What's up with peanut allergies!?

[FirstLight]

I have never seen so many kids allergic.!!
It's like an epidemic for chrissakes
The school district is sending out notices not to make peanut butter sandwiches for our kids lunches... does anyone remember it being so serious in decades past?

I wonder what the correlations are. Of course my first thought is vaccinations, i am a hippie momma and we don;t do the immunizations for personal and family illness reasons. But I have not been a rabid opponent of the things...but maybe?

here's some articles... what's your take?

Peanut allergies and vaccinations
http://www.avoidingmilkprotein.com/vacandpea.htm

Why peanuts, why now?
http://www.calgaryallergy.ca/Articles/English/whypeanutswhynow.html

[hobbit709]

1. Saw a story once that suggested peanut oil based baby oils might have an effect.

[Lesleymo]

2. I haven't researched this, but I wonder ...

if it could be related to all the genetically modified foods we eat.

My daughter is allergic to peanuts. She's in her 30's, so we dealt with this way back in the 80's. At the time, we knew of no other children with this allergy. None. It was really difficult to get teachers and other parents to understand that she could not have even one little bite of anything with a nut in it.

I think somebody will discover a food-industry-related link to the explosion of allergies, autism, obesity and who knows what else. But of course, we may not be informed of that discovery for a good long time.

[Warpy]

3. I just have to wonder how many of those supposedly allergic kids

have actually been to an allergist to be tested and how many of them simply have hysterical parents who are keeping up with the latest fad illness by claiming their kids are allergic when they're not.

A study that came out last spring confirmed that most kids whose parents claimed they were allergic to peanuts were not allergic per allergy testing. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/health/research/12allergies.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

In any case, more information is coming out now that peanut allergy is reversible, http://www.google.com/search?q=study+peanut+allergy&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a unless parents are emotionally invested in keeping their kids "special."

While antivaccination hysterics claim every childhood ailment is attributable to vaccination, this is simply not the case.

[FirstLight]

5. I don't know, but I think there is a correlation

I am not an 'anti-vac hysteric' person...but I *do* know that the immune system is a very complex thing and messing with it can have effects that we may not see for decades - add environmental pollution, GMO's and other things that alter our cells on a minute level, and it makes perfect sense that we have 'created' many of these 'new' illnesses.

I don;t think it has anything to do with the parents 'wanting their kids to be special' I have seen a few of the allergy kids and how their skin breaks out from soy and wheat, etc...not pretty. And whats strange is that the parents are completely nowrmal...no allergies in the family. So why did their kid end up with the genetic alteration of the immune system? sorry, but vaccinations look like the first culprit to me, and the rest of the additives and chemicals we live with on a daily basis a close second.

Try to live a 'non-toxic' life for a week, and see how hard it is. we are surrounded by poisons inall we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe... it ain't pretty.

[Warpy]

6. Research has proven what you think you know is wrong.

If you think a kid is allergic to something, you need to get him to an allergist for testing to find out, not to some hippie dippie nutritionist.

If you think vaccinations are bad, you need to research how bad the diseases they prevent are. There's a reason 50% of all children died before the age of five and don't any more. That reason is vaccination.

[HuckleB]

33. +1

[comtec]

7. i've had all the same vaccinations kids now a days have

and i don't have a peanut allergy.
i'm 35, and im NOT allergic to peanuts, or anything else (tho i did have some bad prawns, years ago, which keeps me away from them now)

you're just being hysterical.

3 deep breaths, and relax.

vaccination now a days are safer than then ones we had as kids.

the problem is that the world people raise their kids in today is so god damned septic, and free of germs that kids' immune systems don't get a chance to develop properly.
parents LET their kids not eat foods they dont like.
they don't push their kids to eat new and different things.

when i was a kid i was made to at least try everything. I ate dirt, played in the garden, etc.

I'm reasonably healthy. I have gout, but that's genetic (grand ma had rheumatoid arthritis ... all things considered i got off easy)

the cause for these allergies, probably can be directly linked to too clean a childhood.

kids NEED to get hurt eat the wrong stuff, etc.
darwin would be ashamed of us, hiding our kids from all the evils in the world.


