peanut allergies and school bans

[nadine_mn]

I was reading an article on Msn.com about school-wide bans on peanut butter
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26124593/?GT1=43001

and I am just flumoxed for lack of a better term. I don't doubt for a second the seriousness of food allergies and the idea of having to constantly monitor food products because you could become fatally ill is awful.

But I am just stunned by the lethality of peanuts...that by touching a table that had peanut butter on it (and wasn't cleaned properly) then touch their face, students with peanut allegies can become seriously ill.

Its not that I don't believe it happens... its just so hard to comprehend how widespread it has become. When I was a kid, food allergies were pretty rare and not nearly as serious (or maybe it just seemed that way). But according to the article, the number of kids born with this lethal reaction to peanuts is on the rise.

I don't get it - why? Why the increase and why the increase in lethality of allergies? Seems that more and more people are allergic to more and more things. My husband has the usual allergies to pollen and stuff and he is miserable this time of year - cutting the grass is misery for him. I admit I am pretty lucky - no allergies so I am not as sympathetic as I should be.... it just seems so wrong to be allergic to the world around you. (for potential flamers... I am not doubting or blaming those with allergic reactions...)

So my questions are these: Are school-wide bans on food products like peanuts a good idea? What theories are there for the rise in allergies and devasting reactions?

The other disturbing thing in the article is how mad and nasty other parents are to those who support the ban...like being able to have PB&J sandwiches is some type of right they are being deprived of (meanwhile our civil rights are tossed in the toilet... if those parents could only rechannel their outrage)

[mainegreen]

1. I see you missed the school peanut ban flame wars in GD, eh?

My thoughts: total bans are not a good idea. Classroom bans, below a certain age, but a some point you need to start raising kids in the real world, and in the real world there are peanuts. Peanuts everywhere.

[nadine_mn]

7. ooh I try to stay away from GD... when I burn I smell like bacon

flamewars scare me

:scared:

[LibertyLover]

2. My daughter's pediatrician has a theory

that kids today are not introduced to foods like peanuts early enough for their immune systems to work on responses. She is also not a big fan of the constant washing of hands with the antibacterial non-water cleaners. My daughter was adopted from China. We got her when she was 16 months old and eating pretty much anything that didn't eat her first. The province she came from uses peanuts in cooking and so she had been eating them from early on. She was not raised in spotless, aseptic conditions either. A few months after we got home with her, we were at a holiday party and ran into friends with a daughter just a month older than our kidlet. Ours was happily eating nuts and chattering 18 to the dozen. Our friends were horrified that we let our daughter have nuts at her age because their pediatrician won't let children have them until they are at least 3 and prefers 4. Now, the choking issue aside, which I do understand, and worried about when Boo was younger, what the heck? I know that I was eating nuts and peanut butter sandwiches at a young age - my mom loved peanut butter. Our friends' daughter is now allergic to peanuts and several other foods that their pediatrician didn't want children introduced to until they were 3 or 4. We haven't found a food that our daughter is allergic to.

As for school lunches and banning peanut butter, it annoys me, I have to confess. There are days that a pb&j sandwich is what my daughter wants and since it's cheaper than having her buy her lunch in school or use those damned expensive prepacked Lunchables, I want to be able to let her take one for lunch. So far her school hasn't banned PB&J, but I suspect it's just a matter of time. I'll comply but I won't like it.

[MicaelS]

4. I've also heard the theory

That the sensitivity to peanuts is due to the use of baby oils containing peanut oils. What do think about that?

[Chan790]

5. I hadn't heard that...

but honestly I have doubts only because baby oil (products sold as "baby oil", not moisturizers or anything other than "baby oil") is one of the more regulated products on the market in terms of content. It's mineral oil plus one of a very-limited number of scenting agents, none of which is plant-derived. Thus, it shouldn't contain peanuts. (I do have concerns with the idea of rubbing petrol-distillate on newborn's bums...but people have been doing it for over 100 years with no known side-effects or complications.)

This is a great segway though to an actual known danger of baby oil...never leave it out in the open where small children can get it in their mouths. If aspirated, it coats the insides of the lungs and cannot be removed. It causes suffocation and lipoid pneumonia (in smaller quantities) and is completely-untreatable. Literally, there is nothing that can be done. In either case, nearly 100% lethal. So...never leave baby oil lying around and if possible move it to a child-proof container.

[MicaelS]

11. Wow never heard of that

Makes sense, though.

[LibertyLover]

17. Could be,

I really didn't use baby oil on the kidlet so I don't know.

[nadine_mn]

8. I am a big believer in exposure to germs to reduce allergies

my anecdotal evidence is that my husband was raised by a very neat freak, super cleaning overprotective mom and was never allowed to play in dirt or mud, be around pets (too much hair), etc. I, on the other hand, had dogs since I was a baby (sharing my toddler bed), was encouraged to roll around in as much muck as possible (ok maybe encourage isnt the right word). My mom's take on parenting is that a little blood and dirt never hurt anyone.

My husband... allergies, needed shots weekly when we lived in IA, got better when we moved back to MN. Me... no allergies... traumatic childhood memories yes, allergies no.

I just don't understand the allure of an overly sanitized environment.


On another note, I saw some little kid pitching scar removal cream... what???? Man when I was a kid scars were the ultimate in coolness - we picked our scabs to make bigger scars. Damn shame what kids are becoming.

[Arkansas Granny]

15. I tend to agree with your pediatrician's theory. When I raised my children,

back in the late 60's and early 70's my pediatrician had me introduce my kids to foods at a much earlier age than I hear mothers talking about now and none of them has any food allergies at all. I can't remember exactly how old they were when I first gave them peanut butter, but he had no restrictions on foods past one year of age so I'm certain they were eating it by that time. I hadn't even heard about dangerous peanut allergies until my daughter had school age children.

