Chris Selley challenges some of claims of the allergy police;
You’ll find this little nugget on the American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology’s website, for instance:
Peanut allergies in children increased two-fold over a five-year period from 1997 to 2002.That is impossible to believe. Either it isn’t what it seems to be or it must be one of the greatest medical mysteries of all time. There are the usual explanations for such anomalies, of course: heightened awareness leads to more accurate diagnoses. But I will admit to wondering if some children claiming to have such allergies aren’t victims of parental misdiagnosis, which is facilitated by peanut-free schools and the ever-increasing incidence and acceptance of such allergies. (I avoid bananas because they almost invariably give me the shits, but I wouldn’t claim to be allergic to them.)
He’s surprised however, that pets weren’t already banned from the passenger cabin on commercial airliners;
Evacuating a smoldering Airbus is hard enough without panicky Weimaraners running around or someone’s cat digging its claws into your eyelids.
Having flown my dog in the cabin from Saskatoon to Rio De Janeiro, I can assure Chris that neither is likely. Getting a Weimaraner in a 12″ by 18″ canvas pet bag would probably preclude that scenerio. Most passengers don’t even know when a pet is on board – the pet bag must be kept in the space under the seat.
Most of the time.
I do not remember anyone being allergic to nuts when I was a kid. I think we all brought PB&J sandwiches for lunch.
BTW I see Quaker is making granola bars that are clearly labelled as being nut free, and made in a nut free facility. Someone must be awake there, because at least the schools my kids go to in Delta B.C. are all nut free. Even some of the day cares are nut free.
It’s really not fair when one of your pooches has been to Rio and I haven’t.
I have two young nephews with peanut allergies; one also has a fish alergy. I think both diagnoses came about because the kids developed small rashes around their mouths. Then it was scratch-the-hell-out-of-their-arms time, and now they carry epi-pens.
So now the family is somewhat obsessed with peanuts – Smarties and Chapman’s Ice Cream, for example, seem to be peanut free, although I thought I heard somewhere that the Smarties people were going to drop their peanut-free claim.
My sister-in-law has to my mind an unfair belief that the world should be as tuned in to the potential dangers of peanuts as she is. I understand her concern for her kids, but not everyone else is facing that particular danger.
My advice is to let your kids play in and eat dirt. An stop buying that stupid anti-bacterial soap that only serves to innoculate the wee beasties. The more a kid is introduced to germs, the more they develop a resistence to them.
Nut Free Daycares?? Does this include the YWCA unionized Daycare workers??
I once read that the reason so many kids are allergic to peanuts these days is because some of the diaper rash creams being used contain large amounts of peanut oil. This early exposure to peanuts has caused the recent ‘rash’ of peanut allergies. I have no way of knowing if there is any truth to this theory, but it sounds good.
I can’t tell. Is that a head or a tail in that picture of your pooch? I’ve no problem with dogs on board. I just wish my beautiful Yellow Labs could join them.
That looks like the top of the doggy’s head. Say, is that the doggy’s teddy bear or something in there with him or is it perhaps Kate’s? Why not? Nothing wrong with a grownup having a teddy bear…
Such a cute picture. Little furry guy has a little furry inanimate companion… awww!
Most public schools are nut free now due to home schooling.
As a parent of a peanut allergy kid, I can tell you personally how very frightening it is to see your 18 month old explode in red hives over his whole body, hear him wailing from the pain and then start to throw up everything in his stomach all in the course of 8 minutes and all the way on your furious drive to the hospital all because of half a peanut he found on the floor of a friend’s house… and how utterly and completely helpless you are as a parent as all that happens.
Fortunately, it turned out well for us and him, but even just the memory of it freaks me out still 4 years later.
So, I don’t have a problem with some pretty heavy and strict rules on nuts.
Ted
Cerberus
Troll. Ignore.
DB, not Ted, that is.
And just because they deserve the attention: Nestle chocolates (Smarties, Aero, Kit Kat and Coffee Crisp) and Chapmans ice cream both carry whole lines of products that are nut free.
Not every product (and some versions of the the Nestle peanut-free chocolates are not safe, like the bulk bin Smarties) so look for the label.
If you have a choice, I would encourage you to support the economic risk that these and other companies have taken. Chapmans in particular I know is thriving because they keep introducing new flavours in the peanut-free line. Especially around Hallowe’en, Christmas and parties, it is a very thoughtful gesture. We should all be eating healthier of course but it’s tough to tell your kid he’s the only one who can’t have any of the birthday cake/snacks/etc., especially when there are equal alternatives available.
Ted
Cerberus
Chapman’s products are very good. There’s a Chapman factory not far from where I live. They make a nice cheesecake-flavored ice cream sandwich, for example.
I purchase that product all the time in the warmer months.
Dang, I haven’t been to Rio either. Mind you I just can’t picture that pooch wandering the streets during Carnival or laying on the beach at Ipanema. Kate yes but the dog not really.