I would point out, that in europe, such problems don't exist, because parents here are far more realistic.

My nephews n nieces will grow up just fine, because their parents have a clue.
vaccinate them for the really evil stuff, let them play in the dirt, and patch them up at the end of the day.

If americans started that now, you'll see alot of this disappear in 1 generation.... besides look at the mexican kids, they're healthy.

[FirstLight]

8. sorry, not being hysterical

I didn't ask the question to start the flame wars, but yes, i DO have my own take on this. I have done research on my own and think that much of my own auto-immune stuff is caused by the effects of vaccines in my youth, and that was in the 70's...

I have 3 kids, and while I vaccinated the first one, and he has a very strong constitution...I refrained on the last 2 because I had learned more about my own genetics and auto-immune issues and made the decision not to trigger that in the kids.

Maybe alot of folks *do* live very septic lives, but we are mountain folk and live a bit rougher than most, lots of dirt, climbing trees, eating snow, lol ....so far all the kids are very healthy as far as immunity goes. And all of them have had the chicken pox, like normal kids do. I don't know why we as a society feel the need to constantly shoot up our kids and our food and sterilize our surroundings. I agree that kids in 3rd world countries, and even kids living on farms with livestock have more immune strength than many americans.

then again, diet is a huge factor too. If you look at the additives in our food now as opposed to 30 years ago, it's like we are eating GMO in every meal. How much of that crossover in foods in responsible for screwing up our ability to digest specific things?

ya, I guess i am just a hysyterical hippie...but I would rather stick with food in its closest to natural form and leave my kids' bloodstream and immune system in it's original state... :)

[HuckleB]

47. As for the desire to "stick with food in its closest natural form.."

http://www.youtube.com/user/C0nc0rdance#p/u/5/r3yzXXPeLo0

Sometimes that's not the best idea.

[awoke_in_2003]

22. "let them play in the dirt"

yep, we shield kids way too much. Don't get scared because they ate a cookie that touched the floor. Cut the antiseptic hand sanitizers. Don't pump them full of drugs because they have a sniffle. The body is equipped to handle these things. Cleanliness is good, just don't get obsessive about it.

[Warpy]

25. That's actually pretty good advice

along with pulling out the antibiotics only when a cut is severely infected or the ear infection has gone on for five days and the temperature is coming back up.

I shudder to think what is going to happen to kids who grew up with Mom spraying disinfectant on everything and howling for Amoxicillin for every single earache when that first big deal virus starts to make the rounds.

Jeez, let 'em eat dirt so their bodies will at least know what nasty stuff is out there. But do get those vaccinations. Those diseases could be fatal.

[WillyT]

9. Well... As Someone Who Was Severely Allergic To Peanuts As A Child...

I can only give you my experience.

My first memory of eating peanuts, was peanut butter on toast at the age of 5. Face, tongue, and throat swelled up, lungs went asthmatic, rushed to the hospital and was given a shot of Adrenaline.

Next time I was 7 or 8, and while feeding peanuts to an Elephant at the local zoo, I tested one myself to see if I was able to handle it. (Did not tell my parents, and boy were they pissed, LOL!) Face, tongue, and throat swelled up, lungs went asthmatic, rushed to the hospital and was given a shot of Adrenaline.

The third time I was in Jr. High, and went with a couple of friends to a local Chinese restaurant. The food had been cooked in peanut oil, which I could not smell or taste. Face, tongue, and throat swelled up, lungs went asthmatic, rushed to the hospital and was given a shot of Adrenaline.

There were a few more times where after all precautions some peanut got through and I had a reaction, though as I got older they were not as severe. Still dangerous, but waited the reaction out and did not go to the hospital.

Thing about vaccinations... me and my three sisters all got them, yet I was the only one with a reaction to peanuts. One sister had a similar reaction to shellfish, the other two... nothing.

