[Xenalyte]

Y'know, I am 35 years old and attended public school all my life. I never knew one child who was allergic to peanuts. My sister is 32 and my brother is 28, and I asked them - they remember no such allergy.

If it's real, what made it happen in the '80s?

[AzSteven]

40 years old - been allergic to peanuts since I was about 10. I can, however, eat small amounts of peanut butter, but it has to be creamy and low in oil content. Prior to 10, I ate peanuts all the time. Why can't you get an allergy to stuff that you don't like? Seems unfair...

[TLI]

I have never seen or heard of anyone I know or anyone they know that had this..

[DB]

Its very real.

And very deadly.

Personally I think the teacher should have another profession instead of forcing her situation on hundreds if not thousands of others.

[vin-one]

early exposure to peanuts prior to being above 1 year old....

So I have been told.....from what I understand it is rare, but that is the reason arilines don't serve peanuts anymore.......

[Cobra Scott]

Peanut allergies are very real, and can be fairly deadly. They have been known for at least 50 years. It is one of the "real" allergies worth considering safeguards for, if you are the one with the allergy. But this is plain dumb. Either charge the child with conspiracy to commit murder (and prepare to be ridiculed) or have a quick sit-down with the parents and that should be the end of it.

[humblegunner]

If it's real, what made it happen in the '80s?

Jimmy Carter??? (1977-1981)

[Glenn]

If it's real, what made it happen in the '80s?

It's very real. My daughter, who is 4, has been to the ER three times after being exposed to whatever it is in peanuts that causes the reaction. She's not a pretty sight when it happens.

My wife and I take it in stride. We make sure she takes the responsibility for what she puts in her mouth instead of making the world conform to her. (I don't trust the world to watch out for my kid.) It's worked well for us. She does a firm but friendly interrogation of food contents.

[Nataku X]

Peanut butter has not been a staple for *that* long. It seems to be caused by an overexposure at an early age, so if kids have been munching on PBJ since the 50s, it stands to reason that these allergies wouldn't begin popping up in large numbers until the PB-loving Baby Boomers started having children.

I've heard anecdotes of mothers ingesting ungodly huge amounts of PB while pregnant and then giving birth to peanut-butter-allergic kids. It seems to be an immune reaction. Everything in moderation...

[EllaMinnow]

When Nutter Butters are outlawed, only outlaws will have Nutter Butters.

Now I'm starting to crave some...

[Poohbah]

It is rare, usually brought about by exposure to peanuts or peanut products as an infant, particularly if said infant was not nursed. The reaction can be fatal.

This threat should have been responded to with premeditated self-defense on the teacher's part.

[Texagirl4W]

This IS a real threat. My 8 year old nephew is so allergic that he has a portable nebulizer with him at all times that he knows how to use if needed. His mother bought a portable one after he had a reaction in an airplane. Airplanes don't have electrical outlets for passengers to use. The pilot called ahead to have paramedics meet the boy at the plane. This may be rare but it's real.

[LanPB01]

Well, I don't know anyone that personally suffers from the peanut allergy, but there was a scene in "The DaVinci Code" where it was used to murder someone.

[AppyPappy]

I am 35 years old and attended public school all my life. I never knew one child who was allergic to peanuts.

That's because they all died from Nutter Butter poisoning before you could meet them.

[Jadge]

When I was in college, we had huge party in our NYU dorm/apartment. The party was busted by an RA, and one of first things said to us in the scolding was "parties like this cannot be tolerated, because a student could get drunk and mistakenly consume food containing peanuts, triggering an allergic reaction resulting in death." Apparently, that happened once and NYU got sued.

On a similar note, my boss's daughter is highly allergic to peanuts and cannot even ingest dust from cracked peanut shells. It is real.

[Twinkie]

I know. You used to never hear of any such thing.
Maybe it's the pesticides they spray on the crops
in storage or in the fields.

[nina0113]

I think it's partly something to do with whatever they changed in peanut butter - in the 60's it was utterly disgusting, thick and grainy and I hated it. The current stuff is pretty good. I think another factor is that because there are peanuts in absolutely everything these days, early childhood exposure is almost unavoidable.

I read an article a couple of years ago about a woman whose child was deathly allergic (and was insisting that no child who attended the same school with hers should be allowed to bring peanut butter sandwiches for lunch) who had had such severe "morning" sickness that the only thing she could keep down was peanut butter - she ate a jar a day.

I'm 44 and didn't start hearing about peanut allergies till maybe ten or fifteen years ago.

[tiki]

When I was 4 my brother's witnessed a boy die in the cafeteria because of peanuts, that was 1957.

[Jim Noble]

If it's real, what made it happen in the '80s?

It's real, and nobody knows.

A good theory is that universal immunization, by preventing early childhood diseases, leaves that little immune system all dressed up with no where to go. Sometimes, that immune system locks onto peanut antigen to attack (instead of the measles it's designed for), and you have a problem.

My oldest daughter has it, and in her case it's quite severe, unfortunately.

[hardhead]

Me too. I and everybody I knew, grew up eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and munching on a bag of fresh roasted.

Its obviously a conspiracy by Jimmah Cahrter!

[madison10]

I'm ten years older than you, never knew of anyone allergic to peanuts or products related. However, I've met at least one child in the past year who has an extreme reaction to peanuts, peanut butter & anything related. She knows enough not to eat cookies unless she is sure.

Why does it seem the allergy just popped up? Good question. Maybe it has something to do with the processing either in the field or factory.