Thread: What the Heck...For Real?!?!

I used to think the peanut ban in school was b#lls&!t. That is untill my son came home from school describeding a child in his class almost dying. It happend all because a classmate had peanut butter on their toast that morning and touched him in the afternoon. If it prevents harm to a child, I am more than willing to spend a few extra cents on my son's sandwich.


I don't know how widespread, but around here we have to send enough for two healthy meals/snacks (junk food is frowned upon) and they have two nutrition breaks instead of one lunch. The school board feels if they eat more often they will learn better.

Originally Posted by Hirlau

Wullie,
I think the point is the seriousness of the peanut allergy, itself.
I don't smoke , but I have never agreed with the general banning of smoking in establishments. If I walk into a place that I don't like the climate or service, I just go somewhere else.
I hate government restrictions as much as anyone, but I have no problem not sending the peanut butter sandwich to school.

I agree that any allergy of that type is a major deal. After reading a clarifying post, I think Trimmy's approach to his daughter's problem is prudent and I'm glad the school works with his daughter to see that her needs are met.

One of the many questions I have regarding the youth of today is WHY the massive outbreaks of asthma, hyper allergic reactions, autism, and cancers in children?

I'm 60 years old. I don't remember kids being sick in the numbers that are being reported these days.

What's changed? Where did we make a wrong turn?

Personally, I suspect food additives and the vaccines they are shoving off on us.

4 years ago it was verboten to give a pregnant woman flu vaccine. I heard on the radio today that EVERYBODY over the age of 6 months and in good health should GET THEIR FLU SHOT TODAY!!!

I'll pass on the flu shot and have a shot of tequila instead.

My wife breast fed

Originally Posted by Theseus

I can't find the article now, but I read a couple of years ago how the rise in peanut allergies might be related to the decrease in breast feeding. Not sure how true it is, but it certainly makes sense to me.

Originally Posted by Theseus

I can't find the article now, but I read a couple of years ago how the rise in peanut allergies might be related to the decrease in breast feeding. Not sure how true it is, but it certainly makes sense to me.

I suspect - and I'm not that kind of doctor - that there is no one single cause for the spike in allergies. All of the reasons frequently suggested seem plausible to me:

Reduced rates of breastfeeding: human physiology evolved for a heck of a long time on the understanding that we would start our lives with human milk as our primary food source. From it we gain not only nutritional value, but also antibodies, etc. It just makes sense to me that removing this from the equation could well have an effect on the development of one's immune system (amongst other things)

Overzealous hygeine: as we grow and our bodies encounter the things in the world around us, we learn how to deal with the 'stuff' that we encounter. As a result our immune systems learn and develop. Remove the little infections, etc., and you will surely compromise the body's ability to identify and deal with real threats

Environmental factors: we are all surrounded by stuff that simply didn't exist all that long ago. Phthlates and BPA are two examples we've heard a lot about recently. As Trimmy72 said, we are all exposed to all kinds of things with absolutely unknown long-term and cumulative effects. Could these effects include increased allergies? Again I can't say for sure, but I wouldn't bet against it.

I suspect that it is a result of a combination of these and other factors, and not a simple single cause.

Originally Posted by Trimmy72

My wife breast fed

My mother breast fed me till I was 5 years old, my girlfriend took over at 21 years.

Originally Posted by Trimmy72

My wife breast fed

Like I said, I don't know how true it is, it just sounds like one of the more plausible explanations.

Originally Posted by Hirlau

My mother breast fed me till I was 5 years old.....

Oh dear....

Originally Posted by Ryan82

Oh dear....

You know, as soon as I started to write a comment involving breast feeding, I thought "I wonder who will be first to run with this one in a whole other direction?"

And the winner is: Hirlau!

this was from the article that started the thread I'm quoting "Over the span of a decade, reports of kids with peanut allergies have spiked by 18 percent, according to the CDC. Today, about 1 in 25 children suffer from the condition" I'm getting about 17 out of this if I use 446 as an avg. school size

Originally Posted by gssixgun

I was just reading and confirmed that number too..

The overall average size of Elementary schools in the US is 446 so the discussion about allergies concerns less then 6 students per school at the most...

The best guess for the advent of more allergies seems to be the Hygine Hypothisis right now, the cleaner a society is the more allergies it has...



Any way just some numbers

Originally Posted by Cangooner

I suspect - and I'm not that kind of doctor - that there is no one single cause for the spike in allergies. All of the reasons frequently suggested seem plausible to me:

Reduced rates of breastfeeding: human physiology evolved for a heck of a long time on the understanding that we would start our lives with human milk as our primary food source. From it we gain not only nutritional value, but also antibodies, etc. It just makes sense to me that removing this from the equation could well have an effect on the development of one's immune system (amongst other things)

Overzealous hygeine: as we grow and our bodies encounter the things in the world around us, we learn how to deal with the 'stuff' that we encounter. As a result our immune systems learn and develop. Remove the little infections, etc., and you will surely compromise the body's ability to identify and deal with real threats

Environmental factors: we are all surrounded by stuff that simply didn't exist all that long ago. Phthlates and BPA are two examples we've heard a lot about recently. As Trimmy72 said, we are all exposed to all kinds of things with absolutely unknown long-term and cumulative effects. Could these effects include increased allergies? Again I can't say for sure, but I wouldn't bet against it.

I suspect that it is a result of a combination of these and other factors, and not a simple single cause.

there are many posts in this thread that I agree with but this one combines many.

Breast feeding got me in trouble when I was in a child rearing class that was required wen I had my daughter. I Compared breast feeding to my experience being raised on a farm. We kept frozen colostrum ready for any newborn that lost its mother. That transferred the antibodies to the newborn and greatly increased their chance of survival. When I brought that up I was almost banned from the classroom.

As far as hygiene goes i think that we need a little bit of things at a time. I liked to see my kids eat dirt and expose themselves a little bit at a time to all the bugs in the world. This leads to my thinking of the "perfect" sterilization" of our food source that many are now use to now a days. I was raised to and still preserve many of the things that I eat. They may not be perfect but it builds up our resistance so that when we catch a really "Bad" bug we have a chance. Our modern drugs a lot of the time not only kill the bad things. [bacteria}but also kill the good bacteria.

As far as allergies to peanuts or diabetes for example modern medicine is creating a whole new set of problems. Not long ago these people would die before they could pass those genes on to their offspring. This naturally solved the problem but we have interfered and stopped natural selection.

Tim