Jezebel 
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New York, 8:41 PM
Thu Nov 26
3 posts in the last 24 hours
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07/20/09
I was stunned when I learned that at 20 years old, my friend finally realized she could try pizza! Poor thing was missing out on a lot of tasty food for no good reason...
So yeah, I know many people do have real allergies, but I'm sure many more also just think they do either out of hypochondria, misunderstanding of science, or both.
07/20/09
I think that sometimes people claim to have injuries/conditions that are more severe then that person actually has just to get attention.
In addition to the normal dust/pollen stuff, I am also allergic to celery and soap. The only time I complain about my allergies is at the Kiehl's store. Outside of that, I just suck it up.
If you are not going into anaphylaxis, you can deal with a little discomfort.
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I'm sure there are some people who will literally go into cardiac arrest if they eat a peanut. But others who don't have it as bad, or who have hovering and overanxious parents, aren't helping the ones who are really really allergic.
07/20/09
I recently went into for two series of allergy testing (one scratch testing session, and then one subcutaneous [in which allergens are injected just under the skin] session to the things my scratch test didn't react to), because in the past six months I have had two anaphylactic reactions to foods I have eaten regularly my whole life (and still do). During the first session, I reacted positively (my skin did) to peanuts, soy, legumes and lima beans (which, for some reason, they test separately). However, when I eat those foods I DO NOT react (I had green beans two hours ago, peanut butter last night, etc. etc.) -- my allergist classifies them as "non-symptomatic allergies."
When we were discussing this, he asked me if I'd ever had any itching in my mouth when I eat fresh foods. I do. I have been severely allergic to tree pollen and other various spring pollens since I was a baby -- in the spring I look like the "before" picture in allergy medicine ads, except I'm taking five medications. He told me that people with severe pollen allergies, like I have, sometimes react to fresh fruits and vegetables (fruits, in my case, because I am allergic to trees) because of the pollen content in and on them. It's called Oral Allergy Syndrome. There's a decent chance that my anaphylaxis wasn't anaphylaxis at all, but instead a systemic pollen reaction.
I can't even imagine how many kids have had the same kind of reaction only to have their parents cut gluten, peanuts or shellfish out of their diet. And I agree with the article as a whole:
1. You're probably not allergic.
2. If you think you are, see an ALLERGIST not a GP.
3. You have to test it out. You HAVE to eat the foods.
07/20/09
I don't care if people think I'm lying to fit some mold, they're not the ones who end up crying in the restroom for hours and suffering with the rash for weeks if they mess up and eat the gluten. They can think that I'm a stuck up pretentious twit for all I care - after years of pain, I can finally close my fists and not worry about if my skin will split. And that's worth it all.
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My mom thinks it's because while we didn't grow up on farms per se, we grew up in two small farm towns. Her theory is that since we got exposed to stuff early, we built up a tolerance. (Again, I don't know how medically sound this is. Kind of makes sense, though.)
Ex-boyfriend was allergic to EVERYTHING. Or so he claimed. Really think he just didn't like my cats.
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I thought it was interesting and logical advice.
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There are only so many times you can send a kid to school with a meat and/or cheese sandwich before they get sick of it. And my girls are undersized--what about THEIR medical needs, eh? If I wanted to be an asshole about it, I should assert that they NEED peanut butter to gain weight and that the school is not responding to their special needs!
Alright, I wouldn't actually do that, but it irritates me that the whole school has to follow that rule for the small amount of kids. When I tried to substitute sunflower or sesame butter for the PB, I got told there's a kid that's allergic to ALL SEEDS. How is that even possible? Unless he's on a completely meat-only diet, he'd die if he wasn't in a bubble! Wait, no, not even then, because if he's that allergic, any seed-fed meat would cause a problem, too--they claim he's EXTREMELY allergic.
If your kid is actually that allergic, please homeschool him. It is not fair to demand the whole school district change for your own kid. Somebody's gotta tell these parents of speshul snowflakes that they're gonna have to deal with the real world eventually, or they're gonna melt.
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I can understand having an intolerance/bad reaction to smells, but not a true allergy. Can any medical Jezzies confirm/deny?
