Seeing red...really uneducated article on allergies in The Observer

[penguin11]

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/apr/19/do-we-worry-too-much-about-what-we-eat-allergies-food-intolerance-gluten-free-diets#comment-50800184


If you are a mum, dad, grandparent of a child with allergies or a lovely person who cares about other children please read the article and form your own view. If like me you think the tone of the journalist’s comments throughout the article (not those from the medical professionals) around allergies is highly irresponsible and consistently muddles up allergies, intolerances, sensitivities, and on occasion life style choices - maybe you might think about writing into complain too, or posting comments at the end of the article

There is a readers editor who reviews complaints - I hope as many people as possible write in and ask just exactly what the editorial process was behind this article and how it could ever have been published.

Email address to write complaint letters to -

[email protected]; [email protected]

Here is just a couple of quotes from the article -
“Chopped ALMONDS (0.5%).” It is the last in a list of 15 ingredients. How dangerous would this amount be to a child with an allergy if they sat next to another child eating it?”

I want my child to be treated just the same as other kids, but I still have trust issues when he’s looked after by others - partly due to attitudes such as the one portrayed in the article (yes he was given a bar that a parent thought was ‘ok’ as it ‘only had a small amount of nuts’ – and yes 0.5% is still a quantity of nuts). The journalist seems to fail to appreciate the embedded anxiety hospital trips from anaphylaxis leave on parents and articles such as this one, which fail to address the seriousness of severe allergies, does nothing to dispel some of the myths, the most common one being that an allergy is an intolerance.

In the opening section of the article the journalist states -

“It’s the backdrop to every school trip, every bake sale, a lot of playdates. I am not (exactly) complaining about this: allergic reactions can be life-threatening.”

This comes across as if she is complaining and making out a child with nut allergies is somehow a burden on other parents and schools. People do not choose to have severe allergies and sadly the above view above isn’t isolated, I have experienced many times when people and even health professionals don’t understand that my son could become desperately ill from eating nuts.


Ref for article -
Do we worry too much about what we eat? Nut-free schools, gluten-free diets, careful with the carbs: anxiety around food is on the rise, and it’s not easy to sort the myth from the medical advice. Viv Groskop. The Observer. Sunday 19 April 2015 09.00 BST

[SoupDragon]

There is a difference between being given a bar, as your child was, and sitting next to another child who is eating a bar with a tiny amount of nuts in, as your quite describes.

[SoupDragon]

Quote. Not quite.

[penguin11]

Its the tone of the whole article

[Nevercallmehun]

I agree OP. My friend whose children had very severe allergies to nuts, kiwi and strawberry said it felt like playing Russian roulette with her kids when sending them to school. If a kid sneezed on them after eating a strawberry yoghurt they could be in a&e. So many people can't be bothered to try to understand.

[DayLillie]

The tone is very dismissive.

[CrohnicallyInflexible]

You say that it does nothing to dispel the myth that allergies are the same as intolerances, but it specifically explains the difference in the article.

I read it as being dismissive of the reported prevalence of allergies. When in actual fact allergies can be different severities, people confuse allergy, intolerance and sensitivity, and people overdiagnose themselves when there's no clinical need.

And the frustration of enforced nut bans when even the anaphylaxis society doesn't support them.

Though having said that, I do have AS so might not be reading between the lines as much. (Or possibly not reading things that aren't there)

[penguin11]

Thank you for all your comments.

It was only the reflections of the journalist I was querying (not the medical professionals quoted) - to me they seemed to reiterate a lot of the views I have had with my DS, e.g. that weary tone I get when I ask if a cake has nuts in it.

I don't think I can un-post the thread

[mangoespadrille]

To be honest I was very dismissive of allergies myself until I had to dial 999 when DH's emergency dentist gave him ibuprofen (he'd never taken it before, been advised against by doctor, which he explained but was told doctor was over cautious) and he couldn't breathe. I think so many people are just picky about what they eat or on faddy diets after self-diagnosing "intolerances" that people with actual potentially life threatening conditions are dismissed as just being awkward/attention seeking/special snowflake-itus.

I don't know what the solution is, perhaps some sort of card/necklace/bracelet for genuine severe allergy holders issued by doctors so people can identify genuine cases?

[SoupDragon]

Honestly, I not seeing a problem with the article and I think you are perhaps over sensitive. It seems to be writing about the confusion of allergy with intolerance and how many people mistake the two.

The journalist questioners whether a cereal bar containing a tiny amount of almonds is a threat to an allergic child who is sitting next to it (at nursery age where they are not careful, I would probably say it's better to be safe). As has been said, the Anaphylaxis society doesn't actually recommend nut free environments.

I don't think the way the journalist is questioning the bans and commenting on the rise in perceived intolerances is problematic.

[reallybadidea]

I didn't read as being dismissive of allergies AT ALL. I didn't think it was clear what the point of the article was, more just a general waffle about allergies/intolerances/faddishness but it was quite clear what the difference is between them.

[DayLillie]

I think the assertion near the end that 97-98% of people can eat what they want and don't have allergies is .

I have oral allergy syndrome. I won't drop dead, but get fed up of the constant tonsillitis and sudden coughing fits and feeling rough.

That is certainly not rare, and I can do without nuts popping up unexpectedly (M&S Swiss extra fine milk chocolate )

I expect more allergies show up because we have a lot more choice of food and a lot more pre-prepared stuff with more exotic ingredients.

[hackmum]

I read the article and had slightly the same concerns as the OP.

It's not that it's inaccurate. And of course it's right to say that a lot of people imagine they have intolerances (or even allergies) when they don't.

It's just that it's got the balance wrong. From Mumsnet I know that there are lots of people out there who think that people who have allergies are making a great big fuss about nothing - hence the stories we've had about people who think that nuts don't count if they're in a cake, or who think that giving a small portion of peanuts to a child with a peanut allergy is OK, and might even help them get over it.

That to me is a much bigger concern than people who think they have an allergy when they don't.

[bruffin]

DS and DH have nut allergies and have a relation who is cealiac and have no problem with the article. There is too much hysterics over some allergies ie the oft said on MN "but a child with nut allergy can DIE" completely ignoring the fact that other allergies can kill ie that hummous that is every MC childs staple diet has sesame in it which can be just as lethal.
There is a huge industry behind diagnosing allergies ie Vega testing, hair testing, Applied Kinesiology etc that are feeding off peoples worries and diagnosing everyone who visit with allergies. I know as soon as someone says their child is allergic to sugar that they have been to an alternative therapist to get a diagnosis.

[WaxyBean]

this article is exactly why I have taught my (milk, egg and tree nut) child to question what he is being given and to only take food from specific adults (parents, grandparents and childminder). Even his teacher and teaching assistant aren't allowed to give him food (the hazelnut cake coming home from school for another child's birthday was a low point). If he goes to a party or play date he brings a packed lunch, is under strict instructions not to eat anything else unless the parent checks with me, and the parents gets a highlighted card with details of his allergies, symptoms and immediate course of action (he doesn't have an epipen fortunately so no issues with training for use). We don't buy cakes at school fairs - and I always send vegan, nut free cakes clearly labelled and separated (and run the stall so they don't egt contaminated!) for other allergic children to buy (i know most of them and their parents now!). This article just reminds me that other parents sometimes see me as an annoyance and overbearing but I could show you hideous photos of what happens if DS touches egg let alone ingests it.

DS sees one of Adam Fox's team at another NHS hospital who have been marvellous and I cannot praise enough.