Your are right that kids should not be kept in a bubble. I can say for sure my kids have the opportunity to be exposed to everything except for the things that will kill them, like peanuts. But all the studies that have been done can not single out why we have an increase in food allergies. Children can have reactions to foods the very first time they eat them at very young ages, the question is why and no one knows

I suspect that gmo and other alterations to standard foods has played a big part in the increased allergies in children and adults.

SP-3268112:...If we didn't raise kids in a damn bubble, ...

Comparing children of Indian origin from UK, US, Kenya, South Africa and Indian big city slums, I find children in the slums of India to be medically sound except that they are physically abused and not given access to education. Children need to grow up in a normal world where they are exposed to an environment that will help them build strong immune system. I grew up on a farm where nothing smell rosy or my finger nails were never kosher. At the end my immune system developed a good fighting system I could take with me in to combat, sports and every imaginable hard situation. Thanks DAD.

It may also have to do with all the innoculations,antibiotics and drugs that are used, Not to mention the fact that many parents are horrified if their child plays in the dirt, I wonder what the incidence of food allergies are for countries where their children are allowed to get their hands dirty once in a while .

Immunizations are insulting immature immune systems from birth, two months, four months, six months, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, 36 months, 72 months, and then boosters. Maybe we should examine this timeline?

Could be natures way of thinning the herd of those that should not have made it in the first place, other than mans modern medicine got around nature in the beginning. But nature has a way of coming around in the end........

What's next, a child allergic to air?

snowdragon...If you want to know why kids today have increasing food allergies, look no further than the importation of food goods. Think about it. We import food from countries where there is no FDA, FTC or EPA. And, it isn't just food. It's also clothing. A lot of what comes out of these foreign countries just isn't safe.

You can't operate a factory where lead is used to make toys in the same proximity to a food processing plant a half a block away when no compliance regulations exist to control the amount of pollutants in the air, soil or water. Not to mention the actual purity of the ingredients used in these food goods.

Children have had immunizations for a hundred years. We overload potable water with flouride and think it has no effect save to prevent tooth decay. Then, there's the matter of dosing potable water with low pH with chlorine by water treatment facilities. The water reeks of the smell of bleach but we're told it's safe to drink?

I'm a guy who grew up in the sixties with sandlot baseball, treehouses, barbed wired fences, scratches bruises, canals to float down on inner-tubes, and the whole small town experience. I did poorly in school. Something was wrong. I grew up super skinny and still at my silver haired age am the target of simpletons because of my size. You see I all too often never felt well. My parents brushed it off as nonsense. I was accused of not trying hard enough. Not one doctor detected my wheat allergy until I was 40 years old! Looking back, I can see all the signs that it was there when I was a child. A bubble of ignorance is much, much worse than a bubble of safety.

Ewent...I agree with everything you say, each adding insult to injury...and yes...immunizations have been around for a long time. However, the massive onslaught from birth on is new. I stood in line during school for injections, when my immune system was much more mature, nowadays, injecting illnesses for immunity, start at first breath. Too many!! too fast!!!...infants immune systems are attacked massively...no wonder they collapse, in one form or another.

there was another study done, which evaluated peanut allergies in a group of children in India, and the second group evaluated was that of children of Indian descent in the UK. This was done to factor out genetics, etc.

What they found was that peanut allergies were significantly higher in the Indian children in the UK. The main difference was the delay in exposure to peanuts in the UK which started giving peanuts at the age of 4 or 5, while the children in India are exposed to peanuts the second they are old enough to eat them without choking.

Independent thought. Both of my children were immunized for DPT at age 2 months. They also had measles and mumps vaccines.

This is a country of far too many immigrants from diverse cultures to allow the rest of society to end up with pandemic type diseases.

I agree we need to immunize but must reexamine the age, pace and combination we are injecting at one time. It is not an all or nothing situation, which seems to be the stance on both sides of the argument. My oldest was fully immunized, then at age three, he had a massive reaction, although his eczema increased with each poke. He is still struggling with multiple issues at the age of 14. My next three were postponed, at 18 months we started and administered them at a slower more selective rate. No auditory issues, eczema, or food allergies for them.

I don't remember any of my schoolmates in the 60's and early 70's with life-threatening food allergies. My hunch is that food additives and environmental toxins have created some subtle genetic changes over the last few decades.

In my own unaudited observations, I've noticed that food sensitivities seem to cluster in a family's children: if one kid has an allergy, siblings do as well.

Is it true that some food allergies diminish as the child matures? I've yet to encounter a peanut-free workplace.

I work in a food service industry, and can only say that I have seen firsthand the increase in the number of parents who claim their children have allergies. I do not know if more children actually have allergies now than ever but the parents certainly think that they do. Eventually we will all be allergic to everything, wearing glasses and leg braces and living the life of a George Orwell novel.

What the article intended us to miss is the study was done using kids with allergies so of course the numbers are high!

They obviously want to scare people into letting the government have more control in their lives, using government money too no doubt.

What a waste of money. (Yawn)

A bubble? It's CONSTANT EXPOSURE to pollutants and additives that cause children to become hyper-sensitive.

SP--here you go bucko :

I'm no kid and I certainly was not raised in a bubble e.g. We were ahead of our time; even though we lived in town we kept a few chicken who were my playmates. I turned the garden shed into a fort and played marbles on the garage floor. Every day that was warm enough, I swam in the lake. When I was old enough, I rode my bike everywhere. Our 'gang' played on the school playground, in my aunt's side lot, and explored every nook and cranny of our town. By bath time on a summer night, I nearly had to be hosed off before going in the house.

As an adult, I kept a hobby farm, hiked the Rockies, sailed on SF Bay. For 20 years, my milk came straight out of the bulk tank.

I am intolerant of gluten and dairy and my reactions are severe. It's not just the itch, aching muscles, GI nightmares, swollen sinuses, and blinding headaches. I also experience cognitive difficulties. I was very sick before the substances were isolated.

It's amazing we have a functional population at all given our tainted food supply. I'm convinced all the herbicides, pesticides, artificial everything, and fillers, to say nothing of factory farming, are making more of us sick than we even realize. We do not need wheat gluten in everything.

I am part of a family (including myself and my wife) that has 3 generations of doctors, engineers, or are in the Armed Forces. With that said, i have a son that is allergic to peanuts. If anyone thinks that his life needs to be "thinned" then please do not go to the doctor when you are sick, do not use anything that is engineered (which by the way is almost everything), and fear for your life because you do not believe in our Armed Forces. If someone does not believe that allergies can be a random act of god to anybody including yourself (i know people that were 35 years old when they became allergic to peanuts even though they had it there entire life) then you are ignorant. As far as letting your childing grow up in a bubble, save that for an argument for a different story this does not apply. I can promise you that i am far away from coddling my child, in fact i would sit my child down next to me and let him watch me kick your a$$, and then when you are down i would let him have a crack at you. Ignorant people need to be kept in a bubble and thinned out!

The moron talking about "thinning the herd" was undoubtedly referring to infertility treatment, drugs, and procedures.

To him I say: Go back into your cave. My 3 children were born through IVF. All are healthy, smart, and have no allergies.

