people who have ADHD and autism which are quite real. People with Munchausen's also fake leukemia (sometimes purposely injuring themselves or their babies to get the "unexplained bruises" symptom).

Meh. It seems like a safe bet to assume that parents who claim allergies are being honest, and to stick to just calling those who turn every conversation into a screed about allergies (or ADHD or whatever) crashing bores.

I always thought that inventing or exaggerating medical symptoms to get attention was what Munchausen Syndrome was all about. Munchausen by proxy would cover parents inventing or exaggerating their children's medical symptoms to get attention, wouldn't it?

yup, it could certainly be humans being jerks...

but having had that anaphylactic brush with death myself, understanding what things cause what other thing, is rarely easy.

the stakes are insanely high. I was actually IN an allergist office, getting a standard allergy shot, in a dose I'd done before. They make you wait 20 min to see that nothing bad happens... and just as we were leaving in minute 25? the hives came, in a way hard to describe. They had to give me wave after wave of epinephrine, because the epipens were too small.

the scariest part is not knowing the trigger.

so. I am liable to believe what a parent tells me about their kid, when the event horizon is so dire.

it isn't my problem, if they are doing this for attention.

this sort of thing can be tested to an extent. if a parent has done so, what, am I sposed to call them a liar?

Wow, here I am, living in a rich, lefty neighborhood, and I didn't even know it! I guess we keep that Epi-Pen at my daughter's school for no reason. But then, my daughter's reactions to peanuts are pretty mild, and she's old enough and careful enough to avoid eating them. So maybe we are rich trendly-lefties, but only just a little.

My husband's grandfather died within minutes at a fairly young age from anaphylactic shock caused by a bee sting.

While I don't want to diminish the life threatening allergic reactions out there, a certain number of people are going to die this way, just because it happens, and peanut butter is only one of the villains.

While I am sympathetic to children and adults with allergies, there is a lot of evidence that turning your child into a hothouse flower is one of the best ways for them to have the kind of severe allergic reaction that results in death.
The moment you totally eliminate some substance that you have a reaction to, you stop the process of desensitizing your immune system to those substances.

This is one of those questions where there is no really good answer, and you prepare as much as you can, but life is just unfair that way.

Parents who obsess over their children, regardless of whether it is their health, or their academics, or their athletics, are crushing bores.

And there is nothing more rude, than accepting an invitation to an event, conditional on the hosting party adhering to a long list of restricted foods, beverages, or activities.
If you or your kid are that fragile, stay home.

Growing up, I knew not one person with a nut allergy, or even a legume allergy.

Not one. Even today, I don't know of anyone with a nut allergy. That may be just because it hasn't come up. I don't know.

And yet, now, it seems to be an "epidemic". What gives? what has changed over the last 50 years? if I had to guess, it is because kids are being raised in an unnaturally sterile environment.

I used to play in the dirt, probably ate some, I know I sampled the dog food, we were exposed to lead paint and asbestoes was about. Many mothers would have a cow if they found their kids playing like that.

In the mean time, pass me the peanuts, almonds, and walnuts. If you can't or won't eat them, let me have 'em.

The best numbers I could find indicated that around 400 people a year die from anaphylactic shock in the US.

Most of those are drug reactions. So we are talking about food allergies being a very small problem in the grand scheme of things.

I do agree with IRA Darth Aggie. The children I know with severe allergies and asthma, are the ones who live in spotless houses, with carefully sterilized food.
These people are easy to spot. You can eat off the floors, and bottles of antibacterial soap are strategically placed by every sink in the house.

Factitious Disorder might be the term on the tip of your tongue, Amy. It's the mentally/emotionally ill expression of the more common Malingering, where symptoms are feigned for material gain, such as disability payments. The Factitious are manipulating for attention and emotional rewards.
Munchausen's is under the same umbrella, and is far more common than people think it is, especially by Proxy. When I worked in Disability Determination, we would see records that indicated text-book Munchausen's, but rarely an official diagnosis. Suspicious Docs will often hospitalize a proxy patient for epilepsy monitoring, where everything is recorded, because that is about the only way to prove what is happening.

