Posted on 11/26/2005 12:21:14 PM PST by EveningStar
A Quebec teenager with a peanut allergy has died after kissing her boyfriend who had eaten a peanut butter sandwich hours earlier.
(Excerpt) Read more at ctv.ca ...
I had had an anaphylactic reaction to an IVP, and it was the scariest thing one could imagine; throat closed up, eyes swelled shut, couldn't breathe, etc., was literally suffocating. And couldn't get the attention of the doctor and tech, who had their backs turned. It is most certainly serious, and I nearly lost my life with medical help two feet away.
Some poor kid out on a date who doesn't get the shot immediately is in big, big trouble. I truly don't know if I could have given myself a shot before it was too late.
Fine - you continue on your ban-the-peanut crusade, then move on to sharp objects and paper cuts. The rest of us will just ignore the irrational loons.
Maybe, the doc just gave him some complicated theory.
Me and him, personally, think the doctor had no idea and was just quoting something he probably read.
For what its worth, my friends son, is pretty healthy, smart, and a good athlete so this hasn't had much affect on his day to day life (outside of having to carry his "emergencies").
He is also smart enough to not eat any thing unless his parents say so.
But it's inadequate & gives the kid a false sense of security - what if he's sitting next to a little girl who had a peanut butter & banana sandwich for breakfast, before she left her house? That was the rationale of the woman in Maryland.
Well, they better stay away from the Texas Roadhouse. There is a warning sign at the door. Peanuts and peanut dust are everywhere and the place is packed every night. Go figure.
Ah yes, the slippery slope nonsense.
Simply put, to many kids have allergies to peanuts, its lethal to them.
Naturally, you think kids should bring something that can kill their classmates to school.
Me saying, "hmmm, maybe we should be carefull that little kids don't have stuff that can kill other little kids".
Thats irrational?
Rrrrright.
Its a good point, but banning it is a minimum safety precaution.
I'll admit, I have an emotional tie to this, one of my good friends has a son with a peanut allergy.
I'll admit that I worry a little bit about him, banning peanuts from his school, to me is a wise thing (though before he got there, it was banned anyway).
Nonsense? Look, you're the one who wants Big Stupid Government to take normal food away from normal people.
That's like saying we need to ban cars because some kids run into the street without looking.
www.foodallergy.org
and
www.peanutallergy.com
are pretty good resources.
Also, sometimes using an Epi-Pen autoinjector and taking antihistamines just is not enough.
I'm so sorry this happened.
Tough for the kids who have the peanut allergies. It's a personal problem. They either need to stay home or eat lunch in a designated area, somewhat like those who smoke are banished.
In the real world, even before - let's say High School, should the 'no peanut' ban be continued so that say a Reese's peanutbutter cup is contraband? Perhaps a recent asian immigrant brings a traditional lunch from home which was cooked with heated peanut oil? Or a southerner brings pork rinds fried in peanut oil?
Where does it stop?
dvwjr
If I had a child who was that allergic, I wouldn't make his life someone else's responsibility. You just can't expect that no one in the school will ever bring peanut anything. Even if the principal sends Patty-the-PBJ-bringer home immediately, what did she touch before she left? If you read labels, peanuts are EVERYWHERE.
I don't like them, never have, the stench of an open jar of peanut butter used to drive me from a room, but I'm not allergic. I never thought George Washington Carver did us any favors proving they were edible.
Was he fed a soy-bean based formula as an infant?
Allergy. 1999 Mar;54(3):261-5. Related Articles, Links
A study on severe food reactions in Sweden--is soy protein an underestimated cause of food anaphylaxis?
Foucard T, Malmheden Yman I.
Department of Paediatrics, University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden.
BACKGROUND AND METHODS: Because of a fatal case of soy anaphylaxis occurring in Sweden in 1992, a study was started the following year in which all physicians were asked to report fatal and life-threatening reactions caused by food. The results of the first 3 years of the study are reported here, including results from another ongoing study on deaths from asthma during the same period. RESULTS: In 1993-6, 61 cases of severe reactions to food were reported, five of them fatal. Peanut, soy, and tree nuts seemed to have caused 45 of the 61 reactions, and four of them were fatal. If two cases occurring less than a year before our study started are included, we are aware of two deaths caused by peanuts and four deaths caused by soy. All four youngsters who died from soy anaphylaxis with asthma were severely allergic to peanuts but had no previously known allergy to soy. In most cases, there was a rather symptom-free period for 30-90 min between early mild symptoms and severe and rapidly deteriorating asthma. CONCLUSIONS: Soy has probably been underestimated as a cause of food anaphylaxis. Those at risk seem to be young people with asthma and peanut allergy so severe that they notice symptoms after indirect contact.
I don't really know, but I have read that one theory is that food allergy is on the rise as a result of the increase in asthma. The two seem to occur together.
This was not a problem when I was a kid.
Aw, cmon. You can't be that old. Peanut allergy was around before you were born.
That's VERY interesting - a friend of mine's daughter had problems with dairy formula, so they switched her to soy. Guess what kind of allergies she has?
About 30% of non-breast fed babies are put on soy formula. Peanuts and soy beans are related and this may indeed be behind the increased incidence of severe peanut allergy.
I think that if your kid has peanut allergies that bad, you don't go telling the school to ban peanuts -- you homeschool your kid or get him a private tutor. Telling an entire school system / community to ban any contact with peanuts is overkill.
That would be my thought. Why should my problem become everyone else's?
Do you know if there are any studies on the incidence of peanut allergies in vegan families vs. non-vegan? Vegans would exclusively use soy formulas, and they pretty much live on soy anyway, don't they? I see all those soy burgers, soy dogs, soy cheese (yuck and double-yuck!)at the grocery. I'm assuming pregnant vegan women would continue eating it, and that soy (or whatever the allergen in it is) might cross the placental barrier as well.
Many people are also allergic to bleach, gasoline, turtle wax, herbicides, plastic wrap, or boiling coffee. These substances are lethal to them.
Despite that lethality, the time tested approach of not eating the allergen in question has been and is remarkably successful at keeping deaths to a minimum.
What exactly is it about peanut butter that's different to demand a ban?
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