Replies

First I have heard of this: story of a teenage girl who asked her mom to get her a "peanut sniffing dog" so she could go to school and not be at risk from her peanut allergy. Such a dog qualifies as a service dog and with one she will no longer be homebound.

Read it or watch the video--take your pick.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/money/news-article.aspx?storyid=38694

Anyone know more about this? One anecdote is not enough to establish this as a solution.

I frankly don't see how this would be helpful. There are peanuts in so many things the dog would be constantly alerting, and therefore useless.

I think the point is the child will always be at risk, and she needs to learn how to deal with the risk, and what to do if the worst happens

My child lives a normal life, he just asks a lot of questions before he eats anything, and carries a lot of epinephrine with him. I would hate to see these kids made invalids or homebound. I don't think that serves any purpose.

OK, now thats extreme.

Banning peanuts is one thing, but bringing in a dog to sniff is just nuts.

This is not really a good solution. The dog would be alerting all the time! So many foods have either peanut or peanut protein in them. Also, she'll be trusting her life to the actions of a dog, rather than taking responsibility for herself.

If you are allergic, your own nose can be much more sensitive than a trained hound, though it can be risky sticking your nose into peanuts. They are usually aromatic enough to give good warning before you commit to eating whatever it is. If you were to eat with me, you'd see me examine and sniff everything I eat.

Better to train the kid in how to cope with the allergy and learn to avoid peanuts in the first place, rather than rely on a dog.

If you are peanut allergic the world is a very different place- there are serious and possibly lethal health threats all over the place, some of them hidden. Well-intentioned people will try to talk you into eating very dangerous things, and some not so well intentioned people will try to trick you into eating poison for fun, or to be mean. The only way to survive in good health is to learn what the threats are and devise strategies to avoid them. Parents must teach the allergic kids, and the kids must learn (or get used to looking at ER cielings).

If you can take care of a dog on your own you can learn to read labels and not eat foods that people hand you.

Having said all that, if her dog gets her out of the house and back into the world, it's a good idea for her.

There's been lots of discussion on the thread about why so many people with peanut allergy- there is, I think, another factor at work and that is parents who are totally risk-averse. Not willing to accept any risk whatsoever, these parents try to make the entire world a safe place for their kids. This girl in the story is staying home from school because of peanuts? She and her parents apparently cannot accept the idea that there are peanuts all over the place. It's a risk, the kid is allergic, so face it.