On one side we have the special snowflakes looking for attention. On the other side we have people who are annoyed with having to accommodate other people in any way, and haven't met many (or any) people with nut allergies, so assume that their lack of experience with the matter is equal to data.

People who have allergies should take every precaution to protect themselves. The rest of us can stop being dicks about it.

I think the word you're after is "valetudinarian." See http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-val1.htm

The term allergy is overused and misused and I think that's part of the problem. Instead of properly stating you are sensitive or intolerant to something when you have a mild, non-life-threatening reaction perpetuates the allergy epidemic myth. My husband gets a stomachache after drinking milk and used to say he was allergic versus sensitive to lactose. Because of the misunderstanding practically everyone is now "allergic" to foods and medications, basically things people ingest. Food sensitivities run in my family, but I have a true allergy to shrimp (or more specifically an enzyme they produce that can cause "food poisoning" symptoms in normal people when it is present in high levels) resulting in an anaphylactic reaction. I don't keep people around me from having or eating shrimp, I just don't eat it.

What bothers the hell out of me about kids with allergies, is the healthy kids have to pay for it.

No longer can you send your child to school with a Peanut Butter sandwich, a cheap, healthy staple, some of the other little hothouse flowers might have allergies. So instead of sending the allergic kids to a different classroom to eat, let's just ban it outright. "We can't separate the children!" they holler, "that's prejudiced, racist, foodist, some kinda ist and we'll make you pay for it! LAWSUIT!!!"

The "special needs" kids are now the majority, so healthy children are shunted to the back of the line in the interests of yuppie parents with PC madness. The needs of the few now outweigh the needs of the many.

Disgusting.

Not really related, but it did remind me of a patient we had at our clinic. One of many patients that are rapidly making me lose faith in the health care industry.

It seems there's this man who comes in with his little girl. The man is disability for no reason that I can see, unless you consider morbid obesity a disability (he must weigh 400 pounds, at least; he's just that big).

When he sits down in the room with his little girl who is undergoing her physical therapy, you can tell he's coaching her. When the physical therapist is stretching her (and there's nothing wrong with her that I can see; she runs, skips and plays like a normal seven-year-old), the therapist will ask her, "Does this hurt?"

She'll quickly turn her head, despite her supposed neck injury, and look to her father, who will quickly and subtly nod, and so she'll say "Yes," even though she shows no outward signs of pain.

I also once heard him on the phone, telling someone (I suspect his wife) that he's trying to get that little girl on disability.

Dear God, the messages that poor little girl is getting. "It's good to lie to get things from the government."

"You couldn't possibly succeed in this world on your own strengths, so it's best to get you disability. Because there's nothing in this world worth doing that will pay you to do it."

I'm sure some of you could add to this short list of bad messages this dad is sending to his child. I could absolutely cry just thinking about it. She doesn't seem like a bad kid. Hell, her dad doesn't seem like a bad guy...until you realize what he's doing to his kid...and to himself.

People who have allergies should take every precaution to protect themselves. The rest of us can stop being dicks about it.

Posted by: MonicaP at September 29, 2013 1:35 PM

Having an opinion, and being a "dick" are two different things.
I have no intention of confronting an obsessive parent, hyperventilating about their child's allergies. Few, on this board would.
However, just because I am unwilling to challenge someone out of politness, does not mean that privately, I don't raise my eyebrows, and wonder if they have pushed the envelop past prudence, and into hysteria.

I used to suck on coins because I liked the taste.

My daughter just started kindergarten. One of the first lunches I sent with her included a PBJ. Nobody has said anything about it to me yet. Or course, her private school is overwhelmingly Asian and my mom says Asian people don't have allergies.

Sosij: "I used to suck on coins because I liked the taste."

