Also posted here
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1313659/posts
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,143260,00.html
Try this link, that one didn't work for me
Jeez... Can't they just give the one kid some Allegra?
Has anyone else noticed a similarity between these peanut allergy fanatics and liberal PC mongers? I'm not saying that the allergy is psychosomatic, but I can't understand why society has to change for this.
I'm still irate that there are no peanuts on airplanes anymore.
I thought the words "peanut gallery" were found to have a racist background a few years back. The school had better not call it that or they might offend someone.
Additionally, that poor first grader is likely to develop a case of "peanuts envy".
Both of my sons have severe food allergies....peanuts and fish. The only way people can object to the "peanut gallery", is if they don't understand what a food allergy can do to a person. My oldest son almost died from having his throat close up after TOUCHING (not eating) a peanut butter sandwich in the cafeteria. Some people get extremely sick just from SMELLING peanut butter. Until one has had to have their kid (themselves or someone they love) rushed to the emergency room choking and gagging for air while completely covered in huge hives, they may not understand the seriousness of food allergies. I think this is a good idea. My youngest son's school will not allow peanuts or peanut butter on the premisis. As a parent, I am relieved.
Some children are allergic to dust, lets ban going outside. Some children are allergic to rubber lets ban ball playing. Let's just ban being a kid because someone someplace might be allergic to something.
Yeah, I'm old...
FMCDH(BITS)
The Peanut butter thing is just the latest fiasco. Lets look at the ADFA act. The bill that was passed for handicapped. How much has that bill cost the USA. All the sidewalks torn up and ramps put in , anyone who goes into business building handicapped toilets and having wider aisles for wheelchairs the urinals lowered so now half the urine goes in the floor. The ADA act is a ridiculous answer.It goes on and on automatic doors for the handicapped, special busses. Things that cost millions and are seldom if ever used.
We really need school vouchers and choice.
Why don't they just paint a red "P" on the kids who bring peanut butter so the rest of the kids can look and point and say, "Killer!! You're trying to kill that peanut allergy kid! Murderer!"
Why can't the ONE person go somewhere else? Not a rhetorical question, I really want to know why.
This is one allergy that appears to be unforgiving. Deadly reaction that occurs VERY quickly.
Sorry, but this kid isn't part of a fringe group. He or she (I'd don't remember which now) is part of a group that could drop dead from slight expsure to peanuts. Now, imagine this is YOUR child.
I IMAGINE that if this were my child, I would IMAGINE that a public school cafeteria would be a place of possible exposure, and I IMAGINE I would not put my child in said public school cafeteria. I don't IMAGINE that I would expect the whole dang world to be inconvenienced on behalf of my child.
Taking parental responsibility for my own child's well-being rather than hand it off to the Government; IMAGINE that!
Side Note: I attended this very elementary school as a fifth-grader the first year it was open (back in the early seventies) and remember the cafeteria well. Oops! Giving away my age, lol!
A little googling reveals that about 0.5% of children have a peanut or treenut allergy. That's 1 out of 200.
Approximately 0.1% of children have a severe peanut allergy that produces severe or life-threatening symptoms. That's 1 out of 1000 children.
That gives context to the conversation.
Actually, peanut allergies can be deadly. If there's only one student with a severe allergy, it would make more sense to give him or her an isolated lunch area. It might make the kid feel bad, but it will keep him/her alive. Just doesn't make sense to set up a "peanut gallery". Sounds like more liberal idiocy at work in OUR schools.
And to maintain their acquired tolerance, those children should not only be allowed, but encouraged, to eat peanut products on a regular basis, as counter-intuitive as that sounds.
http://www.jewishtimes.com/scripts/edition.pl?now=5/25/1999&SubSectionID=30&ID=4420
Dr. Robert Wood Uncovers New Information About Peanut Allergies
Phila Hoopes Special to the Jewish Times
DECEMBER 31, 2004
For novelist Dan Brown, it was a diabolical murder weapon to dispatch a wayward accomplice in "The Da Vinci Code." For the parents of one in 125 children, by a 2000 study, peanut allergies are a cause for ceaseless vigilance.