The "Damn Bubble" he's talking about is our clinically overprotective treatment of babies. We all want our babies to be healthy, but in order for them to grow up with a strong immune system able to fight off allergies, future sickness, etc, they have to be exposed to various sickness while growing up. While this is terrible, it's also part of natural development. Check out "The Mexico Study" conducted a few years back. Third world countries have 40% less cancer rates than the U.S., and food allergies are near non-existent in those countries. I have no plans to raise my kids in a third world country, but we gotta figure out something we can do to develop their immune systems while they're still infants, or else this problem is just going to get worse and worse.

These immunization arguments would make more sense if allergies weren't an overreaction of the immune system. If your immune system collapses, you won't have to worry about allergies.

@Peopleareignorant:

That's great - teach your child that violence is how you win arguments with people you disagree with. What a role model!

Vaccines. The vaccines are made with human proteins and babies are too young to have developed immune systems.

I too am a child of the 60's/70's and never heard of extreme food allergies. Everyone ate PB&J sandwiches made with Skippy & Jiff Peanut butter with Smuckers or generic grape jelly. Everyone ate there fair share of dirt too (dropped sandwiches, droped candy.) Where do you think the "five second rule" came from ? No one died from eating a friends sandwich.

Now, they call in a level 3 hazemat alert if someone brings Snickers bar to school.

I think the helicopter and "grizzlie" moms have teamed up with the medical community to make our kids scared. Either that, or they are purposefully poisoning our kids.

I find it particularly interesting that this only affects families makeing over $50,000. I guess when your family can't afford much food, you can't afford to not eat what your parents are able to buy.

There have been some interesting comments in this thread. Some, I could dismiss with my own experience growing up on the farm in the 60's. But I will, tell you, 1. there is a genetic link. It does follow families. 2. Even just a generation ago, many people didn't recognize allergies. My parents accepted I had airborne allergies, but totally ignored my food allergies. I did so much better when I got out on my own and stopped eating food that made me feel bad. I am fortunate, my only severe allergy is to shellfish. I can cope with the others, but I work pretty hard to limit or eliminate them from my diet. (High levels of citric acid, tomato paste, milk, soy, black walnuts) It is true, that when possible, one should continue to include allergic foods in the diet, (in suitable amounts, depending on the severity of the allergy) to keep things from getting worse.

They do have studies that speculate the "Hygiene Hypothesis", anti-bacterial soaps, hand sanitizers, anti-bacterial wipes, bleaching down everything. One study done stated that children who grew up with dogs were less likely to have both environmental and food allergies due to the dirt on the animals being a constant presence ergo boosting children's immune systems. I tend to think it's a culmination of many things; being overly-hygienic (please do wash your hands after using the restroom though), too many immunizations, GMO foods and the additives that accompany them.

While true food allergies are nothing to be taken lightly, we have a bevy of Dr's (and some insistent mothers) that all too readily hand out the allergy diagnoses simply because they have no answer at all for the symptoms. To make matters worse, in your local allergy & asthma office the nurses (yes the nurses) are making the diagnosis, as in my own experience. Her diagnosis was accepted by the pulmonologist with out any follow up to ensure that it was actually correct. This led to 2 more tests of my own accord and expense by a different family practice M.D. Blood tests were done which refuted the nurses findings and substantiated the clean bill of health I had suspected all along. Apparently this is standard practice in the allergists office, the nurse diagnose and the Dr merely signs off on it and hands you a paper stating the conclusion the nurse has come to and off you go.

On the flip side, there are some mothers that take a reading of anything over 1 on these tests to mean there is an allergy present and remove the substance completely from the child's diet.

I think that we should by organic, especially produce, when at all feasible and start making our own meals. (the crock-pot is your friend moms) Many of the GMO products and additives have no long term testing yet are still allowed into the food supply. The FDA only tests 25% of the substances that are brought before it's approval panel. The remaining 75% are approved based on biased, company based data. While I admire very little about European governance, I believe they are spot on with not allowing many of the GMO food products and additives to be unleashed on their masses.

We should also reconsider our vaccination scheduling. My son is done, he will receive no more vaccinations. Don't get my wrong he has been vaccinated and I spaced them out, due to being wary of the increase in amount and timing of these vaccines being given. He's received the same amount of vaccines I received as a child and I believe that to be sufficient. There is an interesting article about immunizations/food allergy link out of the U.K. that came out about 4 weeks ago, very interesting indeed.

There has got to be a reason for the uptick in prevalence. We need to go back and look at what was going on in ours diets and lifestyles as a society when this was an extreme rarity.

I developed an allergy to tree nuts at age 18, 6 months after moving into the dorms at college. We blamed my weakened immune system from mold in the old dorms. My brother-in-law developed a shellfish allergy at age 30. No real explanation for that one. It must be something we are eating or exposed to that is altering the immune system. I will try not to introduce any high-allergy foods to my daughter when her immune system is actively fighting something (either after being sick or getting immunized). I just can't believe that science hasn't figured out a reason for this yet.

If we didn't raise kids in a damn bubble, we'd probably see these numbers decrease

remember when kids played in the dirt, ate dirt sometimes, climbed trees etc and you didn't come home to "anti-biotic" soap, or antibiotic gels that people are constantly using? In my entire school career pretty much every kid had peanut butter and jam sandwiches, egg salad etc for lunch and I do not recall EVER in all those years ever meeting a single kid with an nut or dairy allergy.

Everybody got their standard immunizations for small pox, hepatitis etc. but kids played in dirt then when home and had a bath with plain old Ivory soap, no antibiotic crap. Now kids get a flu shot every year, they get a shot for this and that, they get a cold or flu and the doctor gives them antibiotics, you cut your finger and your mom puts antibiotic ointment on it (we got iodine!). No wonder their are so many allergies now, we have shut down our own immune systems.

It starts with the food additives and only gets worse. Red dye # ???? The amount of processed food our children consume is one of the reasons the food allergies have increased. Try putting them on less processed diets, organic fruits and veggies and limit the amount of red meat. Children would do much better. As for soap...it doesn't matter if it is antibiotic, they work the same. You just pay more for the antibiotic soap.

Independent Thought - I agree with you on the vaccine issue. I absolutely believe that children should be fully vaccinated, but it seems rather careless to administer multiple vaccines at one appointment. If only for the reason that if the child happens to be allergic to something in them, the parents won't know which particular shot is to blame, and they may (foolishly) stop getting vaccines altogether. I have allergies to certain medications, so if I'm given multiple new ones, I only take them one at a time so that if something happens, I know which medication caused it.

Kids should receive all their vaccines, but I think it would be beneficial to space them out a bit and only give one vaccine per visit. I don't have or want children, but if I had any, that's what I would do.

Actually, interestingly enough, the incidence of allergic children in India is on the rise. In Japan, there is an increase of allergic reaction to rice, seafood and tofu.

If the 'don't raise your child in a bubble' theory were accurate my daughter would be healthy as a horse. Alas, she is not. While no known food allergies she has severe, life altering, environmental allergies and those weren't there from the start. Breast fed for a year? Check. Household with dogs? Check. Plenty of outside time? Check. Disinfectant wipes and sprays? Hell no! No check on that. Aw, honey, your M&M fell to the floor? Eat it quickly before the dog gets it....

