I think antibiotics greatly contributed to my daughters allergies. My son is allergic to nuts, peanuts, sesame. Abs my daughter is allergic to 20+ foods. Given epipen several times. It’s a nightmare. I had three rounds of antibiotics in the third semester abs I think it contributed. I did not grow up on this continent. Neither did my husband. And we have always avoided chemicals in our home and ear mostly organic/grass fed. I don’t know what gives. Maybe not enough contact with dirt and animals? Something is terribly out of balance in this modern life.

Anonymous wrote:There's been quite a lot of research on the relationship between parasites like hookworms or parasite-derived products and allergies and other autoimmune diseases. It may explain the lower incidence of allergies and the like in poorer countries. Of course, there can be negative effects of these parasites. People buy hookworms and deliberately infect themselves. I once considered it.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5401880/

https://www.vice.com/en/article/mgby9y/parasites-by-post-the-online-black-market-for-therapeutic-worms

There’s a radiolab episode about this: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/episodes/91689-parasites

The miserable allergy sufferer goes to outhouses in Africa to infect himself with hookworms and voila, his allergies are gone!

I think lots of children with allergies in developing countries die young.

I might have fallen into this category. I grew up in a developing country. I was very ill as a child, and I was always covered in rashes as a baby. My parents took me to all kinds of doctors, and they could not figure out why. As I grew older the rashes disappeared and neorological symptoms gradually appeared.
It's all gone now with the avoidance of dairy and wheat. While my allergy tests turn up negative for these two( I was never tested until I was in my twenties), if I start consuming these two, all my symptoms return.

My daughters are allergic to wheat(one of them), dairy(both of them) and much more. We have done both blood and skin prick tests, and they all come back positive for the various allergies. My first suffered a lot as a baby; she had all kinds of rash; she would wake up at night screaming; her bum was usually red. But once we figured out what she was allergic to, all her symptoms disappeared. We learned a lesson with my younger one, and as soon as she started getting a rash, we tested for a food allergy.

I believe that I would have tested positive for allergies to wheat and dairy as a child. My children are allergic to these and their sympstoms include hives and trouble breathing.However, since I never got tested, I kept eating these things, and my immune system reacted in other ways. So now, I am not allergic to wheat and dairy, but I develop neorological symptoms from eating them (seizures, tingling underneath skin ).

Anonymous wrote:I once asked the smartest person I know, a scientist, this question. He thinks it's all the estrogen, between b control, plastics, soy, etc. Too much estrogen makes your immune system overreactive. All those things came on the scene on a major scale just as allergies began surging.

I mean, Americans aren't the only people in the world to use plastic or eat soy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one’s mentioned increased c-section rates. Something about vaginal birth is good for the baby’s gut, or so they say.

But there's no correlation with allergies and c-sections.

I lived in China. Food allergies are basically unheard of there even in the large cosmopolitan cities. I have a food allergy and had a great deal of trouble getting restaurant staff and locals generally to understand. China also has a sky-high C-section rate. Take from that what you will. Suggests there is not a connection.

Same for Brazil. One of the highest c-section rates in the world (if you're not poor and have access to good medical care, most women opt for c-sections) and their allergy rates are nothing like ours.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one’s mentioned increased c-section rates. Something about vaginal birth is good for the baby’s gut, or so they say.

But there's no correlation with allergies and c-sections.

I lived in China. Food allergies are basically unheard of there even in the large cosmopolitan cities. I have a food allergy and had a great deal of trouble getting restaurant staff and locals generally to understand. China also has a sky-high C-section rate. Take from that what you will. Suggests there is not a connection.

I have to say, I'm also Asian (Korean), and I don't know Koreans with any food allergies except for one. My DH is Italian and he can't believe how common food allergies are in America. I wonder if it has to do with the FDA regulations allowing certain ingredients or not.