When we were growing up did we just not realize kids had allergies?

[Anonymous]

Mom with three allergic kids. I bet my money on the vaccine, which are made with allergens (eggs, nuts, milk, soy, corn, etc). My husband and I are not allergic at all, the different between us and our kids are the vaccines they are exposed to since day 1. This explains the world wide rising in allergies since from US to China, every baby is now injected with much more allergens then we were in the old days. I am not saying that vaccine definitely causes allergies. But for certain babies, allergens in vaccine may just be enough to trigger the allergies in them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think some allergies -- peanuts, strawberries, shellfish -- are real. The rest are just sensitivities that kids would grow out of a lot faster if they were exposed to the food more.

My best friend growing up was allergic to shellfish, but LOVED shrimp. She just put up with the mild itching until it eventually went away.

Your body can only adjust to something if it has a reason to.

Deadly, dangerous anecdote recounted above. No one should ever try to "get your body to adjust to something if it has a reason to" unless this "adjustment" is done in a clinical study with epinepherine at the ready. Food challenges are done in a doctor's office over a period of months and even then, the doses of the allergenic patient are carefully measured and increased.

I speak as a mom with two nut allergic children and as a person who has a lifelong, anaphylactic reaction to fish. Oddly, I am not allergic to shellfish, but I avoid it because I was told that the odds are against me that I could suddenly develop an allergy to shellfish. Usually, the allergic reactions are progressive. What begins as "just" itchy lips could progress during the next exposure/ingestion to "just" wheezing, vomiting and throat swelling...in other words, anaphylactic shock/death.

Also, if I could climb atop this soapbox for a second (uhhhhh)...we ALL need to make a distinction between "food sensitivity" and "allergic". Not the same. Just as a migraine is NOT a synonym for a bad headache, (food) allergy is not an all-encompassing word that means "dislike" or "sometimes gives me gas." Seriously, I've heard my own contemporaries describe their own "allergies" this way. Not the same thing.

Not to get into a pissing contest here, but I've also gotten the other extreme; a mom will ask "just how allergic my DC are." As in, what happens? And, what was the RAST test #? Oh, not allergic to aerated peanut dust? Not as severe as Larla's allergies, etc.

Thanks. I feel better now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
My very own anecdotal study...
I grew up in South America and did not even know peanut allergies existed until I moved to the US for graduate school. Same for gluten. I had a friend who was allergic to shellfish and a cousin with a very severe allergy to penicillin, but that was it.
I always figured that maybe I was just not paying attention, but now that I have children of my own I do pay attention and when we go visit we do summer camp and attend many birthday parties plus all my friends have kids and I have only heard of one child with lactose intolerance. Not once have I been told to restrict certain foods when I send in lunch.
I am not saying they don't exist, but allergies just don't seem as prevalent there.

BTW, I work with children and I am now fully trained to use an epipen because many of the children I work with have very severe allergies. So I am not making light of the issue.

Anyone know if the genetic predisposition to allergies is greater in populations of European origins? Or do people of South American origin, or South Asian (these are 2 populations I know of without a lot of allergies) who are second or third generation and raise their children pretty much according to U.S. guidelines have equal rates of allergies?

[Anonymous]

Growing up, I never heard of anyone who was allergic to peanuts. Probably would have been considered as unAmerican, as PB&J was such a lunchbox staple.

[Anonymous]

Growing up I got sick frequently, but i didn't have any allergies. In my twenties i became severely allergic to gluten (Celiac disease). I suppose i had it all along or had the gene for it, but didn't have the symptoms. It baffles me that i ate tons of bread and wheat as a kid and never got sick and now if I eat a trace of gluten I am very sick and hurting for three days. I have heard things like stress or viruses can trigger it, but i certainly had stress and viruses as a kid. And i did not get vaccines in my twenties. I wonder if it is GMOs. I have read things like celiac disease and crohn's disease became much more prevalant in the late 90s and early 2000s after GMOs were introduced in the mid 90s. Who knows, but it is interesting how many more people have allergies and celiac disease now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mom with three allergic kids. I bet my money on the vaccine, which are made with allergens (eggs, nuts, milk, soy, corn, etc). My husband and I are not allergic at all, the different between us and our kids are the vaccines they are exposed to since day 1. This explains the world wide rising in allergies since from US to China, every baby is now injected with much more allergens then we were in the old days. I am not saying that vaccine definitely causes allergies. But for certain babies, allergens in vaccine may just be enough to trigger the allergies in them.

I'm sorry to hear about your children's allergies and I hope they become better with time. That said, the current thinking is now that exposure to allergens *Reduces* allergies, it does not create them. So that theory just does not wash.