I used to work in health services at a big county jail. You would not believe some of the places where inmates hide money.

Only remember of hearing of two people that had any connection to me at all as a child (early 80s)- one was 2 years behind me in elementary and then one my mom's friend's sister's kid (or something like that). I hear a lot more now and I have seen a lot more. My first real experience was at my internship. The interns had some training and one of things was a "proper handshake" where we went through and shook each person's hand - 15 minutes later one guys hand is slightly swollen and glowing red. No food had been there. He gave himself a shot and said it would be fine...and it was. Next meeting we get a list of tings to avoid bringing to intern meetings. One of the guys goes...Oh, I ate those brand potato chips which are cooked in peanut oil. When apparently was the cause...from lunch till the meeting at 4pm enough oil was still on his hands to give the guy a reaction. I mean...how do you reasonably avoid that?

wtf, for kids allergic to peanuts, typically ANY exposure -- say, accidentally touching the minuscule of peanut butter that another kid who didn't wash his hands perfectly after eating lunch has left on the table, then having that hand come in contact with the mouth -- can be enough to trigger a severe allergic reaction. It's vastly cheaper and easier to keep peanuts from entering the equation than it is to educate the allergic in totally separate facilities. And given that the poor are more likely to be obese in the U.S., I have a hard time believing that any kid is going to go hungry if kept from peanut products.

I have no idea if my kids have nut allergies. I suspect not, given that they've eaten plenty of products such as chocolate that are likely to have cross-contamination, with no issues. Our generally awesome pediatrician recommends waiting until they're two to have them try nuts. But if they aren't allergic to nuts, I have no intention of treating them like super special snowflakes by insisting that they MUST bring nut products to school. The minor inconvenience of having to find something else for them to eat SOMETIMES will be vastly outweighed by the convenience of not having to monitor EVERYTHING they eat for hidden nuts.

I have no trouble saying that adults who are allergic to something need to monitor themselves in the wide world out there. But small kids are different. The whole hygiene thing just doesn't resonate with normal kids immediately. School is stressful and demanding for most young children; trying to force them to behave vastly in advance of their years to monitor their surroundings and wash their hands more often than an OCD victim does not strike me as a good combination.

I agree that people with intolerances and dislikes need to stop throwing tge term "allergy" around. I am extremely careful at restaurants when asking if a certain hated ingredient is in a dish to clarify that I am NOT allergic, just picky. (I also tip well.) But the parents ranting that their kids will die if they're around nuts is generally doing so because their kids WILL die if they're around nuts. Sneering at them because you feel mildly inconvenienced strikes me as being churlish, but YMMV.

"Which is good----I've never understood the whole bit that food allergies are just a ploy for attention. "

Well, it's anti-evolutionary. Just a few generations ago, anyone who had that severe a reaction to a common food item would not have survived childhood. Now, admittedly there's a lot we don't know yet about genetics, but it doesn't appear that such a thing can go from unheard of to 20% of the population in three generations, if the cause is genetic. (Which leaves the possibility that it isn't genetic...)

"Sneering at them because you feel mildly inconvenienced strikes me as being churlish, but YMMV."

At some point, though, it goes from "mildly inconvenienced" to "impossible to function". There's all kinds of food allergies appearing in kids these days -- nuts, fruits, eggs, grains, dairy, fish, chicken, just about any food you can name. And the latest trend seems to be kids who have multiple food allergies. By the time you ban all of the things that someone, somewhere, might be allergic to, there isn't anything left and it becomes impossible for normal kids to eat a normal diet.

When apparently was the cause...from lunch till the meeting at 4pm enough oil was still on his hands to give the guy a reaction. I mean...how do you reasonably avoid that?

Here is the thing. It could have been the peanut oil, but oil is not a big offender as a true allergy is a protein reaction, and oil contains few if any of the proteins in peanuts.

http://www.peanut-institute.org/eating-well/allergy/peanut-oil-no-allergens.asp

My guess, chances are much better that he reacted to something on someone's hands, other than the peanut oil.