:shrug:

[Warpy]

14. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, nor do my sites say that

but I am saying that there are a lot of quacks out there parading themselves as homeopaths and nutritionists who are telling parents a lot of hogwash over nothing.

Personally, I don't think smelling peanut butter from across a lunch table is going to do that much. I honestly think what people are seeing out there are anxiety attacks in kids who have been taught to be afraid.

Again, get the kid to a real allergist and have him tested. It's the only way to know for certain.

BTW, why didn't your parents get you an Epipen?

[WillyT]

23. Well... It Was The Sixties... Not Sure Epipen Was Around Then...

Plus... most allergists back then did not test for food allergies.

Most tests were for grasses, molds, fungus...

The belief was then, that if you thought you were allergic to a food, stop eating it.

I was told by a doctor, that I should stay away from ALL nuts... "There are dozens of kinds of nuts, how many times do you want to go to the hospital?"

Which is curious, because peanuts are not a nut...

They are a legume like a bean or pea, which have also had the potential to at least make the back of my throat itch.

Which also may be some sort of clue... but not having my Medical License... I never followed up.

:shrug:

[Warpy]

24. Given your history, a visit to the allergist might be a good idea

Some people can spontaneously grow out of peanut allergy, while there is growing evidence that the rest can be treated to the point that they might itch instead of going into anaphylactic shock, which is what you've been doing.

In any case, you've already discovered that peanut products can be hidden where you least expect them, so you're going to want the test and the pen.

Good luck!

[WillyT]

28. LOL !!! - I Went To An Allergist... Several !!!

They were the ones that said to stop eating nuts!

For a good decade and a half, I had skin prick/scrape allergy tests, followed by three shots in one arm, two in the other for a year and a half each program.

Went through the program 3 or 4 times.

I really don't know what else to tell you.

:shrug:

[Warpy]

35. How about

[WillyT]

38. ROFLMAO !!! - THAT'S What I've Been Trying To Tell You !!!

:rofl:

I mean... they didn't use garlic, wolfbane, or leeches, but that's how I grew up with this condition!

:evilgrin:

:hi:

[Zanzobar]

30. I waited out a bee sting...

...after having alergic reactions which sent me to the ER.

I have to believe you were sweating it out as I was. Kudos.

[WillyT]

40. I Was, Thank You, And Welcome To DU, Zanzobar !!!

:bounce::toast::bounce:

Glad ta have ya aboard!

:hi:

[Lyric]

27. My former roommate was like that.

He was convinced that he was allergic to damn near everything--soy, peanuts, milk, MSG, wheat. It turned out that he wasn't actually allergic to ANY of those things. He just had a nervous stomach and digestive system, and what *he* had mistakenly assumed to be allergic reactions were in fact just manifestations of way too much stress and anxiety. He cut ties with his homophobic family, found a nice, loving partner, and started a yoga routine to relax and de-stress. Now he can eat whatever he wants without a problem. :)

[HuckleB]

32. Ah, you beat me to it.

As noted, food allergies are real, but the incidence is likely far lower than the number of people who claim that they or their kids have food allergies.

A lot of this could be remedied, if people understood that correlation is not causation, but, well, you know the story.

[Hannah Bell]

34. i think a bit of it must be hysteria. i know a woman who swears her kid is allergic to cats & will

go into major hysterics when they're around -- yet when the kid is out of her sight he pets & hugs cats with no visible ill effects -- no wheezing, no welts, nothing.

it's weird.

[Skittles]

46. lots of hysteria involving allergies

I've had a few people over who supposedly had cat allergies, yet only started sneezing when one of my cats actually made an appearance - they were fine when they didn't see the cats, even though they had actually been in the same room with the cats

[Bitwit1234]

4. Allergy specialist said that

children are not exposed to a substance enough, such as peanuts when they are young. And over the years this causes an allergy. I don't know if this is true or not but that could be it. I can't eat peanuts. I don't have an allergy but because of a stomach problem if I eat more than 5 or 6 peanuts or any nuts at a time it causes pain and sometimes I end up in the hospital. I eat all the peanut butter I want, doesn't bother me. The doctors say that the peanuts are not entirely digested and cause a blockage. But I know one thing the results are horrific. I have cramps, and throw up violently. And I never developed this till about 15 years ago. I am now 77. I myself wonder what is in peanuts that cause all these different reactions. I love em and I quickly pass them at the supermarket because I might be tempted to buy them, but I know the results.

