Time magazine article on peanut allergies

[mama1803]

Thoughts?


http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...881985,00.html

[menomena]

oh man. i had to stop reading at the end of the first page. and we don't have an ANA rxns that i know of.

The doctor who equates children dying of beestings and peanut exposures and then claims that we don't remove flowers from school... not a congruous analogy doc. : bees don't leave a schmear of venomous oil everywhere they go, all day, all school year, indoors. harumph.

[lil_miss_understood]

If you can, keep going, nessa.
This is from the 2nd page:

So why are children making so much IgE these days? Part of the fault may lie in modern medical practices: with antibiotics and immunizations to protect against micro-organisms and parasites, children's immune systems may be getting weaker and even bored, with little or nothing to fight.

[mama1803]

The article made me angry too. I had to stop reading and then go back to it after I had calmed down a bit...:

My ds has an anaphalytic allergy to peanuts. He is 6 now and we got his diagnosis at 14 months. I am so tired of people telling me how it really isn't that serious and how I need to relax and that all the label reading is going overboard. The article points out that a very small number of people die due to peanut allergy as compared to flu, etc. and then goes on the say that precautions like airlines doing away with serving peanuts and schools having peanut free areas in the cafeteria are going overboard. Perhaps it is because of those precautions that there aren't more deaths due to peanut allergies.

[lil_miss_understood]

Originally Posted by mama1803

My ds has an anaphalytic allergy to peanuts. He is 6 now and we got his diagnosis at 14 months. I am so tired of people telling me how it really isn't that serious and how I need to relax and that all the label reading is going overboard. The article points out that a very small number of people die due to peanut allergy as compared to flu, etc. and then goes on the say that precautions like airlines doing away with serving peanuts and schools having peanut free areas in the cafeteria are going overboard. Perhaps it is because of those precautions that there aren't more deaths due to peanut allergies.

Didn't airlines get rid of peanuts *because* of a peanut-related death?

[mama1803]

I'm not sure

In fact, the last time ds flew it was on one of those airlines mentioned in the article that had a policy of creating a peanut free zone 3 rows around the allergic passenger. This was 1.5 years ago. We haven't flown since so I really don't know what the airline policies are these days.

The article was a bit conflicting in that it mentioned airlines doing away with peanuts as snacks and also stating that some airlines had a policy of making a peanut free zone around the allergic passenger.

[Juvysen]

Originally Posted by mama1803

In fact, the last time ds flew it was on one of those airlines mentioned in the article that had a policy of creating a peanut free zone 3 rows around the allergic passenger. This was 1.5 years ago. We haven't flown since so I really don't know what the airline policies are these days.

The article was a bit conflicting in that it mentioned airlines doing away with peanuts as snacks and also stating that some airlines had a policy of making a peanut free zone around the allergic passenger.

Do they ask other passengers not to bring peanuts there or something, maybe? As in, not bring their own snacks that contain peanuts? Because otherwise, how could they call it "peanut free"?

[Chinese Pistache]

I've had the magazine for a week, but I can't bring myself to read it, lol.