My personal theory, after dealing with this for many years now is that our genome has been permanently damaged and continues to be damaged via the various types of chemicals we ingest and inhale daily. Order a Subway sandwich and you might consume as many as 40 different chemical additives in that 6" sandwich. While all of them have proven fairly benign or at least not immediately toxic if consumed alone and in average amounts, none have been studied in conjunction with each other. We are labrats for the FDA, chemical and pharma companies. Now, the question is why our immune system going haywire? Well, we have in the course of hundreds of thousands of years of our evolution aquired an immune system which kept us safe from all sorts of pathogens. Much of it entered our long distant ancestors via the food they ate. Our immune system allowed us to survive those pathogens and move on. Let us look at the food which the average person in America eats now and where it comes from. And since most everyone loves a good 'tater, let's go with the humble spud. A farmer will first fertilize the raped, overused, soil with an array of chemical and some natural additives. Then he'll spray the fields with a herbicide and plant the crop which most likely has been engineered (much like the corn and soy we consume nowaways) to resist disease and pest damage. During the course of growth some more pesticides are sprayed and possible more herbicides. Alright. What's wrong with that? The micro fauna, microscopic pathogents, helmints etc which we used to ingest right along with our food is largely gone. And our immune system, which developed over the course of hundreds of milenia hasn't caught up. It hasn't figured out it isn't needed the same way anymore the way it used to be.

Immunizations, while beneficial and life saving have added to the problem. But that's a whole different discussion.

My mother developed various allergies after having chemo and radiation tx for breast cancer. My grandmother developed a devastating allergy to polyester etc in the 1970's after she became sick with something (I don't remember exactly what). Many people I know developed allergies and sensitivies after illnesses, surgeries, accidents or just getting older. I don't believe there is one single cause. Hellicopter moms have nothing to do with it. Antibiotic soap alone has nothing to do with it. It's a multitude of causes and even the allergists don't really know why it's happening.

Allergies to vaccines are actually to the serum of the vaccine and not the unique component. If you're getting an allergy to a vaccine, you can switch it out for another brand.

If you want to space out vaccine administration, please bear in mind that some vaccine-prevented diseases have a tight window of infection, making it necessary to give them all at once.

In reality, mutliple vaccines are given at a time because people in general are bad at keeping doctor's appointments. In addition to the additional administration, you have to receive booster shots and other tests. If you miss some, the whole thing messes up and you have to start over. Therefore, reducing the number of doctor visits is expressly meant to increase patient compliance with the prescribed vaccination schedule.

it doesn't matter if it is antibiotic, they work the same.

not according to my doctor... The antibiotic soaps and gels are contributing to resistant viruses and other bugs which then have an easier time with our compromised immune systems.

As for

organic fruits and veggies and limit the amount of red meat.

I grew up on meat and potatoes..... most of it red, and I knew of no child with a food allergy that i grew up with. Food allergies have come around since every kid seems to be on some kind of drug, since yearly flu shots, since kids started staying INSIDE all the time and not playing outside anymore, and since all the antibiotic crap became prevalent everywhere.

You are completely wrong, and are showing your stupidity.

My cousin was breast fed and has peanut allergies. WhataJoke is a joke.

I developed an allergy to people like WhataJoke.

I breastfed all 4 of my children and sadly, my youngest has severe food allergies to peanuts, eggs and milk. He was actually allergic to my breastmilk due to the proteins passed through from the foods I was eating which contained milk and eggs. I had to completely restrict/ change my diet in order to continue safely breastfeeding him. Now at age 4, he continues to have food allergies as well as allergies to multiple antibiotics. The answer is not as simple as breastmilk vs formula, if it were, my child would be allergy free.

@leslie, for how long was 'your cousin' breastfed? breastfed vs syntheticly-formulafed its a valid control when it comes to assessing these types of issues. <@mike, you didnt pay attention in science class so you imo are showing your stupidity. The article said there was a spike in 50-100k income levels, and those are probably more financially equiped to waste money on formula. i m not saying it is the reason why, but its a valid factor to consider. whatajoke is at least using their brain. It wasnt mentioned and when it comes to childrens diets, i think formula vs breastfed should be a consideration when these types of issues are brought up. not trying to offend formula feeding parents so get over it.

GTR5 - You lucky baxtard. I had to sit in the private room at lunch. And thank God I was not breastfed peanuts. I could be dead today. As would be the feeder.

My son is the first in our family to have a peanut allergy. My son is also the first in three generations to have been breastfed. (I nursed him for close to two years).

According to the article, allergies are rising fastest in the white, middle-class 50-100K range. This is the same class of women who have experienced the largest up-spike in breastfeeding rates.

@SHUT UP and @ WHAT A JOKE - you may be on to something, just not what you think.

I still have not been able to wean myself from sucking a breast and I'm 50 years old.

PLEASE I am so sick of this, I have 3 successful beautiful healthy children 1 is 22, 1 is 15 & 1 is 4 they were all given formula, all have great immunity, the only allergy the youngest has is to cats which his breast-fed father passed to them..get over it not all mothers breast feed. My oldest is 6 foot 4 for gawds sake. Only a un experienced new parent would have the nerve to presume they know better...

I breastfed all three of my children, they never received formula. Two of my three beautiful children have severe food allergies. My daughter has happily outgrown milk and egg and is only allergic to tree nuts, my toddler is allergic to milk and egg and will get hives if someone touches a food containing a milk product and then touches him. In reference to the hygine theory, we live in the country where environmental allergies abound all year. It is stressfull to know that your child can die from eating a food that others deem harmless. Please show some compassion! These children are a gift from God.

I breastfed my son for nearly 19 months. He never had a drop of formula. He has a severe anaphylactic allergy to tree nuts. There goes that theory...

Was your son vaccinated?

HAHA I was breastfed and I developed a food allergy. My husband was formula fed and he has no allergies. I call BS on your theory.

I have always found this argument ironic. There are 3 children on my side and 2 children on my husband's side. These are children of our siblings. These children were all exclusively breast fed and they all have allergies. They have absolutely no genetic link what-so-ever. Now there are 3 other children in the family, another niece and nephew from another sister and my own child, these were formula fed. These children are healthy, have to this very day had zero ear infections and no food or environmental allergies.

While I didn't formula feed by choice, I loathe those moms that are nursing-nazis and constantly put other moms down for not breast feeding their child/children. These people have no clue why the decision was made to formula feed and need to keep quiet.

@Whatajoke-you raise your child/children how you see fit, and I'll raise mine how I see fit. Your venomous post does not cause others to think twice about their decision, but rather further entrenches them. You will win no converts over to breastfeeding like this. It only makes you sound bitter.

So other kids should be deprived because your kid can't have things? Pack him/her a lunch. It's often cheaper than school lunches anyway.

If he is one kid out of a hundred or so, why should the rest of the entire school suffer because your child has severe allergies? Sending your kid to school and forcing changes upon everyone else is not fair to the other kids, and highly dangerous as there are more potential for exposure than at home, which is a smaller environment and can be controlled.

Change them how? Right now, a lot of schools have "peanut free" tables at lunch, and peanut free classrooms.

Should we ban all potential foods that can cause allergic reactions? Because you'd be surprised how much food would be banned.

Milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, flour, fish, shellfish, cheese, honey... the list goes on and on. There are many different types of allergies out there, and we can't cater to them all.

If your child has allergies, it's up to you and your child to keep your child safe. You can ask the school to make reasonable accommodations for your child, and that's acceptable. But you can't expect an entire community to cater to your child's allergies.

And I say this as a person with multiple allergies and food issues.

Cat-If you call washing your hands and no peanuts and nuts being consumed in the class room making the entire school suffer you have a different dictionary for the word suffer. So what I also think what you are saying that you would be willing for your tax dollar to help keep my child out of school.

@Mike - nope, I'm talking about the fact that you have little kids who love peanut butter, and nut products, and the fact that little kids will be little kids, and they probably won't be as rigorous washing their hands. So in order to combat that, the school would logically have to ban _all— peanut/nut prodcuts EVER on the school premises. So you're one child just _forced— the entire school to adopt to _one— child, depending upon how severe the allergies are. How is that fair? 1 vs 200-300 kids?

(and I'm really not being mean, but if it was me, I personally would not chance it anyway, as other parents could really not care less about other people, and have a ME FIRST attitude anyway)

Cat: Right on!

Mike, it's your gene deficiency, deal with it. Use your own money by the way. And I am not being mean either. Every damn problem some kid has should not become the problem of every other kid in a school, nor the taxpayers problem.

I just had my second student with peanut allergies. My classroom becomes a peanut free zone with posted signs. We talk about it at the beginning of the year, which is very easy for me because of my serious allergies, asthma, and nasal polyps. Everyone washes their hands if we have peanut cookies at lunch, if you were sitting with that student then you didn't have a cookie, and we all look out for each other. This is a very good teaching experience for the students as we all have some area we need help with. This is a third grade class room and I'm proud to say they handle it well. Also, this a school that is 90% poverty so the whole exposure to dirt doesn't hold water.

People just don't want to accept that in many cases, 'their problems' are 'their problems', and not everyone else's problem OR RESPONSIBILITY. I am allergic to bee stings. Should we eradicate bee's from a 25 mile radius of wherever I may choose to be just case if I get stung It might make me sick or maybe kill me? It's my problem, nobody elses, unless they also are allergic to bee stings...........

First off I am a mohte with 2 children. one is school with no allergies and one not yet in school that has allergies. and yes i agree with mike 150%. It is the parents of children with no allergies who see this as a"suffering" for others. So let me ask you if there was a something that could harm or even be fatal for your child would you feel completely fine about them being exposed on a daily basis? This is not a joke, us as parents need to protect our children, right? so why not protect other children. because god for bid that it happened to your family. see how it affects you and daily life or simple outings. some people need a wake up call. this is a life threatening issue. not a choice of where do you want peanut butter or bologna in your lunch today!

Lab###: Also, this a school that is 90% poverty so the whole exposure to dirt doesn't hold water.

Nice profiling job. The nutty (no pun intended) left should be attacking you momentarily.

mike...You want the other children to be deprived just because of your's child's attitude? Parents like you think their child shouldn't eat in a private room in a public school but they want hundreds of other kids to be in the company of a single child with special needs? Way to raise narcissists. As if this country needs more of them.

If a school kid has special needs, he belongs in a special needs program in a special school you pay for, not millions of others. That's accepting adult parenting responsiblity without infringing on the rights of others.

When did a special needs kid become so special that he/she has the right to infringe their will on the rest of the world? When McMommy and McDaddy demand special privileges they feel entitled to. That's when.

I cant expect the entire school to change just because MY child has an allergy. Its my problem and I have to deal with it. It also depends upon what kind of accomodations I am asking for. Washing hands after eating peanuts - Acceptable. No peanut butter cookies for the entire classroom - not acceptable. My chils is allergic to peanuts and by 1st grade she knew to ask for ingredients when something was offered to her. Now even her friends watch out for her.

If an accomodation is not too much of a trouble, it should be done. One girl in my daughters class is hard of hearing and the first row is always reserved for her. This is an example of an acceptable accomodation.

In the real world, we have to watch out for our well being. The sooner the kids learn this, the better for them.

Leia:

It is the parents of children with no allergies who see this as a"suffering" for others. So let me ask you if there was a something that could harm or even be fatal for your child would you feel completely fine about them being exposed on a daily basis?

Of course not. I'm allergic to all of the -cillins for medication, to the point where they'll kill me if I have them. I would not want to be exposed to them. That is why I wear a medical bracelet, so if something happens to me and I have a medical emergency where I can't respond, I won't accidentally be exposed.

Your child is going to be exposed to an allergen in the world. There's no way to avoid it completely. I eat peanut butter sandwiches often. If your child and I happen to pass each other on the street, there is a chance I could have peanut butter on my hands, and your child could be exposed. It happens, and there is no way to prevent it from ever happening, aside from putting these kids in plastic bubbles.

However, reasonable accommodations can be made for kids with allergies to reduce the risk. There are peanut free tables and peanut free classrooms. Kids are asked to wash their hands if they are from one of the peanut free rooms to insure that any peanut residue from their lunch, or someone else's lunch, is taken care of. How much more accommodation do you want for your child?

And if the school bans peanut products, like some schools have done, how far do we go for other kids' allergies? My friend growing up was allergic to milk. Should we ban all milk products? How about tree nuts? I work with someone allergic to tree nuts. I have another friend who has celiac disease, meaning she can't eat anything with wheat gluten in it, and she nearly died because of this. Should we ban all foods from the cafeteria that have wheat gluten in them? How far should it go?

I'm all for reasonable accommodations (having one or two gluten free food choices, having milk alternates for drinks at lunch, having a peanut-free section of the cafeteria), but it has to be reasonable.

This is not a joke, us as parents need to protect our children, right? so why not protect other children. because god for bid that it happened to your family. see how it affects you and daily life or simple outings. some people need a wake up call.

No one is saying it's a joke. I'm allergic to cats, dogs, birds, and all animals with fur (the exceptions are horses and guinea pigs because they have hair, not fur). I am highly allergic to dogs, to the point where my throat can close up if I'm exposed to a lot of dander, although it's rare for it to happen (it happened once to me when I was a teen). Would you like it if I demanded that no one that works with me can own a dog? And that everyone who owns any other pets must wash their clothes several times to make sure all of the dander is rinsed away?

No, because that's not a reasonable accommodation. It would be reasonable for me to ask anyone who has a dog not sit at the desk right next to me. Beyond that, it's asking too much. So I always carry my inhalers and allergy medications with me just in case.

this is a life threatening issue. not a choice of where do you want peanut butter or bologna in your lunch today!

And it's up to you to protect your child's life. If the allergy is that severe, you need to take precautions. The school can only do so much to protect your child, and it should never be assumed that in school, your child will not be exposed. So be prepared for it to happen, so if it does, no one is caught off guard. Have things like epipens and benadryl handy. Make sure the teacher, school nurse, etc, are prepared in the case of an exposure.

I am highly sympathetic to children with allergies. I've suffered with them my whole life (and a wide variety of them). But you cannot assume that the rest of the world will accommodate those allergies for your children's entire lives.