Seriously though, I wonder how this allergy thing got out of hand. I recall a kid that was allergic to bee stings but that was it. I remember growing up and even the early days of life on my own all my meals were letters. PB&J, KD, BLT and occasionally A&W or KFC. If it wasn’t for peanut butter sandwiches I’d have to eat “Newfie Steak” or egg salad, neither of which kept well in a smelly highschool locker.
Nutjob alert,
Do not feed CS
Signed, DB (the voice of reason)
P.S. All we have to do is get conservatives to remove their indoctrinated children from public schools. Then they will truly be nut free and parents won’t have to worry about political allergies.
Actually, I think DB has a point. My wife and I homeschool our 2 daughters, and I would say that you pretty much do have to be crazy.
Grasshopper.
Whiners and Nurse Nanny’s in Jackboots………..
We pass through Markville and past Chapman’s each summer on our way to a beautiful beach that I won’t mention because too many of you bums are visiting it too.
I may very well be hooked on Chapman’s cones (currently $2.99 at Loblaws) – even at their regular price you get twice as many cones for the same price as the competition.
Newfie Steak – now there’s something I lived on as a kid: baloney on rye with plenty of French’s Mustard. I don’t know how I ate that stuff.
cool dog foto, “most of the time”
Each day, at least one of my three kids ate a peanut butter sandwich in elementary school… and Ben would sometimes eat “President’s Choice Schezwan Peanut Sauce” tm on rice for breakfast…. the garlic in this is almost toxic! but I’m guessing it’s 25% peanut butter too.. so with the garlic, he had no problem being asked for kisses in school.
I always told them, “no kissing the other kids today ok”? and I never heard of other kids kissing them either… but you never know.
Quite often they’d share lunches… I can only guess the kids that are allergic need to know what to do to avoid the big problems,
and to keep an epi-needle with them…
My kids are fortunate to not have any allergies, and although I have some sympathies for the allergy stricken, the allergy police have a long way to go, to be telling me what I can pack in my kids lunches…
I think a little more responsibility being taught, would be a good idea.
and don’t buy any stupid anti-bacterial soap, same as Mississauga Matt @ 11.17am.
I hope I raised my kids to at least try to eat some dirt… sometimes they ate flowers, and I saw Brooke eating grass one day, because she wanted a rabbit so much. Did I stop her? No, I took a photo… It’s in the collection I hope to give to her husband someday. haha.
Hopefully after next the next elections, they’ll be fewer nuts in Regina, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa… but if I could, I wouldn’t ban them either. I’d just sell their Tv / radio stations.
Call us allergy police if you want Marc, but one day, as my wife and I were still grappling with and learning how to deal with the allergy we had a handful of mixed nuts. Of course we dutifully washed our hands right away afterwards. Two hours later my wife gave my son a kiss on the shoulder. Within two minutes, his shoulder and neck were red all over with hives.
When it comes to the life or possible death of my kid over the convenience of deciding what to pack for lunch… I’m glad the school boards ban nut products from junior schools when the kids are too young to know how to use an epi-pen or say no to a trade or… etc.
Ted
Cerberus
It seems odd to me that everyone else has to worry about a child’s allergy but the child.
I have many allergies to things such as nuts, fish, and animal hair. I can remember avoiding nuts and fish well before I was school age so it is not a matter of a child not understanding. Once a child is in school, they should be able to understand that eating something they are allergic to will make them sick.
As to the severity of my allergies, I once had a reaction from fish after my mother had washed her hands after handling fish and then given me a glass of water.
I have heard people say that contact with an allergen will make the allergy worse. This has not been the case for me. I seem to have worse reactions when I have not been exposed for a while. When I had a dog, I was not bothered much by dog hair but since my dog has been gone, I have noticed a higher sensitivity to dog hair. Maybe everyone is different.
I think that an allegic reaction can be much worse for the people seeing it than the people having it. On many occasions, people have been concerned by my swelled eyes or rash and, although it was unpleasant, I have carried on and dealt with it. Not to discount the panic or fear a small child may have when people around them are freaking out and they are suddenly feeling sick.
I also agree with the comment that an allergic reaction is fast. I can tell immediately upon eating it if something has nuts in it or not.
Just my $.02
Trevor
The problem is that infants were fed baby food containing peanut puree in the 80s and early 90s. It sensitized a whole generation of kids with peanut allergies.
Trevor, my kid is remarkable at how consious he is about what he eats. From the age of 2 years he has always asked every adult if the food they are giving him has nuts in it. He even asked his grandmother if the banana she gave him had nuts in it.
I’m less worried about him now that accidents like you described through contact or, frankly, other kids who don’t get it and taunt him for being different, or adults who bring cupcakes to the class party, that sort of thing.
Ted
I had no idea that pets could travel with passengers till my Mom’s friend had an asthma attack after being seated beside someone with a dog on board. As an asthmatic allergic to most furry critters, this is good to know – I can make sure I’m seated as far away from said critters (lovable as they may be) next time I book a ticket…
When did we become so soft?I don’t remember any children in my grade school having an allergy to nuts. I also heard somewhere that our kids are so prone to almost everything because of too much time inside. I’m one of those fools who still smoke and I have had people cough because I’m smoking ten feet ahead of them on the sidewalk.What crap! On the plus side,after the next election the nuts in Ottawa should be substantially reduced.
