Quote:
Originally Posted by jammies
I'd say the "reality of the situation" is that peanut allergies aren't increasing, what's increasing is the hysteria about peanut allergies. Why do we never hear about any kids who have mild peanut allergies, it's always "OH MY GOD my baby is gonna DIE if s/he is within 200 metres of a peanut!" Yet very, very few kids (if any) DO die from the allergies, so how is that possible if they live in such mortal danger?
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My wife and I were pretty skeptical of our daughters diagnosis over the years. She gets tested every year and every year the doctor tells us that yes she is allergic to tree nuts. Last year in particular my wife told the doctor that our daughter had eaten a pasta sauce that we discovered had walnuts in the ingredients. She had no reaction what so ever. The doctor told us that she could be exposed to nuts 99 times with no reaction, but the 100th time could be fatal.
So I guess their is a lot of hysteria when it comes to food allergies. But how do you weigh the risk? I'm not one to panic, but this is the life of your child. Could you live with yourself if you blew the risk off as just a bunch of over blown scare tactics by doctors and your child died as a result? Personally I think the risk is low, so I'm not losing any sleep over it. It is real enough that I do pay attention to what she is eating (at the age of nine, she reads the label on everything she eats anyway).