Most of you people commenting are morons. Peanut allergies are DEADLY. Children who have peanut allergies should not be exposed to a deadly substance, period. If you think they should, maybe schools should start using asbestos insulation again. Why worry? It won't kill all the kids.

It's refreshing to see so many parents on here who accept responsibility for their childrens' food allergies (and are teaching their kids to do the same). I'm 30 years old, so school is quite a ways back for me, but we had ONE person in the whole school who had a lethal peanut allergy. Her parents taught her how to manage her allergy and didn't ask the school to change everything because of her. In fact, had my parents and hers not been friends, I never would have known that she had the allergy. She didn't have a reaction once during her entire school career.

I always wonder about the message being sent to the allergic kids. They're being taught at a very young age that the world will change for them, and it will bite them in the ass when they get out in the real world. You have to adapt to society. Society will not (and should not) adapt to you.

Megidolaon: Society DOES adapt to the needs of others. That's the very definition of society.

"a society allows its members to achieve needs or wishes they could not fulfill alone. The social fact can be identified, understood, or specified within a circumstance that certain resources, objectives, requirements, or results are needed and utilized in an individual manner and for individual ends, although they cannot be achieved, gotten, or fulfilled in an individual manner as well, but, on the contrary, they can be gotten only in a collective, collaborative manner; namely, teamwork becomes the valid functional means to individual ends which an individual would need to have but is not able to get."

My son is allergic to peanuts and shellfish. Every year parents ask if I would like a peanut free room or to restrict what their kids bring to school. I really appreciate that. I tell them it's their choice, not mine. I tell them that my son lives in the real world and has to learn to watch out for himself because he can't depend on someone else to do it for him (he even asks at home if something has peanuts in it, which we encourage him to do). The only thing I ask is that if they're bringing in something with peanuts for the whole class to share, if they could let me know 1-2 days in advance so I can bring in an alternate treat for my son so he doesn't feel like he's missing out. The other thing I tell my son is that if there is a treat at school and he's not sure if he can eat it, don't. We'll make up for the treat at home. That way he doesn't feel like it's his only opportunity to have a treat and that he'll miss out if he doesn't eat it. My son has experienced exposure to peanuts a couple of times, and the most recent one really gave him an idea of what peanuts can do to him since he was older when it happened (8) and can remember it better. It might sound cold on my part to put this much responsibility on my son, but I think it's better he learn to deal with it in a gradually less controlled environment so he knows how to manage it himself. We won't always be there to protect him. Next on the list for him: How to administer an epipen to himself.

The other thing I wanted to say is that we discovered my son's allergy when he was about 15 months old. He was breastfed, played in dirt, etc. His dad's side of the family has various allergies and asthma, so I think there's something genetic in his makeup, not environmental. When I was pregnant with him, I was told to avoid peanuts. I wish I had not - I wonder if he'd have still had the allergy if he'd had a chance to build up some immunity to it.

I don't know if it was stated earlier, but children with life threatening allergies are protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and schools are required to make accomodations!

You people are the reason the world is going to hell. People refuse to teach their children compassion and grace because it's cool to be a d-bag. Your kid can do something minor that hardly alters their life at all (wash hands and not eat peanuts at school), but you'd rather make someone else's kid's life completely different by forcing them to be home schooled because they can't be in a room with peanuts. Un-freakin-believable. There are so many jerks in the world today.

@ForPostsOnly

Parents like you are wonderful. In the end, it ultimately boils down to your child's own responsibility - when you're gone, they're going to have to look out for themselves. I'm grateful my parents let me take the "hard road" and learn to survive on my own. If I spent my lunch money on soda and baseball cards, it was my own fault, and I had to deal with the consequences on my own.

Also please note the following: "deprived" is not "made to suffer"

So let me ask you if there was a something that could harm or even be fatal for your child would you feel completely fine about them being exposed on a daily basis?

If my child had this issue I wouldn't be fool-hardy enough to entrust his/her life with anyone other than responsible adults. A classroom full of forgetful children that may or may not have been snacking on a potentially lethal substance for my child is the LAST place I would send them. That means keeping the child home & home-schooling until the child is old enough to understand the seriousness and take appropriate measures. This is your child, you make the sacrifice, don't ask everyone else too.

Here's an idea, why not make a school for allergy sufferers? Everyone with perfume allergies, food allergies, etc can go there and stop requiring everyone else to accommodate to meet their needs.

I feel for children who have honest food allergies, they didn't ask for it, but your child having a food allergy is not my child's fault and he shouldn't be asked to jump through hoops.

The impression I'm getting from Mike is that the law should serve guys like them and them alone. It's not everyone else's fault your child has allergies.

Luckily our school community is nothing like the rest of you. My son, who is severely allergic to tree nuts and peanuts, has no problems at school. While they ask parents to take allergies into consideration (there are other in his class with much worse allergies), the aren't food Nazi's. Kids with allergies can eat at separate tables and we have raised our son to know what is or isn't safe. I have yet to run into a single parent who was not sympathetic with our situation, as I would be if the tables were turned.

Remember, any of you could wake up tomorrow with a potentially fatal food allergy. I know adults who this has happened to. It might just teach some of you a good lesson.

Linda,

I don't think people are apathetic to allergy sufferers, they just don't feel they should be restricted simply because others have to be. Misery loves company, no? It would totally stink to wake up one day and be allergic to something but I'm not going to live each day like it either.

Linda:

I'm a person with multiple allergies, and I'm always grateful when someone helps out to reduce my risk of a reaction. Some of my reactions are mild, some are more severe, even life threatening. Most people are very sympathetic to this and are willing to accommodate me if I need something. Like I asked my employer if I could not be seated next to someone who owns a dog because I'm highly allergic to dogs. They were happy to do so.

However, I couldn't ask them to ban anyone from the building who owns a dog, or demand that they make anyone who owns a dog give it up while I'm employed there on the off chance that I would come across some dander on someone's clothes.

This is a similar situation. I'm sure more people are more than happy to give reasonable accommodations to allergy sufferers to make them more comfortable, like giving those with peanut allergies a separate area to sit in while having lunch. But if the demands are unreasonable, that's when people react, like banning peanut products from a building entirely.

Most people are more than happy to help out those with allergies, as long as those with allergies understand that they are not the norm and cannot always be accommodated in the way they want. That's been my experience.

I just get tired of folks who think if you have a potentially fatal food allergy you should be home schooled and kept out of all public situations. It is possible to have these allergies and live a somewhat normal life. There have definitely been situations in the news where schools went to the extreme in trying to make things tolerable for a student and peoples response was so strong and hateful. My son was upset to think that adults might want him banned from class and home schooled. He knew how much he would miss his classmates and thought it was pretty horrible that another child might have that done to them. We are very lucky this is not how things are for us. Even his classmates point out to their parents, when bringing snacks, that they want to be sure he can be included.

I say Pad Thai for all in public schools! a single dish with shrimp , peanuts, and dairy.

Linda-

Get over yourself.

While I'm glad to see that your school and community revolve around your families needs, for those who wish not to participate should have the right to do so without scorn. You may not be one of those uber-pushy parents that takes the issue to the school board to get allergens removed from school property, but there are quite a few parents that do. This is what the reaction is to.