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They actually have a nut-free table well off to the side of the rest of the tables, and the allergic kids eat in the nurse's office by themselves anyway, so what's the point of being so strict about it?
07/20/09
It's probably not a popular opinion but I completely agree. Not to mention that if my hypothetical child was that deathly allergic to things I certainly wouldn't trust anyone else to follow those rules 100% of the time.
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07/20/09
I bring this up because our public schools NEVER changed SHIT for this kid. He just brought his own lunch, stayed clear of PB&J sandwiches, and survived all by himself.
07/20/09
working at an art school that has some kids with severe allergies I completely disagree. I think catering an entire school to a child is excessive, but as far as going on a room by room basis, thats not too much to ask. kids with severe peanut allergies already grow up sheltered more than others -they have to take their epi pens everywhere (many of the kids I work with are under 5 so we have to be prepared if they need the epi pen) and have to check the food that they are eating or might be surrounding them at all times. we have a girl whose mom comes in with stickers that say what her daughter can and can't have. i would imagine that having such a severe allergy is isolating as is, so why isolate these kids to extremes?
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(My mom was a special ed teacher for years, and she had a couple of kids who were very bright but allergic to nuts. It made things interesting, to put it mildly.)
07/20/09
"Somebody's gotta tell these parents of speshul snowflakes that they're gonna have to deal with the real world eventually, or they're gonna melt"
I agree with you completely on this... and I grew up with a severe nut allergy at a time when no one had even heard of anaphalaxsis. Having a school-wide ban on nuts just isn't realistic. After about grd 3, my parents stopped dealing with school authorities and left it to me to deal with my allergy. So I had to come up with ideas that would keep me safe without forcing my dietary restrictions on everyone else. These skills came in really handy later on when I had roommates that loved peanut butter, had pot-lucks at the office... whatever. The bottom line is that with a school-wide ban, shy little me would probably have never learned to speak up for herself and I didn't grow up expecting people without allergies to put any effort into eating a special diet to keep me safe.
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Or, they could maybe recognize that while some people are faking or reading too jmuch WebMD, a lot of people still have serious, if not fatal, reactions to some foods and try not to be asshats about it. And that perhaps the outbreak of self-diagnoses has something to do with the lack of access to healthcare, specifically expensive specialists like allergists in this country.
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Case in point-- I have a serious (i.e. past anaphylaxis, now carry epipen at all time) shellfish allergy, so when a big group goes for sushi, for example, I just ask that any shellfish rolls be on a separate platter so I don't accidentally take one, but never discourage anyone from ordering shrimp or crab rolls (though they always offer).
A friend of mine one day was like, "I'm totally using that from now on! I hate shrimp and crab, but am embarassed to say that at dinners or events, so I'm just going to lie and tell people I'm allergic". Thanks, please help feed in to the common perception among many waitstaff that we're faking it!
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The only true way to definitively test is to do what's called a monitored food challenge. Basically you eat increasing amounts of the suspected food in the presence of medical personnel and epi on hand in case you react.
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There is a test called ELISA/ACT that is used by every doctor I've gone to who uses alternative medicine. This is a blood test that looks for food sensitivities, and it was incredible what it discovered. My constant nausea went away when I cut out the foods I was sensitive too, and they test for way more than traditional allergy tests.
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07/20/09
1. People don't believe me when I tell them I can't eat almonds because I'm allergic to them. "Why aren't you allergic to ALL nuts then?" Because almonds are in the PEACH family. It's a POLLEN allergy. They correspondingly don't believe I'm allergic to petroleum, food dye, fragrances, etc.
2. Allergies and food sensitivities ARE two truly different things. And yes, they do wax and wane as you grow. When I was little I couldn't have red food dye without going Hulk style on everyone. Now, I can tell I've had too much red dye because I get irrationally angry/annoyed, but it's manageable.
3. I would wish food sensitivities on NO ONE. As a proud vet of the "Caveman Diet" for my ENTIRE childhood, there's a reason I now deal with the minor inconveniences of a constant headache and decreased energy to eat food I'm still slightly allergic to. Because it was GOOD. And once you're deprived, you understand.
07/20/09
Priceless.
07/20/09