Weird things happen. I had a 9th grade science teacher, who was also the chemistry teacher for the high school. Every year since World War II he demonstrated the light sensitive properties of silver nitrate by painting the students initial on their hands.
By the time my class came along he had been doing this for at least thirty years, so probably 2500 students.
For the first time ever in my class, one girl had an sensitivity to the chemical, and ended up with her initial literally burned into the top of her hand, for life.

You just cant save everyone from a one off.

When I was growing up, a long time ago, childhood asthma was unheard of.

"For the first time ever in my class, one girl had an sensitivity to the chemical, and ended up with her initial literally burned into the top of her hand, for life."

That is weird. Silver nitrate is generally considered to be of low toxicity -- up until about 1970, silver nitrate drops were routinely used in the eyes of newborns to prevent eye infections.

I do know someone, a former co-worker, who has a peanut allergy. The interesting thing is, she says she had no problem with peanuts when she was a child -- the allergy developed while she was in college. There is such a thing as "sensitizer" chemicals, things that people can develop an allergic-type reaction to only after repeated exposure. But I've never heard of a food item being a sensitizer.

My niece has a friend that is studying this very thing after her three children one by one became deathly allergic to peanuts and other foods. Her research indicated that there are strong links to genetically modified foods which are sold unlabeled here, but are banned in most other countries. I hesitate to mention it because i don't have any way to verify the information, but it does give food for thought.

Her research indicated that there are strong links to genetically modified foods which are sold unlabeled here, but are banned in most other countries. I hesitate to mention it because i don't have any way to verify the information, but it does give food for thought.

You should have listened to your inner voice. This is the kind of unscientific, uninformed statement that makes useful discussion of medical issues so difficult to conduct in public fora. There are no scientific studies that indicate health dangers from GMO foods. Stating that there are is the equivalent of citing Jenny McCarthy as an expert on vaccination.

My niece has a friend that is studying this very thing after her three children one by one became deathly allergic to peanuts and other foods. Her research indicated that there are strong links to genetically modified foods which are sold unlabeled here, but are banned in most other countries. I hesitate to mention it because i don't have any way to verify the information, but it does give food for thought.

Posted by: Jen at September 30, 2013 8:03 AM

So basically what you are saying is that all three children have had one or more trips to the emergency room for shots of fast acting antihistamines , and or a tracheotomy.

I find this hard to believe and think your nieces friend is one of those drama queens Amy was talking about when she made this post.
What is more likely is that her children all had tingling, and some mild swelling of the lips and tongue after eating nuts or other foods. I get this myself when I eat walnuts, but don't consider myself even close to "deathly" allergic.

@Cousin Dave, Sometimes allergies and other chemical sensitivities can be triggered by antibiotics or other medicines.

My daughter developed a severe salicylate sensitivity after having an allergic reaction to a sulfa drug used to treat acne.

She was 16 at the time, and since salicylates are in everything, she eventually outgrew it.

My daughter cannot bring a laundry list of items to school because someones special snowflake is allergic and in the age of no personal responsibility cannot apparently just eat its own special snowflake lunch... I am ALLERGIC to Latex my 5 year old has known since she was old enough to have discovered balloons that while they are exciting for her mommy is allergic and now can even have them in the house as long as she keeps them away from mommy. I don't understand why my child's food puts another child in danger... I do not expect people to make special accommodations for me I know what to avoid when to decline participation (water balloon fights for example) but I don't say for instance that no one ever should get to do things that involve latex because I am allergic. Similarly I have a cousin with a rare (relatively) disease called PKU. Eating protein can cause grave damage to her brain. Since birth everything she has ingested has to be weighed, measured, and counted so meticulously I sympathize with her mother. However this child has always gone to regular school and daycares without special accommodations other than A* can only have HER snacks and HER lunch no exceptions. The responsibility was placed on her and her family not on other parents. It is to the point now I cannot even bring cupcakes to school for my daughters bday because the POOR ALLERGIC KIDS! Seriously!