Like Magnolia said above I am more than willing to accommodate, to a point, for those who have allergies. I have a colleague who is highly allergic to dogs, I have a dog so I make sure that what ever I wear has been freshly washed and straight out of the dryer. This does help her some, but not completely so she in turn takes her allergy medication to help combat the symptoms. She realizes the world doesn't spin around her and the allergies, so it makes it a whole lot easier to work with her and help ease any symptoms.

What people rail against is the attitude that believes that they or their child need be catered to because of the allergy to the effect of having substances removed from respective premises. There are some schools who have banned all nut products and ask that you not bring foods even processed in the same facilities that process nuts on school premises. It is not the easiest task to purchase foods that are free from allergic substances or processed in the same facility as a nut. If a family is not affected by allergies the burden should not be laid at their feet.

Here's an analogy for you;

Say someone is allergic to makeup. They ask their employer to have all the other women in the workplace to stop wearing makeup because microscopic specs may get on them. While it's complete hyperbole, do you think this would be a fair to ask that of all the other co-workers? While I would have no problem with that persons work area being a "makeup free" zone, because I have the option to avoid it, to ask that the entire building to be makeup free is preposterous.

While I would never be hateful to anyone regarding this matter, especially a child, I do not like those that use the issue as a method of controlling others.

I don't need to get over myself or anything else. All I was saying is that I'm glad some accommodation is made for my son and his schoolmate who have allergys. I have never felt or expected a complete ban on these allergens. It's up to the parents to make sure their kids are properly prepared, and to advise those who need to know of their situation. I'm glad you wouldn't be hateful, but there are plenty of people who are.

Food, or it is a parental, medical, educational community mental condition. Agree with you * See #12.

THAT is the study I'd like to see done. Why are these allergies so much more pervasive now than they were 25 and 30 years ago? I got the same immunizations then as kids are getting now so I am not sure I buy that as the cause, but something has definitely changed. Too much processing and not enough natural foods in our diet? Too many chemicals in the atmosphere? Too much use of antibacterial everything that kids aren't building natural immunities? What's changed?

Suzy...Try too many prissy pants paranoid parents who look for any sign of illness to specialize their trophy kids. There have been people who have had allergies. But today's McMommies and McDaddies have turned allergies into class privilege.

When an entire class has to live around the rules and regulations presented by a single other classmate, look no further than McMommy and McDaddy for why. These are the same parents who overindulge these kids with cell phones at age 8, TVs in their SUVs and all manner of techno toys while teaching them to read a book at age 6 months, learn a foreign language by age 5 and spend more time feeding them at the local fast food chain or pizzeria. Funny how they aren't allergic to pizza though right?

Constant exposure to pollutants and food additives are culprits. Plain genetics is another. Also, in the past, food allergies were not diagnosed. People suffered ailments without making the connection.

Ewent, that's so true. Every single child I know (and whose parents are online) who has food allergies comes from a wealthy (and usually white) family. I don't know a single poor person who has food allergies. A lot of those parents see their kids' allergies as a kind of status symbol. The "more-allergic-than-thou" phenomenon. They take pride in listing how many foods their kids are allergic to. Having to cook special wheat-free, egg-free, milk-free, soy-free, corn-free, and peanut-free foods gives the parents a purpose. The minute the kid sneezes, they immediately feed them nothing but rice for six weeks because the sneeze MUST be a result of a food allergy.

God, they drive me insane! And no, I'm not talking about EVERYONE who has a food-allergic child. Just the ones who take a weird sort of pride from it.

I guess we'll have to start building seperate schools and have "allergy free"school buses and special lunch "bubble"rooms..........on the other hand, let these kids be home schooled and they won't have to bring their personal ailments to school for the rest of the community to worry about.

First the parent has to look into a mirror. If they see any hint of a helicopter parent, there is a 98% chance the kid will have a 'food allergy".

Bob - why would you correlate a physical reaction with helicopter parenting? If a person consumes a protein that their body recognizes as a foreign invader, the body will launch a histamine reaction that can be fatal. My son has a life threatening peanut allergy. He has been taught to be responsible for what he eats. He reads labels, he asks questions about how food was prepared and will forego eating something he cannot be sure does not have peanuts in it. I breast fed him until a year. I am NOT a hyper-vigilant clean freak (you should see the dog hair), he did not eat solids until 8 months, he played in the sand at the local park and put enough of it into his mouth that I saw it in his diaper.... the rise in allergies is far more complex than your moralistic/simplistic/dismissive post implies. Obviously food allergies are not an issue for you or anyone you care about. Please have some compassion for those of us who deal with this on a daily basis.

Because I run into these helicopter fools every day that is why I correlate what I correlate. You correlate your way, I will correlate mine. I have plenty of compassion for where I feel it belongs. Just not for the daily hysteria du jour!

I have seen parents give their kids a peanut butter sandwich, the kid gets the 'squirts', and then for years after the parents tell everyone their kid is deathly allergic to peanuts. Same with shellfish. People eat it, (got bad seafood) and believe they are now deathly allergic. No further testing, no nothing. They might have been sick from something totally different, but NOPE, now they have allergies. They tell their Doctor, Dr doesn't test and just says" you must be allergic, then boom, they are officially diagnosed.......... You are what you want to be in SOME cases..........

joanfish...I take them to a doctor and find out why. If you don't know why, you can't know if it's childhood imagination or your own desire to have a sick child under your roof.

If you can't allow you kids to go outdoors, run, play, take part in neighborhood games and instead take them to daycare centers at 6 weeks old until they reach puberty, they are being stifled. Fresh air and sunshine coupled with normal childhood exercise does wonder to get the crap out of kids lungs.

But no. McMommie and McDaddy are afraid too much fresh air and sunshine might hurt their tender little shoots.

Bob is a troll... Bob is a troll... nanananana!

They won't let ma add a link, go to youtube and search "TEDxAustin Robyn O'Brien 2011"

Saw it, though it was great - she struck the right balance of understanding corporate profit drives and the fact that substances do not need to be cleared as biologically "safe" for the population before they are introduced into the food supply. It is difficult to make the argument and not come off as a nut job. Hopefully discussion such as these will raise awareness and we can take back out food supply. Wheat was genetically modified to greatly increase the triticale protein content and other characteristics in the 70's. Europe does not allow this wheat into their food supply. Wonder if allergies to wheat proteins differ markedly in the US and Europe?

diana...some think autism is a direct result of at least 5 generations of too much fluoride in the water. Others say it's from dental fillings. Hard to define the real cause.

One of my co-workers has an autistic child. I advised her to have the child tested by someone outside the school system. Turns out the child is only mildly autistic and was misdiagnosed by the school system.

Parents these days are often naive when it comes to why schools make healthcare diagnosis. It often comes down to extra funding for the school system. Many kids ended up on Ritalin because of a school's misdiagnoses.

Mildly autistic? The autism spectrum is large and a child can move on the spectrum. My granddaughter was severely autistic (diagnosed by a neurologist) and with over 40 hours per week of therapy, she is starting to talk (the neurologist said she never would). The school system would get the money no matter where on the spectrum the child falls, but the therapy the school system provided just might have helped the child you are talking about. There of course is diet and the autism of today almost always shows with very high cases of allergies. Another of my children has a child with asperger. Gene pool? Funny how it isn't anywhere in any of the families. I think it is more Russian Roulette with our environment - from food, water, products and even airwaves.

