Nuts...why are they so bad

I’m 38, I have a life threatening food allergy, I wasn’t diagnosed until I was about five, but it was discovered when I had an extremely severe reaction as a small baby. I’m now allergic to other things within the same family, some not as severe, some as severe. I have also recently become allergic to raw peppers, a food I have been eating my entire life.

Allergies aren’t new, we just understand them much better, particularly mild allergies. Mild allergies were ignored, but we know now that allergies can worsen over time/exposure. I for example could tolerate raw pepper when my allergy to it started, now I can’t even touch them if the skin has been cut without having a strong reaction.

I have a child with terrible allergies and one without. Followed the same advice in pregnancy and through weaning, they were raised in the same house - we were never expecting it until that child went into anaphylactic shock in a restaurant age 5. Suddenly allergic to nuts (and other foods). Rushed to hospital, saved, prescribed epipens to carry at all times.

I would not wish it on anyone. It is stressful, it causes immense anxiety and we are determined that she lives a normal life travelling and eating out but it takes planning and cooperation from others. I hate that it happened to us and we will never know why or what we could have done differently. But food allergies are on the rise and there are more children than ever suffering from them. Reasons are not established.

Just because it didn't happen so often in the past doesn't mean it's made up or due to fussiness or can be directly attributed to pregnancy advice or weaning or vaccines (ie all things people can blame mothers for doing/not doing/doing wrong). Just be thankful, OP, that you can eat your snickers in your own home and never have to fear that a snack will send you to hospital.

It must be very scary to have a food allergy that can kill you and very stressful for the parents. What is in nuts that triggers allergies?

I don’t remember if I ate nuts during pregnancy but I don’t remember actively avoiding them either. I did avoid seafood but that was because I assumed it was for my benefit not the baby’s as they are a food poisoning risk. Neither of my kids had any food allergies and I didn’t know it was even a thing in my own childhood.

Unless you’re hundreds of years old I think most people - especially medical professionals - could tell the difference between normal choking and anaphylaxis.

When I was young (primary school) I remember being told more than once that children before the age of 3 shouldn’t eat nuts because their throats were too small and they could choke on them. Looking back on it I suppose some young children with nut allergies died and it was perceived as choking.

Problem solved then.

No it isn't.
Standard childhood and adult vaccines are generally safe for those with peanut allergies as routine immunizations.
There is no credible scientific link between vaccine ingredients and the development of food allergies such as a peanut allergy.

This is honestly such a ridiculous statement to make because its so easy to find out that it's a load of crap

No its not, peanut oil isnt licensed in any human vaccine. Try to use facts if you want to push your anti vax agenda

It’s also possible that there’s some epigenetic impact at play

Peanut oil is an adjuvant in vaccines and now children are much more heavily vaccinated, and at a much earlier age. For example I only had one vaccine at eight months old and then none until I was about eight or nine in the 70s. Versus our kids, including our son with a terrible peanut allergy, who would’ve had multiple vaccines under the age of one with a very developing immune system. There are many who propose that this is one of the triggers. Certainly child number three, who I didn’t vaccinate in the same way, has been much healthier

I work with children. Hugely anecdotal but there seems to be less younger children who have nut allergies compared with the era you mentioned. Of those who are allergic it seems to be less severe kind.

I ignored NHS advice with my kids who were born when the research had been done but the NHS was being incredibly slow to update its advice.

My brother is 54 and has a nut allergy. Also allergic to dogs. I knew a few other people growing up with similar allergies. We never had much in the way of nuts in the house. Sometimes he would be ‘a bit wheezy’ when he was around people who had nuts (only really bad if he ate them). But I don’t remember people having loads of nut based products in their packed lunches so it didn’t come up much

Why Are Peanut Allergies on the Rise?

This link gives some explanation and it's not because everyone just died and ignored it in the past..lol

That theory made me chuckle!

There was an interesting Zoe podcast on this recently with an allergy specialist. I don’t think they know 100% but it seems multifactorial.

Bet your grandma smoked 30 Capstan Full Strength a day and died at 97 in a freak cycling accident….

I also grew up in the 60s and 70s and, quite honestly, you just never heard of food allergies. Even as a younger adult it wasn't something that was common.

I have read similar to a PP that exposure from an earlier age can reduce allergies. I think the main reason people used to avoid giving young children nuts was the choking risk rather than allergies.

That's really interesting; my mum, born in the 1960's, has both severe eczema and an anaphylactic allergy to several kinds of nuts. I know allergies and atopy are linked regardless, but it's interesting to see a potential reason for some of those connections. While I also have/had severe eczema, I have none of my mother's food allergies. Perhaps, if that explanation holds up, it could be because I wasn't exposed through my skin in the same way because we never really had them in the house when I was growing up.

It always surprised me that I wasn't allergic to nuts, considering I'm in a prime age group for that societal increase in nut allergies. An exception to the rule, perhaps, in that I'm predisposed in many ways and lucky enough to have avoided it.

I grew up in the 60s and 70s and there was a peanut factory a few streets away. You could always tell when they had a roast on because, for several streets around, the air was thick with the smell. It's gone now but I've wondered a few times what would happen today. It was also next door to my school and we'd send some of the boys in to steal hot nuts at break time. The exposure we had as children probably did us good.

This.

I grew up in the 60s and 70s. We simply didn't eat nuts much. The bars I remember didn't have nuts in them for the most part. Maybe hazelnuts, but peanuts weren't included in everything.

I wonder too if the predeliction of urban forest planners for male trees has affected our allergic response - male trees spread a huge amount of pollen, which may sensitise people.

I could be dead wrong.

There was a really interesting Zoe podcast recently with a doctor who specialises in allergies. He said that research suggests babies get nut allergies by being exposed to nuts through their skin before eating them. The immune system doesn’t recognise them as food. It’s more likely to happen if a baby has eczema and so the skin isn’t an efficient barrier. Also more likely with sticky products such as peanut butter. In cultures where humous is eaten more then sesame allergy is more prevalent than nut allergy.
I haven’t heard it all yet so not totally sure how this explains the rise in allergies. More peanut butter? More eczema?

My daughter has eaten nuts most of her life and developed a brazil nut allergy aged 11 after having previously eaten them before.