[FourtySeven]

With all due respect to those with children who suffer from this, or those with this condition themselves, but I don't understand this at all. It makes no sense that only in the last 10-15 years did this start to come about. I'm starting to wonder if this isn't misdiagnosis of some sort.

Granted, keeping people away from peanuts seems to keep the problem in check, but that doesn't necessarily mean that peanuts ARE the cause. Maybe there's some new form of mold or other microscopic organism that has started to grow with peanuts, perhaps on their outer shell or even inside the seed itself that causes the allergy. I would ask, "Has there been a study where PURIFIED peanut oil has been subjected to someone with this allergy?" That's the first question. There are slew of other questions that could be (and should have been) asked before this is definitively shown to be the cause of the allergy. (such as the questions asked later by Sabertooth in this thread) Additional questions also could be, "Are the parents, one or the other, always around when the "peanut allergy attacks" occur? Do they smoke? Do they work in industry?" It's possible that when TWO factors come together (like peanuts AND "X") that the allergy takes place. In other words, it's not just peanuts alone that cause this.

The reason I'm as doubtful as I am is because it simply makes no sense, from a biological standpoint, that only in the last 10-15 years this has become a problem. Allergies, for the most part, arise because early in life, when the child is first forming his/her immune system, they aren't exposed to a certain allergen in sufficient quantities as to form a proper immune response to them. Then later in life, when the immune system is "set in stone", and they are exposed to this allergen that they didn't properly deal with as a child, their immune system "overreacts" because it can't handle it properly.

THUS, since by all our understanding how allergies develop, we can't explain how a "new one" can form (unless new allergens are developed, BUT PEANUTS AREN'T NEW TO THE PLANET) ...since we can't explain how an "old allergen" can produce a "new allergy", it simply doesn't make any scientific sense.

For those who's family/loved ones suffer from this, my advice would be to take a serious look at your life, and determine EXACTLY what is going on when the allergy attack occurs. My guess is that for some it's merely psychosematic (sp?) and for others, while the biological response is real, it's an allergy to a combination of factors (the peanuts AND something else) or, to something as yet unidentified in peanuts that has only started to appear in peanuts in the last 10-15 years.

There's just no way that anyone can convince me that the same peanut that we've eaten for centuries is suddenly causing this. Something MUST be different.

[vabeachrepub]

You are right in that it is strange that it has only recently become a problem. I didn't know about it all until my son had his reaction. I don't know what you mean by misdiagnosis though. My son is definable allergic to peanuts and that allergy is life threatening. Fortunately through prudence on our part mainly he has only ever had one reaction. But we have had him tested every year and his allergy most certainly is to peanuts.

The only real link they have been able to find is to breast feeding. My wife used to snack on peanut butter crackers when breast feeding our son. Somehow the babies are not able to break down the protein when they are younger and that is what they think leads to the allergy - because the baby's body can't break it down the protein it treats it like a foreign pollutant. Over 85% of the kids with peanut allergies were breast fed.

[Your Nightmare]

Nobody is sure why the incidence of peanut allergies is increasing. There are theories. One suggests that the use of peanut oil in skin creams and baby lotion. Other suggest changes in our diet. Anyway, the incidence is increasing. One report stated that self-reported peanut allergies doubled from 1997-2002. About a third of emergency room patients treated for anaphylactic shock are due to peanut allergies. This is a real issue.

[Ditter]

I think you have something exactly backwards. You suggested maybe "kids are NOT exposed to allergens when they are very young" as the reason they become allergic. That is wrong. It is when babies are exposed to *too much* of an allergen when they are very young that they develop an allergy to it.
Of course, that applies to children who have inherited the allergic gene from their parents.

Your other point that there sometimes needs to be more than one allergen involved to cause the reaction can be correct.