Allergies in babies and kids
I recall my OB doctor telling me that eating peanut butter during pregnancy could possible predispose my baby to nut allergies, but I did eat quite a bit of it.I don't want to minimize the danger of severe allergic reactions, but according to the article below, maybe we are going a little overboard.See also: www.getpregnantover40.com for more on having a healthy pregnancy and articles on foods for fertility
My daughter does seem to have quite a few food allergies, she gets hives, but gets over it. As time goes on, and she tries more foods, we find more and more things she's allergic to. Fortunately, she doesn't have a peanut allergy because she practically lives on peanut butter. I found this article amusing if nothing else - and it certainly is "food for thought". Read more:
A study of Jews of similar demographics and genetics in Britain and Israel found that British kids were 10 times more likely to have peanut allergies than Israelis. That's probably because Israeli kids have other things to be afraid of. I would like to see a study that measures one's increased likelihood of peanut allergies if you're an American kid named Oliver, Aidan, Spencer or Finn.
Parents may think they are doing their kids a favor by testing them and being hyper-vigilant about monitoring what they eat, but it's not cool to freak kids out. Only 20% of kids who get a positive allergy test result need treatment. And a 2003 study showed that kids who were told they were allergic to peanuts had more anxiety and felt more physically restricted than if they had diabetes. "It's anxiety-producing to imagine that having a snack in kindergarten could be deadly," Christakis said. Remember, this is a demographic so easily panicked that, equipped with only circles and dots, it invented an inoculation to cooties.
A few years ago, I was at a bar without food, so I started downing peanuts. Around the third bowl, I started coughing and felt this itchiness in the back of my throat, which I quickly treated with beer. Still, for a few minutes, I was convinced that a peanut allergy was about to kill me. If the beer had not made me forget the incident, I might have avoided nuts for the rest of my life. Or, worse, bored everyone at the table with my questions about nut allergies.
So bring back nuts to schools. If parents need to panic about a food, at least go with seafood allergies. Those fish sticks are disgusting.(www.latimes.com)