[Xithras]

10. According to my sons allergist, there really isn't much of an increase.

As he explained it to me, the majority of kids diagnosed with peanut allergies have only mild symptoms, or no outward symptoms at all. Peanut allergies, like all allergies, occur on a scale that runs from "minor upset tummy after eating a pb&j sandwich" to "anaphylactic shock from touching a toy that was recently used by a peanut eater".

The problem is that nearly all kids are diagnosed via the skin-prick test, which is essentially a "yes or no" test. It can tell you whether your kid has an allergy, but provides little information about its severity. 25 years ago, very few children were tested for peanut allergies, and those tests usually only happened on the more severe cases after a reaction had occurred. Nowadays, performing an allergy panel is a far more regular occurrence, so a much larger percentage of children are being tested for peanut sensitivity. Without further testing to identify the severity of the reaction, most parents and doctors simply choose the prudent route and adopt a "no-contact" policy. For most peanut allergy sufferers, it's overkill...but NOBODY wants to be the occasional parent that ignores the allergy and ends up burying their kid after a severe reaction.

With so many more kids being tested, we're simply identifying a larger portion of the population as having these sensitivities.

My son has a peanut allergy, and after the doctor told us about this we put him through a second set of tests to determine just how severe it was. His allergy, we found, isn't that severe (gastrointestinal problems, and some minor skin irritation in areas where contact occurs). Still, he sits at the peanut free table in his classroom, with six other kids who have peanut allergies. I found it interesting that, when I met their parents during back to school night, all swore that their little angels would drop dead with even passing peanut contact, but NONE of them had done secondary testing to actually determine the severity of the allergies. They simply got the skin prick test, heard "Yep, it's a peanut allergy", and assumed the worst.

So, in a (pea)nut shell, it's a combination of an increased diagnosis rate, and a lack of information and further testing available for those who ARE diagnosed.

[shimmergal]

13. This is interesting!

My 9-year-old granddaughter tends to claim she's "allergic to" any food she dislikes (and these are many). A couple of years ago she apparently said something at school about being allergic to peanuts, and they assigned her to the peanut-free table. That only lasted a few days as she missed eating with her regular friends.

Needless to say, she has no food allergies that we know of, and she eats Reese cups with great enjoyment. We're trying to convince her that the allergy ploy is NOT something to be used about food preferences. It's mostly working.

[mzteris]

18. best response in here. n/t

[gkhouston]

44. Oddly enough, my kid doesn't react on the skin-prick test but does on the blood test.

In real life, her face swells up and it is Not Pretty. Her numbers on the blood test are dropping as she ages, though, so we're hoping she might outgrow it someday. They don't do the peanut-free table thing at her school, but since she actually has to eat peanuts to be affected, and she knows she's supposed to avoid "her archenemy" (her words), it's all good.

[Xithras]

45. Yeah, my son is the same way with eggs.

My youngest has an extremely serious egg allergy that has already landed him in the hospital twice. We discovered it when he was two and he stuck his hand into some raw cookie dough my wife was making. One of the scariest moments of my life was when he stopped breathing in my wifes arms, in the back seat, as I blew through town at 100+MPH on my way to the hospital. He's almost 6 today, and he knows how to look out for "those evil eggs".

We actually discovered his peanut allergy after his second accidental egg reaction. His pediatrician referred us to an allergist, who immediately did a full panel to determine whether he had any other allergies that needed treatment. Eggs, peanuts, and wheat, with a mild sensitivity to citric acids. So far, his numbers are dropping on everything except eggs...his sensitivity to those is actually growing more severe as he gets older.