Besides, we've been vaccinating children for 50+ years and the allergy rise is much newer than this. Please, give the vaccine villainy a rest. It's dangerous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:some people believe the genetic modification of some foods, particularly grains have made people more intolerent. FOr that reason I do try to by GMO free when I can.
They do breed new grains to be pest resistant etc. I for one was pretty allergic to certain foods as a child that gave me rashes (more on the citrus and milk side).

My Dad (60s) had an egg allergy as a kid so it did exist. Growing up in the 1980s we ate plenty of processed food like orange cheeseballs and kids were not overweight nor as allergic to crazy things. Not sure....

So I think some of it may be changes in our food supply and the rest is just more awareness. People are more hyperfocused on their kids and get them tested and read more. We didn't even have the internet when I was kid.....

I avoid processed food by the big American companies as I do think the quality is poor these days with lots of fillers and who knows what else.

I agree with this. I think there is a "not really food" additives and the GMO is a problem. It is a problem for animals...Also I think there is overall more pollution and that lowers our resistance.

[Anonymous]

But my uncle, who is 65 is deathly allergic to nuts, pollen, bee stings.

[Anonymous]

I come from a family of people with allergies, back many generations (hayfever, environmental, animals, asthma etc). Interestingly no one had food allergies until my generation. Now a number of us have oral allergy syndrome and I have an allergy to milk protein. I also seem to react to other foods (intolerance, not allergy).

As a kid with severe allergies, I don't recall any other kids in my school with allergies. even the fact that I had serious asthma was a bit of an oddity. Certainly no one had food allergies that required any restrictions.

Something has changed for sure. I agree with others, probably increased exposure to environmental and food toxins, and we live far more unhealthy lives - a lot more time indoors, using technology, sedentary jobs, etc..

[Anonymous]

And we have zero intolerance for even minor discomfort. I know a tiny minority of people are truly allergic, but the other 98% are just sensitive and would probably get better given the chance to adapt.

[Anonymous]

OP here thanks for all the great responses! I will say that as an ex cross fitter the Paleo diet basically made me have zero tolerance for gluten but I do realize that wasn't an allergy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And we have zero intolerance for even minor discomfort. I know a tiny minority of people are truly allergic, but the other 98% are just sensitive and would probably get better given the chance to adapt.

I am the PP before you and I agree. Many of my allergies wouldn't have been called allergies a generation or two before. People put up with itching, abdominal discomfort and didn't even go get it checked out as it didn't get progressively worse. I think the actual confirmed prevalence of anaphylactic allergies (that could cause death) is between 1 and 2% of the population. So in a school of 500 that should be 5-10 kids with severe allergies - not 5 per class. People do often refer to intolerances and sensitivities as allergies as I they think that sounds more serious and that people will understand their decision not to eat whatever.

I do eat some of the foods I am allergic to, as most of my allergies are not life threatening. They just make me very, very, very itchy, some make my throat swell, and most make my mouth raw (like its being burnt with a hot drink). I can eat a little but the discomfort is too much to be able to eat enough for my body to ever have the chance to adapt. Other foods cause a full body response for me (still not anaphylactic) where I get hot, sweaty, dizzy, and I get immediate diarrhea. Most people I know don't eat foods that cause reactions and refer to these reactions as allergies. it is similar with meds - people get side effects with certain medications and think they are allergic. They aren't. i do eat foods I am allergic to because I like those foods and I have so many allergies that it is too limiting to avoid them all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here thanks for all the great responses! I will say that as an ex cross fitter the Paleo diet basically made me have zero tolerance for gluten but I do realize that wasn't an allergy.

This is true for many food categories - if you avoid them completely your body will react to a foreign substance. It can happen to people who move to a foreign countries and start a new diet (spicy food) or to vegatarians who end up eating meet again.

[Anonymous]

In many ways, it's like other things kids are diagnosed with. Many moons ago, boys who were fidgety were boys, now they are ADD, ADHD, etc. Some actually have it but as a society, we have to put a label on why you act a certain way. Growing up, I didn't know any kids who were autistic and now, we know several. What used to be a kid being a little different or not liking certain things now has a medical diagnosis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think some allergies -- peanuts, strawberries, shellfish -- are real. The rest are just sensitivities that kids would grow out of a lot faster if they were exposed to the food more.

My best friend growing up was allergic to shellfish, but LOVED shrimp. She just put up with the mild itching until it eventually went away.

Your body can only adjust to something if it has a reason to.

I've heard about this in reverse with adults who choose to go gluten-free (I am not talking about diagnosed celiacs here - that's a whole different story). Their bodies stop getting used to processing gluten, so if they try gluten again they feel much worse. It's not that they were allergic in the first place, it's that their digestive system became unused to gluten.

I can believe this. This is how my body reacts to red meat and pork now, as a vegetarian. I was never allergic to either, but I can no longer eat them because my body doesn't know how to process them anymore.