Poor doggies…
How is it that someone like me (and many others) out-grow our allergies.
I was allergic to everything short of some foods, air and water. I was hospitalized on many occasions throughout my life for allergies, and asthma as well. I don’t have either anymore.
So their must be a way to desensitize, lessen (say from fatal to just a rash), or get rid of them all together.
In a school of 500 kids their might be 3 with peanut allergy. Those three can stay home and school if their lives are that much in danger. Not to be insensitive, but that is what I would do, if my child had a life threatening allergy problem. I would be the one monitoring him and not one teacher who is already watching 25 other kids half of them with ADDHD and then half of those all drugged out to help the teachers (I mean the kids)to remain calm.
Now the non-allergic kids can eat the cheapest, fastest breakfast and lunch, (OK, sometimes supper , too) and with the extra sales Kraft and Skippy can donate to peanut allergy research (which like Cancer research will never in a trillion dollars find a cure where they are looking).
My grandson has asthma and is very allergic to cats. On a trip to France he became very ill because someone had a cat on board, and they had to seek medical attention immediately on arrival. Pets should stay home, and not be in planes.
I disagree(what a surprise),there should be some way to alert passengers when an animal is on board and seating arrangements worked out to everyone’s agreement.
Food allergies are very real and are particularly prevalent among toddlers and young children.
But adults aren’t in the clear either. Foods you may have eaten all your life, such as shrimp, can become alergenes without any warning signals. What happens is that your body, thinking the food just consummed is dangerous, produces enormous quantities of histomenes which block the air passages leading to suffocation.
It’s lights out in about 4 minutes.
Just ten years ago few adults every developed allergies to foods they’d regularly eaten for years, but even these reactions are now becomming more common.
Other substances such as sulfides ( used in SOME wines, for example) cause what’s called a reaction of intolerance; hives, rashes etc which, though uncomfortable, are NOT fatal.
No one knows why the incidence of anaphalactic shock is increasing, but there are food scientists working on the cause and some possible solutions.
In the meantime the danger should be taken VERY, VERY seriously.
Any attempt to downplay them or to minimize the associated angers is STUPID and most irresponsable.
What poster “Ted” has been saying is accurate.
I knew kids who had allergies when I was a kid (in the 60s and 70s). I didn’t have any food allergies and still don’t, thank God, but it never occurred to me to laugh at or become angry at other kids who did — or at the people trying to keep their children from suffering and even dying. As another poster pointed out, anaphylactic shock (the extreme allergic reaction people with these allergies often suffer) can kill.
It may be the reason that some of you don’t remember anyone having allergies to foods or anything is because those children probably didn’t live to be old enough to go to school.
This is all so strange and I suspect it’s part trend and hype. Nobody had food allegies when I was a kid in the 80s and those who had asthma weren’t coddled either. If your kid had a problem that was too bad but the whole class wasn’t expected to revolve around one kid. That gives a child an inflated sense of self importance.
My favorite restaurant serves free peanuts and had to put up a sign asking patrons to not drop the shells outside in case a child with peanut allergies should walk past the place. This is crazy.
The truth is probably that some people, like Ted’s son, really do have potentially fatal food allergies, and it’s absurd and cruel to mock them, but that there are many other cases of paranoid false diagnosis.
Along the lines of the baby food w/ peanut puree, I’ve always wondered if part of it is that it’s just become unfashionable to be careful about when to start kids on allergenic foods.
It seems to me that peanut butter etc. used to be something that wouldn’t be introduced until much later on. Now no one seems to think along those lines…until they realize later they’ve got a big problem on their hands.
It’s a huge pain at schools. Stashes of epi-pens in the drawers, the kids with the PB sandwich have to eat in the hall. In some schools trading food is strictly forbidden in case one little kid kills off another by accident. It’s nuts.
I was on a WestJet flight where someone’s Lab was flouncing up and down the aisle. Of course the woman owner didn’t get it because of all the positive reinforcement she was getting by dog lovers, but some of us find this kinda disgusting and I suspect it was just about everyone who wasn’t speaking up. My advice if you want companionship – have a baby instead. They’ll still love you 40 years from now, and pay for your hip replacement with their taxes.
Damn Bush! Look what he’s doing now! Poor kids…………
Allergies are not funny.
The prevalence (number of people sick per 100,000) of all known allergies has increased over the past 50 years. I link below an article from the CDC showing a doubling of the number of asthmatic children between 1980 and 1995, including an increase in deaths from asthma attacks since 1960, despite great improvements in treatments.
This is very serious. We have failed to cure allergies; they have progressed instead of regressing. Questions must be asked, answers must be found.
I am therefore very disappointed to read cynical comments like the ones on this page, including several allusions to the insanity of children allergic to nuts. A child dying from bronchospasm is not crazy.
Reference:
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00052262.htm