Excuse me, but that has nothing to do with it. I have food allergies and I am under 18 years of age. Though my allergies are not extremely severe, I do have them. Considering that I used to be able to eat these SAME FOODS as a young child and then developed them after age 10, it cannot be said that it was because I was kept in a bubble. Although I am the only one in my family with food allergies my parents both have allergies and asthma goes back 4 generations in my family. So saying kids shouldn't be kept in a bubble, while somewhat true, isn't entirely true. Also, food allergies are very unique. Some allergies can be treated with shots (I myself was on shots for five years and it significantly reduced the severity of my allergies) but food allergies cannot at this point, at least according to my allergist. So exposure has nothing to do with it, especially since I have met kids as young as 2 with food allergies, and you can't say at that age, when they put everything in their mouth, that they have food allergies because of being in a bubble. The bubble theory develops the immune system to fight infection, not allergies. Allergies cannot be helped by more exposure.

We're also raising our children in too sterile of an environment. I was reading a study a while back (I'll have to look for it, don't know if I still have the magazine), about how all the antibacterial-this and disinfectant-that are confusing our immune systems. When our bodies don't have germs to fight, they start to fight themselves. Know who doesn't have allergies? Kids who grew up playing in the dirt. Kids raised on farms. Kids whose parents didn't chase them around with Purel. Purel is dangerous stuff.

We grew up on a farm in the 60's-70's. We saw more mud in a day then you see in a year. My sister still got peanut allergies when she was young.

ominojacu

One of my kids was bottle fed, one was breast fed. Guess which one has the allergies (altho not to food)? The breast fed one.

Science doesn't know for certain what causes food allergies. Stop eluding your opinion as fact.

My 2 children are the same the breast fed child has 3 food allergies & the formula one has none. So was it what I was eating while nursing? My doctor said maybe.

I breastfed all 4 of my children and sadly, my youngest has severe food allergies to peanuts, eggs and milk. He was actually allergic to my breastmilk due to the proteins passed through from the foods I was eating which contained milk and eggs. I had to completely restrict/ change my diet in order to continue safely breastfeeding him. Now at age 4, he continues to have food allergies as well as allergies to multiple antibiotics. The answer is not as simple as breastmilk vs formula, if it were, my child would be allergy free.

Marty...I also was raised on a small farm. We had red clay soil in some parts of the property. When it rained, you'd think we were dyed in red...rofl.

What I'd like to see is a study of all these kids who have these allergies and see how many of them have been shuffled off to daycare at too young an age. How do you place a 6 week old in daycare with at least 100 other kids and not know your child is unnecessarily being exposed to all manner of other kids' germs and illnesses?

If kids immune systems are compromised, it might be because they are awaken at unnatural hours of the morning to be shuffled off to daycare. A baby or toddler's body needs the ability to awaken naturally not with an alarm clock at 5 AM. Then, there's the stress of parents rushing their kids to eat their breakfast so they can hurry off to work. What kid wouldn't have sensitivities with that kid of unnatural pressure?

Meanwhile, these same toddlers spend entire days in a methodical, pre-ordained daycare center routine and not the home they should be learning to relate as their home base. Seems to me that parents today have their priorities messed up big time.

More people are aware of food allergies today. In the not so distant past (70s) people suffered allergic reactions but didn't make the connection between cause and effect. "Stomach flu" and "colds" were used as explanations of reactions that lasted mere days. I remember people denying they were allergic, as society at large still considered most allergic reactions as psychosomatic. No one wants to be told they're "crazy," or "it's all in your head."

JustForStarters, you should consider that antedotical information is not scientific. For example in this instance, it is possible for a breast fed baby to develop a food alergy, just as it possible for formula fed baby not too. The question is does being fed formula increase the risk of food alergies? and to answer that you have look at a great deal many cases then just a few antedotical examples. These studies have been done and any doctor who keeps abreast of the current information will tell you that formula and eating solid foods before 4 month of age increases the risk of food alergies. Most peditritians recommend weaning to baby food at six months of age now as a result of this information. As for the clean vs. dirty enviroment speculations. It is true that dog allergies and pollen allergies are linked to a clean environment, where as, cat alergies and food alergies are linked to early exposure, i.e, if you want to reduce your childs chance of being allergic to dogs or pollen, early exposure is good, if you want to avoid an allergy to cats or food early exposure is bad.

Tim-

If there are just as many folks out there with allergies as there were "back in the day", then why is anaphylaxis on the rise? That is a reaction that is pretty hard to misdiagnose as something else.

ominojacu-

Where do you think all of these breast milk vs formula studies get some of their information? They derive it from anecdotal evidence, among other things. They ask the parents about what happens when the child is fed this or that, since they cannot observe the supposed reaction, and read the food diaries they ask parents to keep. Quite a bit of the information they rely on is taking what a parent says is going on as fact. I'd call that anecdotal evidence.

Quite the contrary what the facts are is that Dr's have no clue as to why some people have food allergies and some do not. They suspect certain things but really can't pin it to any one thing. You talk to any Dr that is worth their weight in salt and they will admit that. If they knew for sure what, when, where, why, and how, they could say definitively that it is because of X and a result of Y.

If it were due to formula feeding and an early introduction to solids they would have closed the book on this study already. The real truth is they don't know.

Hopefully, people who have the insensitivity gene will be part of nature's cleanup as well.

Marty...When people in this country stops expecting perfection from all too fallible human beings, maybe people won't always be so judgmental.

When I look outside and see no children playing normally in the fresh air and sunshine or even in the rain and snow, that tells me that a huge part of nature is missing from these kids. Streets today are empty. No kids playing street hocky, basketball or baseball.

Breathe in fresh air and it has a revitalzing effect not to mention helping the immune system. Kids today have "play dates". A stupid invention of McMommies and McDaddies who are such control freaks that even play time isn't natural anymore. Now kids have to make appointments with each other to play. How hideous is that?

Pueo-1105519

Bad genes. Let nature take its course and we won't be seeing these things

So what you suggest, let kids with allergies loose into the wild? If they die eating tree nuts for sustenance, so what, score 1 for the human race?

All the while ignorant fools (know anybody?) are allowed to breed....

Ahh, spoken like a true eugenist. Hitler and Himmler would've been so proud of you...

Just in case it needs to be said, the eugenist are scientificly incorrect. Evolution isn't just about natural selection but also about genetic variety. Basically natural selection is the fine tuning knob and genetic variety is the channel changer. If a species is under the natural selections pressures for too long then it becomes too specialised, and risks extinction should a sudden change in environment requires a different set of genetic answer, see the dodo bird or panda. So in reality its is genetic diversity that equates to genetic strength. Which is why America hosts the greatest minds and Atheletes in the world because of our genetic diversity.

You evil, evil person. It would be a different story if it were your child.

@Pueo: LOL, you really riled up a bunch of people. Nice trolling. :)

ominojucu---not trying to nitpick, but dodos died out because of sailors killing them for meat, as they were easy to take because they had no fear of humans & hung around long enough for an easy kill. That's where we get the notion of calling someone dumb as being 'dumb as a dodo'.