Re: Naming something as an allergy. I have a sensitivity to codeine. Whenever a medical person who I thought might be giving me pain meds asked if I had any allergies, I always said no, but I don't do well with codeine. I explained that it won't kill me, but it makes me ill enough I'd rather be in pain than take it. It was a nurse who told me that I should be answering that I was allergic. I still do the longer explanation, but it seems the word "allergy" may have shifted meaning from what I remember as a kid.

Hey, a subject close to me. I've been allergic to nuts all my life. It was discovered when, four days into my first arrival at daycare, I was sent to the ER because I touched a table that had had peanut butter smeared on it. Had numerous other ER visits through my childhood, but still alive forty years later.

I didn't carry an epipen with me at all times. My parents didn't went on a rampage with the school. They simply educated me to ask questions, read labels, and generally be pro-active about food, even if it means I don't always get cake or cookies. Never had an incident since the teenage years.

Interestingly enough, about five years ago I worked with a guy that ate peanuts all his life with no problem, and suddenly became allergic at age 25. How suddenly? As in "wait, these peanuts taste funny... ...why am I waking up in the ER?"

Absolutely, some people DO have severe, potentially fatal food allergies. But no question that some people just want to be special snowflakes.

Heh. An acquaintance of mine insists she's allergic to eggs. But before she told me about her alleged allergy, she'd eaten (several times) a dessert I make that has eggs in it! She'd never experienced any apparent ill-effect -- and she frequently had eaten a second helping of it. Of course, when I told her it had three eggs in it, she refused to touch it again.

Oh, well. More for me.

There are no scientific studies that indicate health dangers from GMO foods. Stating that there are is the equivalent of citing Jenny McCarthy as an expert on vaccination.

Are there studies even looking into it or debunking it?

Cause I can just as easily claim There are no scientific studies that indicate health dangers from decapitation.

Interestingly enough, about five years ago I worked with a guy that ate peanuts all his life with no problem, and suddenly became allergic at age 25. How suddenly? As in "wait, these peanuts taste funny... ...why am I waking up in the ER?"
Posted by: V-Man at September 30, 2013 12:45 PM

One possibility. A chemical sensitivity to mycotoxins, peanuts can be contaminated with them, and so can cheese.
Foods are not pure, and probably tough for a doctor to determine in the case of a bad reactions, whether it is the food, or a contaminant on the food, (like the mold in blue cheese) that you are having a reaction to.

@ Marion;

Your attitude is part of the problem.

D'ya think kids NEVER encounter things touched by nut/peanut/nut related items OFF school premises?

Also Marion, it's no longer just nuts. At my daughters school, you can no longer send with thier lunch:

Eggs
Fish
Nuts
Chocolate
Baked Goods
Strawberries
Oranges
Milk Products

So basically my daughter is limited to bologna sandwiches and vegetable slices, day in, day out.

Cause ya know, allergies.

There are no scientific studies that indicate health dangers from GMO foods. Stating that there are is the equivalent of citing Jenny McCarthy as an expert on vaccination.

Are there studies even looking into it or debunking it?

Of course they are looking. See the links in this article.

Part of it is lack of exposure. Since a lot of pediatricians tell parents to stay away from peanuts and other potential allergens until two years or older, kids don't get exposed to them at a young age where they can become tolerant of them.

I also blame the increase of allergies on the teachers. In the attempt to educate my son about the symptoms of a peanut allergy, he now can articulate the symptoms without having an actual allergy. He used to eat PB&J almost every day before starting in a public school that was a "Peanut-Free Zone". As much as I tell him he's not allergic and has no adverse reaction, he refuses to eat it four years later. I believe the over emphasis is detrimental to those who are actually allergic.