Don't Eat That!

Food allergies present school challenges

I found the above article in the news feed I get from one of the local papers (ok, the local to Sebring area section of a Tampa newspaper). It prompted a question for me... What the heck is going on with this epidemic of food allergies?

The article states: "A 2012 report from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases noted that recent studies have found that almost 1 in 20 young children under the age of 5 years and almost 1 in 25 adults are allergic to at least one food."

While a young child in the Fifties, our concerns were with polio, measles, mumps, and various other ailments. We knew next to nothing about life-threatening food allergies. I knew no one with a nut, or other food, allergy and I can assure you I knew far more than 20 kids.

What the heck is going on? Did we just have large amounts of children die from food allergies in those days? I don't think so. Were we, in my little town, just lucky to not have a bunch of allergic children around? I don't think that either. Were the other problems (those diseases) hiding the huge number of at risk kids and adults? I can't imagine that.

I only knew of a few kids with allergies and none of these were life-threatening. Mostly just the usual issues with pollen resulting in sneezing and stuffiness.

But today we have allergies so bad that that some kids can't be anywhere near someone who has eaten shellfish:

[A Lake Placid mother's] first-grader, Thomas, has such a severe allergy to shellfish that coming in contact with someone who had eaten shellfish hours early will trigger a severe reaction.

We have to worry about serving peanut butter (a staple in my youth) at any gathering.

And it doesn't seem to be getting better... only worse.