Bad genes. Let nature take its course and we won't be seeing these things.

well as cold, callous and Politically Incorrect as that statement may be.... It is kind of true. Left alone without intervention, these kids would come into a contact situation, and nature would take its course.....

You are sooo misinformed!

Bottle fed kids were the 'norm' during the 60s and 70s. Today, the majority of kids are breast fed at least for the first 6 months of life. Food allergies are far more common (and severe) today than they were in the 60s and 70s!

So much for your 'theory'.

Some women have educations and earn a living. They do not have the time or circumstances to be Bossy the Cow. My mom couldn't breast feed. I have no allergeries as was top of the class K-grad school.

Hmmm..."Eddie s"....LOVE how you can lump ALL women into one convenient catagory about something you know nothing about and have never done, and never will.

Breastfeeding is pretty labor intensive in today's world. I would describe all the issues to you, but you probably wouldn't understand, or care.

Please, in the future, don't speak or form opinions until you know something about the subject on which you are speaking. Thanks!

Jet...Come off it. There are many women who on the first day in the hospital after delivery of a baby who are told they can't breast feed. I was one of them. Not enough milk for the baby...DUH.

As for labor intensive, that's fine and dandy if you can manage it. Not all women can.

By the way, telling other adults what to do indicates a problem with overblown feelings of superiority. Fact is, we all put our pants on one leg at a time.

Please go and reread my post to eddie s CAREFULLY this time, ewent, then comment.

I was admonishing eddie s for his lack of understanding about the whole breastfeeding issue...I totally agree that for some women, breastfeeding is NOT an option, for whatever reason. What I was 'telling him to do' is to not speak on topics that he doesn't understand, and never will (if he's a male, which I assumed he is by his name).

You're obviously quite the scientist.

I have a minor allergy to pine nuts and probably peanuts. In high school I did not eat peanut butter for a year (stupid me deciding that peanut butter was fatty and I wanted to be skinny- yes stupid teenage me). When I would eat peanut butter after that period I would get a mild rash on my arms. After I started eating PB again regularly, no more reaction. Same with pine nuts, which you don't eat very often.

I follow the expose yourself to it and you will lose your allergy premise. I also have seasonal allergies and for two years straight I suffered through them without taking any medication and voila- no more seasonal allergies.

I would like to know why all of a sudden starting 5 years ago there are so many nut allergies in kids. I am in my 20's and there were never issues with nut allergies in my schools. What is causing this? Don't say formula because most kids in the 1980's were fed on formula. This is only a recent phenomenon in the past 10-15 years. I bet it has something to do with the expectation that kids grow up in a super-sanitized environment. Let your kid outside, let them have pets, a little dirt is ok.

It's a bit hard to cure yourself by exposure when your throat closes when you ingest a microscopic amount of peanuts. These things must be done under careful supervision and may take many years, if they work. As for it being a recent phenomenon, my sister is almost fifty and has been allergic to peanuts all her life. And yes, we grew up on a farm.

We have the same issues here. Brother (now 45) has a severe peanut allergy. We were doctor's kids where you literally had to be dying to get any medical attention. Our immune systems were given ample opportunity to fight viruses and infections. My son has a severe peanut allergy. So far I have not heard of any genetic food allergy studies. I also have a daughter who has no allergies. Oh, and we grew up across from a farm and used to wave to the pesticide planes as they did their runs.....

I think the reasons for more and more food allergies is really complex. It is probably a combination of processed foods, excessive immunization, keeping kids in a "bubble, overly steralizing our environments, etc.

All the people who dismiss these factors because "they grew up on a farm and are still allergice to peanuts", or other such arguments are forgetting that food allergies have existed for a long time and that a small percentage of people are always going to have food allergies. The issue is the increasing number of food allergies.

It is also true that carefully supervised regular exposure to these allergens can help reduce the severity of the allergy and possibly eliminate it.

Marty...Best get used to a closed throat...by the time you reach age 50, it's a common occurence among a lot of seniors. And it's not caused by allergies. Just aging...rofl.

I'm not going to go and verify your numbers, but I will say it is not as simple as counting the deaths attributed to food allergies. Many, many of the deaths from food allergies are due to a severe asthma attack resulting from the food exposure. Those deaths are "coded" as death from asthma. So while the official deaths from food allergies may be a relatively low number, actual deaths are far higher. This is a known issue in Emergency Rooms.

The problem with exposure, is if you already have an allergy even a microscopic amount can have serious consequences. But I agree the immune system is like a muscle and needs to be exercised. Food alergies however usually occur when food is introduced to an immature stomach lining causing larger particles to enter the blood stream and be misinterpreted as an invader, so in the case of food alergies it is exposure that occurs too early, typically before 4 months of age that is the issue.

Rose, we are talking about statistical possibities, this is like a 90 year smokers, saying I smoke a pack a day my entire life therefore smoking doesn't cause cancer. Your antedotical example is not enough to elminate the mounds of data suggesting otherwise. What is does show however is that formula is not the only cause of food alergies.

What is does show however is that formula is not the only cause of food alergies.

Or causes it at all...if you want to be truly scientific about it.

The fact is, we have NO idea what causes allergies to exist in one person, and not in another.

I have a pretty good idea - it has something to do with leveraging paranoia into profits.

nanag...I agree. I cook everything from scratch and that includes my own tomato sauce. You'd think with this economy being so austere, young people would learn to cook with fresh ingredients and not run to a fast food restaurant and call that "dinner'.

Perhaps if so many women from your generation weren't hell bent on "liberation." Those of us from the younger generations wouldn't have been stuck with mother's working full time; often more than one job with very little time, energy or resources to provide a nightly family dinner. It wasn't my generation that started feeding families pre-packaged, takeout and fast food dinners.

I agree. Wheat, for instance, is much different in America than it is in say, Great Britain - up to three times higher in gluten. Corn and soy products contain DNA from other organisms (including things like spiders and crabs) that would freak you out. Genetic engineering has really changed the nature of many of the food products we eat.

However, that doesn't explain an increased allergy to peanuts. I wonder about whether the prevelance of peanut butter as a ubiquitous food source in the previous generation triggered something in their offspring?

When I was young I didn't have a problem flying, but now I have a severe flying phobia. What happened? Ever watch the news - friggin airliners crash all the time, and unlike an automobile crash you don't stand any chance at all of walking away from it. Everybody on the plane dies, and you don't go from everything being fine to crashing either - you've got a good 10 minutes or so to enjoy the screaming and chaos before the inevitable end. No thanks.

So not sure what your manifestation is all about, or how the story about your daughter relates to allergies, but it's very clear to me why someone would develop a phobia to flying.

It's the ME generation. Attention anyway you can get it. You are important and noticed if you have an "allergy".

You're especially noticed when they carry you quickly on a stretcher hoping to save your life (or your kid's life) on the way to the hospital.

Bert - Flying is one of the safest modes of transportation around. We just hear about the crashes because they happen so rarely and the news will jump on any story with a high body count. You're far, far more likely to die driving a car than you are flying in a plane, and I say this as someone who was on a plane that almost crashed (I've flown since then with no worries).