Each year, peanut allergies account for nearly 100 deaths and 15,000 visits to emergency rooms, roughly half the number of deaths and ER visits caused by all food allergies combined, according to the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network.
Estimates are that peanut allergies affect approximately 1 to 2 percent of young children and 1.5 million Americans overall. The allergy can be triggered by as little as 1/1,000th of a peanut.
But of the children affected, roughly 20 percent may outgrow the allergy by the time they are 5 or 6 years old, says Dr. Robert Wood, a pediatric allergist at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center. And to maintain their acquired tolerance, those children should not only be allowed, but encouraged, to eat peanut products on a regular basis, as counter-intuitive as that sounds.
Dr. Wood, the study's senior author, and his research team published this finding in the November issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. The recommendation to return peanuts to a formerly allergic child's diet is not made lightly.
It is possible only after the child clearly shows a high degree of tolerance as indicated by three increasingly stringent levels of testing: a blood test in which the child's blood is mixed with a peanut product in a test tube and tested for antibodies; a skin test, in which a small amount of a peanut product is placed on or under the skin and monitored for reactions; and, finally, a lab test in which the child actually ingests a small amount of peanut products and is watched for reactions.
"Ultimately, the only true indicator is to have the child eat the food in a controlled setting," Dr. Wood said of a procedure called a "food challenge."
All possible precautions are taken. If the child scored high in antibodies during the blood test, for example, this final test is not offered. A child with a low score on the blood test, however, moves on to the next two levels of testing.
If the child has outgrown the allergy, the information does not always change a peanut-free way of life. "Some children still decide not to eat peanuts, or their families simply never reintroduce peanuts to their diet," said Dr. Wood.
A major factor in this choice is the fear associated with the allergy, that there might be a risk of recurrence, with more severe reactions.
Adding some weight to that fear is a recent New York study indicating that some patients — between 5 and 10 percent of the study sample — apparently outgrew and then reacquired their peanut allergies.
Dr. Wood says few studies have been able to clearly assess the rate of recurrence because many formerly allergic children tend to avoid eating peanuts. Dr. Wood himself looked at the possibility of recurrence and found it "extremely rare" to get back an allergy that has been outgrown, whether peanuts or another food.
"As we thought about it, however, we realized that the difference between a peanut allergy and, say, a milk allergy, is that even if the child doesn't like milk, it is possible still to eat milk products — ice cream, cheese and so forth — while if the child doesn't want to try peanuts, they probably won't be added to their diet," he said.
Paradoxically, however, the Hopkins study indicated that limiting exposure to peanuts once the ingestion challenge has been passed actually increases the risk of reoccurrence. A child who eats small quantities of peanut products, irregularly, is at higher risk of becoming allergic again than a child who eats larger quantities on a more frequent basis.
"The immune system develops a tolerance," said Dr. Wood. "Eating large amounts of the protein helps the system to remain tolerant."
Thus, he continued, once the allergy is outgrown, it makes sense for the child to eat peanuts on a regular basis. To prevent the risk of reacquiring the allergy, Dr. Wood recommends the child should eat peanut products at least once a month. If not a peanut butter sandwich, then the food item could be shelled peanuts or peanut candy.
But there is still a need for regular monitoring to ensure the child's safety, at least for a year or two after the allergy is outgrown. Parents of a child who is being reintroduced to peanuts in the diet are urged to keep an epinephrine injection with them at all times.
In a related study, Dr. Wood looked at other food allergies. He found that no foods were more or less likely to cause an allergic reaction. For example, reactions to eggs were just as common as they were to peanuts.
Dr. Wood also found that, without a definitive diagnosis from a food challenge, children may unnecessarily be avoiding foods with significant nutritional benefits like milk and eggs.
"We hope this information helps families make a more informed decision," Dr. Wood said of the studies.