[gkhouston]

49. Ouch. Avoiding eggs and wheat is a lot harder than staying away from peanuts. n/t

[Mariana]

11. I think in the past, many severely allergic kids

just didn't survive long enough to go to school, and the ones that did probably stayed home because school was considered to be too dangerous for them.

[WinkyDink]

21. I hope you are thinking of longer ago than 55-60 years. Because no kids were dropping dead in my

town, or simply staying home.

[HuckleB]

48. How do you know this?

I suppose no kids came down with polio, measles or other diseases now rare because of vaccines, uh, in your town.

[KamaAina]

12. If GMO foods are so great,

why don't they come up with a hypoallergenic peanut? :shrug:

[TheMightyFavog]

15. It's parents sanitizing anything and everrything around thgier babies...

They're afriad and scared of their little ones getting so much as a cold, that the baby's immune system gets all whacked out.

[haele]

16. When I was growing up, it was strawberries -

And the allergy usually disappeared by the time the child was around 12 or 13. Strawberries and Lactose intolerance were the bigest childhood allergies, at least on the West Coast.
Nut or Peanut allergies were pretty rare - rarer than a shellfish or gluten allergy; in fact, I don't remember hearing of anyone, child or adult with a nut or peanut allergy. Brazil nuts were known to cause problems when too many were eaten, but that was the extent of any nut warnings that were around when I was growing up.
Once they started changing the type of pesticides they used on the strawberry fields, strawberry allergies began disappearing.
Wonder if there's something similar - some sort of corporate farming tweek, pesticide/fertalizer additive or processing protocol for nuts or peanuts that is causing this?

Haele

[annabanana]

17. I have a nut allergy (severe) that I've had since I was little (I'm 60)

I think it's tree nuts.
Walnuts, pecans, brazil nuts etc cause an anaphalactic reaction. I have no problems with peanuts (actually a legume)..cashews, almonds, macadamia and hazel nuts are no problem either.

The severity of the allergy actually increased as I got older.

[haele]

20. I'm fifty got a shellfish/iodine/heavy salts allergy myself -

almost to anaphelactic reaction - severe headaches for the most part. The allergist that checked me out thinks that it was a type of salt that I couldn't deal with - it's genetic, as my mom can't deal with shellfish or heavy salts, either. I'm in my fifties, and have slowly grown out of my fruit alcohol/penicillin sensitivity which seemed to be based on a sensitivity to fermentation musts.
I recognize that everyone's experiences are different, that's why I qualified my earlier post with "when I was growing up".

I'd imagine soy and peanut allergies tend to run together, and know that tree nuts are totally different than the legumes but so much of the discussion about peanut allergies seem to include tree nuts instead of focusing on legumes.
If someone is allergic to peanuts, would walnut or almond butter hurt them? If someone is allergic to tree nuts, would peanut butter or tofu hurt them?
Is it a protein sequence that causes the allergy, or is it something else? If it's a protein sequence, can it be linked to the same reaction some people get with bee stings - which can be an allergy to the proteins induced from the sting?
(had a friend that needed to live her life within 2 minutes of an Epi-pen and 10 minutes of an emergency room just in case she ever got stung. She hated her life.)

Just musing here. Not trying to make a point or anything, but letting the brain work on the question - what makes it an allergy in a few people and why would a body so totally reject it?

Haele

[aikoaiko]

19. I'm grateful my son's school is being reasonable about these things.

In my son's class a boy has a peanut allergy, but they are dealing with it by having one of the three lunch tables be a "no nut" table and the kids shall wash their hands after lunch.

Meanwhile, peanuts are boiling on the stove top for SEC college football.

[HuckleB]

29. +1

[HuckleB]

26. Can Peanut Allergies Be Cured by ... Eating Peanuts?

Can Peanut Allergies Be Cured by ... Eating Peanuts?

