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

[Anonymous]

My kids go to a peanut free school, my DCs best friend is allergic to gluten, 3 girls on my volleyball team have egg and dairy allergies, ect ect. When I was growing up I remember two or three kids in my whole GRADE who were lactose intolerant but thats it. Did the allergies not exist back then or did we just not realize them? Considering how deathly ill some kids feel when they eat say gluten for example, it seems unlikely that kids had these issues but they went unknown? When did these allergies become to prevalent? Just a curious mother here wondering how things got to be this way. Much love and support goes out to the moms who have to navigate the allergen world, it looks taxing and exhausting.

[Anonymous]

I think it's that AAP guidelines have grown more stringent and have actually backfired on us. As parents have been encouraged to withhold potential allergens from their kids until age 2, kids have actually grown more allergic. It's crazy. Now the AAP guidelines are changing, also frustrating, because those of us who followed them in the first place (and ended up with allergic kids) wonder if we should have just ignored them in the first place. Allergies have definitely increased ten-fold since I was a kid, and it's not just a coincidence.

[Anonymous]

They've increased. Here are some possible reasons:

--increase in C-section rate (babies born vaginally get more bacteria as they come through the birth canal)
--we are too "clean" as a society, so our body's immune system reacts to allergens instead of germs
--so much more processed foods all processed on the same factory machines = cross contamination of common allergens in everyone's systems
--GMO plants/crops that can feed the masses but aren't quite the same foods as their original breed

[Anonymous]

I agree with the previous pps.

[Anonymous]

I think the short answer is that allergies are much more prevalent now than when we were kids, and they don't yet know exactly why. There are several theories floating around, but none of them has emerged as "the" reason to my knowledge. My youngest has several food allergies and I never thought it would happen to me.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

I had severe allergies growing up. And I was born in '71.

[Anonymous]

I heard on WTOP recently that allergies in kids are up something like 60% from the 90's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They've increased. Here are some possible reasons:

--increase in C-section rate (babies born vaginally get more bacteria as they come through the birth canal)
--we are too "clean" as a society, so our body's immune system reacts to allergens instead of germs
--so much more processed foods all processed on the same factory machines = cross contamination of common allergens in everyone's systems
--GMO plants/crops that can feed the masses but aren't quite the same foods as their original breed

Hmmm I had never heard that C sections increased the chances of a kid being allergic. All 4 of my children were born via C section, and none have any allergies that we know of (youngest is 7 years old--so they've all eaten most of the common allergy foods like dairy, nuts, egg, etc.).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had severe allergies growing up. And I was born in '71.

The OP didn't say that *no one* had allergies growing up in the '70s or '80s, just that the incidence has increased tremendously. Which is 100 percent true. Your own isolated case does not belie that point.

[Anonymous]

I have relatives born in the 1940s and 50s with nut allergies and now have a child with a nut allergy. My relatives often talk about the trouble they had and how it's easier now.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Food allergy mom here. I definitely think that kids seem to be more diagnosed with allergies, but a fair amt will outgrow those allergies in their childhood, so it's not a lifelong issue for them (lucky), so perhaps we had friends who'd outgrown their allergies prior to us knowing them.

I also think that some of the testing could contribute to a rise in diagnoses. I hesitate to type this, because I fear it could make people more dismissive of allergies or make them tend to not believe in them. With my own child (not a single food allergy at all in our families' histories- it came out of nowhere), he tested positive via skin test to pecans and peanuts. We were told to avoid all treenuts, not just pecans, which we did, and I would always say he had TN/PN allergies. When he was retested, he showed nothing for pecans or any other treenut (still positive to peanuts). The allergist said it was possible he either was never allergic to pecans or that it was a mild allergy and he outgrew them, but for us to still avoid treenuts due to the correlation with tn and pn allergies. I used to still say he was allergic to tn, even though the test didn't support that, but now I say we avoid tn and hope that people still respect that. I know he's definitely allergic to peanuts b/c he's had both ingestion and contact reactions to them, unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.