[LynneSin]

3. I'm so torn with this issue - if not for PBJ sandwiches I would have starved in school

I shit you not!

[fight4my3sons]

22. my son too

peanut butter and fluff every day. He refuses to eat the hot lunch. He is very picky and peanut butter is a protein, so pb&f on wheat it is. He has to sit at a seperate table at the new school that he is starting at this year (we moved a week ago), but he does not care. If I could not send it he literally would not eat.

[NJmaverick]

6. My theory is that you have many things contributing to these increased

You have kids with weaker genetics because of the following

1) Later life kids
2) Kids from parents that used illegal drugs
3) Better medicine that are keeping kids alive, who would have died in an earlier era.

Some people claim it's the result of all the germ free and germ killing products. I would counter that kids are getting plenty of exposure to germs, thanks to the daycare systems.

To qualify, these are all theories based on intuition and are not backed up with facts or evidence.

[MountainLaurel]

13. Don't forget GM foods

That you don't even know you're eating.

[Kali]

9. I missed the flame wars on this too

seems to me the combination of attempting to raise young children in a "sterile" environment (no good dirt and contact with other humans (see long thread on touching babies from a few days ago) along with the other chemical stressors in the environment from pollutants, to ingredients in processed foods, to those same goddammned antibacterial cleaning agents, and the fact as mentioned above that in times passed those severely allergic individuals would have died.

Remember that the primary cause of our so-called increase in life expectancy is infant/child survival, not adults actually living longer.

[Tektonik]

10. Until a solution to stop or alleviate peanut allergies is found I agree with the bans

It sucks, but it's necessary.

[mopinko]

12. our immune systems are falling apart. pollution? dunno

do know that many autoimmune diseases are skyrocketing, and allergies are hyper-immune disorders as well.
i have heard the "too clean" hypothesis, and let me tell ya, that was not the case in my house, or the house i was raised in. but, i was raised in a very, very polluted place, which is a multiple sclerosis hot spot.
there are a lot of hay-wire immune systems in my family. my ancestors were all hale and hardy peasants.

i think we have just messed up this planet.

[hippywife]

14. I think it's the food, among other things.

Michael Pollan posits that the over use of pesticides and herbicides in American agribusiness has kept the plants we eat from developing their own defenses against the enemies in their natural settings. Fruits and veggies that are grown this way have many fewer nutrients than they should, too. Many of these defenses could also be the keys to forming the nutrients we need in our diets. In addition, so many of our fruits and vegetables are picked too early and artificially ripened enroute to market. They don't have a chance to mature and develop the full set of nutrients they are supposed to contain as they would if allowed to ripen fully and naturally.

Plus there are too many people eating and feeding fake food to their kids these days. Their little systems can't discern what the hell they're eating but it isn't real food and it isn't real healthy.

[cprompt]

16. for the 2nd year in a row

my son has this girl in his class that has this allergy. We got a notice the first night stating nothing with peanuts of any kind are allowed in the classroom. He was upset she ended up in his class again since PBJ is his favorite food in the world but he understands. I agree with a classroom ban but not a schoolwide ban.

Peanuts are very common in a great deal of food that school age children eat. Not that having PBJ sandwiches, trail mix, or granola bars is a right kids are being deprived of, but I don't agree with a policy in which 450 kids have to go without something common in the real world to accomodate one child.

[Rabrrrrrr]

18. Too much chemical shit in the world, too much antibacterial soaps, too much pesticide and fertilizer

and too much "OMG MY PRECIOUS LITTLE BABY MIGHT BE EXPOSED TO A GERM SO LET'S STERILIZE STERILIZE STERILIZE SZTERILIZE EVERY FUCKING THING THAT THEY MIGHT EVER TOUCH OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG" and then handing the little bastards a nice styrafoam cup of juice that's 50% high fructose corn syrup and 25% shit made out of petroleum and 10% water and 0.00001% anything that they actually SHOULD be consuming.

[SmokingJacket]

19. My kid's TEACHER was allergic to PB, so I switched to

sunflower seed butter. Hey, it actually tastes better! Goes great with jelly.

I don't get why allergies are getting worse, either.

[The2ndWheel]

20. I'd say evolution doesn't go in a straight line in an upwardly diagonal direction to the right

toward a goal.

More of a 360 degree type thing. No matter what we do, we can't escape.

[Gormy Cuss]

21. Serious peanut allergies do need bans in order for the child to attend a regular school.

Many children have much milder nut allergies and for them it's a matter only of keeping them from eating peanut butter and food with nuts.

If there's a student with a severe nut allergy it's a modest accommodation to alert other parents and educate their children on the reason for the ban. I think it's an unreasonable accommodation to expect or even allow school officials to search backpacks and lunches for peanut butter products.

It's also a good idea to have the teacher and other school staff equipped with epi-pens and trained to use them (provided that the student's parents have authorized such an intervention.)

[qb]

23. My son has a severe peanut allergy and his school took a reasonable approach.

They took peanuts/peanut butter off the school menu (Peanut butter is allowed in home-prepared lunches).
No peanuts in the classroom.
They set up a peanut-free table.
Children in my son's classroom wash their hands after lunch.
Teachers & lunchroom aides are trained in emergency response (epi-pen, 911, etc.)

We were so diligent at preventing any exposure his allergy tests came back negative a couple of years ago. His allergist at the time said we could stop being so diligent about reading ingredient lists. We still avoided peanut products. His allergy came back with a vengeance. A different allergist said occasional exposure to trace amounts re-sensitized him and regular ingestion of peanuts would have kept the allergy away. The fear factor is enough to nix that idea, but I wish I had known about the risk from trace amounts. If we had continued to avoid them he would probably be at a lot less risk today.