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1968474,00.html#ixzz0yc7rhsYd

"In 2008, Gideon Lack of King's College London published a startling study comparing the rate of peanut allergies in children in London with that of children in Tel Aviv. The study of 10,000 Jewish children, which appeared in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, found that kids in the U.K. were almost 10 times as likely to have a peanut allergy as their peers in Israel, says Lack.

Why the disparity? Although Lack can't draw conclusive explanations from his observational study, he suggests that one reason may have to do with early exposure. In Israel, children are typically introduced to peanuts much earlier than in Europe and North America. Lack points to a popular Israeli snack food called Bamba (like peanut-flavored Cheez Doodles), which youngsters start eating as early as infancy. That early exposure may desensitize children to peanuts, even in kids with a family history of food allergies.

The theory has gained enough traction that the National Institutes of Health is funding a seven-year study, also led by Lack, involving 640 children at high risk of allergy. Half of the study participants will avoid peanuts, while the other half will consume them regularly from 11 months to 3 years of age. Researchers will measure the rate of allergy in both groups by age 5.

The findings, which are expected by 2014, could mark a significant change in the way doctors handle food allergies. The conventional treatment has long been no treatment at all — essentially, patients are simply advised to avoid problem foods altogether. But a growing number of studies indicate that such an approach may someday be a thing of the past.

..."


Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1968474,00.html#ixzz0yc81UXq6

[HuckleB]

31. Doubt Is Cast on Many Reports of Food Allergies

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/health/research/12allergies.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

"Many who think they have food allergies actually do not.

A new report, commissioned by the federal government, finds the field is rife with poorly done studies, misdiagnoses and tests that can give misleading results.

While there is no doubt that people can be allergic to certain foods, with reproducible responses ranging from a rash to a severe life-threatening reaction, the true incidence of food allergies is only about 8 percent for children and less than 5 percent for adults, said Dr. Marc Riedl, an author of the new paper and an allergist and immunologist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Yet about 30 percent of the population believe they have food allergies. And, Dr. Riedl said, about half the patients coming to his clinic because they had been told they had a food allergy did not really have one.

..."

----------------

[Pathwalker]

36. My Grandmother wouldn't let any child under 8 eat any nuts whatsoever.

According to her, young children hadn't developed enough to handle them. No child in our etensive family was allowed to eat any nut, or nut butter until then. I don't know if this is simply an old wife's tale, or not, but no one in our family ever developed any allergy to nuts until my daughter-in-law scoffed at this notion, and my grandson, who ate peanut butter at 5, is allergic. Go figure. :shrug:

[HuckleB]

39. Most kids get nuts much earlier, and most kids don't have nut allergies.

I believe recent research has led to the AAP rescinding a prior recommendation, where kids who had a parent with asthma did not get nuts until age 3.

Anyway, remember, correlation is not causation. And, yeah, that was an old wives' tale.

[Pathwalker]

41. Is it possible that nuts are more readily available than they used to be?

As well as the wider availability of more varieties? Would that play a possible role?

[HuckleB]

42. It's certainly possible.

However, the data is sketchy, in general. As noted above, testing is fairly new, and it identifies almost all who have a nut allergy regardless of the intensity of the allergy. If a test is positive, the kid is presumed to have the anaphylactic variety, though it appears that the percentage of people with that intense level of allergy might be the same as it has been for some time.

But your point is definitely something for researchers to explore.

[Diclotican]

37. FirstLight

FirstLight

Have allways been allergic to the stuff, was really sick once as a little child, and even tho I survived it, I ended up in hospital for it when I was 2.. I cant stand it even today... Peanuts, peanut butter, you name it, cant stand it, even in small doses... I even have to avoid some chocolades, becouse they contend peanut in it...

But, it can be somewhat with everything else we put into our food, not all of the chemicals we put into the food, to make it taste better, or to make it look better is healty to our body.. It is sure to make children allergic to all typs of things...

Diclotican

[HuckleB]

43. Nut allergy children cured by new treatment

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5856994/Nut-allergy-children-cured-by-new-treatment.html