To think no one was allergic to nuts in the 1970's or kids had that ADHT or whatever it is

[ipodmama]

I don,t remember anyone with these 'problems' , I only remember the odd smelly kid?

oh yes and no-one knew anyone with depression because they just went away 'on holiday' and just didn't come back for years.

I was speaking to my dad recently and it seems that his grandmother (who was born two centuries ago) had a severe skin condition that regularly needed bandaging. She didn't have it constantly, it would just flare up, sounding much like an allergic reaction.

Food tended to be home made in the 60's. There was never much money to buy the range of ready made meals that there is nowadays (apart from Vesta curry and Fray Bentos steak and kidney pies) so less likelihood of nut based ingredients. High likelihood of lard.

Children who had special needs were placed in their own schools or in special classes of their own. Exclusion was alive and well.

Children with behaviour problems were belted almost daily and the 'Career Officer' would advise that they joined the army or would end up in List D schools.

Yabu. I work in adult education and keep meeting men and women in their forties and fifties who were never diagnosed with dyslexia etc. Instead, they were beaten, humiliated and sidelined, and, often, expelled. Some of the men, particularly, still find it traumatic to talk about today and I have had great big ex-miners break down in heaving sobs, describing the halcyon days of being made to stand on their desk and read out loud to the class, or beaten with a stick by an angry adult for being unable to spell.

So yes, bully for you that you had such a lovely time at school, and that you weren't one of the "smelly kids", eh?

My DH has Aspergers, he was born in 1960.

He was (to quote his mother) 'a funny little boy, we didn't know what to do with him so we sent him to boarding school.'

The sort of boarding school where 7 yr old boys who lose at a football match are sent to bed with no supper.

He has a recently dx walnut allergy.

He now runs an international biz, which he set up himself, employing 30 people on several continents.

We had severe asthmatics, a few dc with ezecma, some with food intolerance one that was 'slow' - later dx with dyslexia and sent to a brilliant dyslexic school.

I even knew of someone with autism in the early 80's.

There was a local 'institution' for adults where I lived, lovely blokes mostly, that used to do no harm. My mother horrified me telling me that some of them were 'in there' just for continence/mild behaviour issues and their families ought to be ashamed of themselves for sending them away. So I made an extra effort to be nice after that.

But given that 2 of my best playmates when I was growing up had DS, I think perhaps my mother was a little more openminded than most.

"I don't remember dyslexia being around in the 70's."

well my mum was born in 1950 - was diagnosed with dyslexia until the 1990's......by which time she'd failed her O levels and been labelled "thick".

My dad, and brother (brother born in '75) have asthma, and eczema

Hammy it certainly stopped him misbehaving. I don't know about ADHD, I am only saying what I remember. He was the naughtiest boy I knew.

suzikettles I don't know about industrial schools, I was in a very rural area, but surely they weren't for under 12s?

I had a friend my age who would not go to school. He could not even begin to read and hid on the farm when the truancy man came.I suppose he was dyslexic - if he wanted to know what something said he brought it to me and I read it to him. This did not trouble us at all.

It is a sad thought that children with nut allergies died young - that it was thought of as simply choking?

belgo I wonder if she had psoriasis - that can flare up badly and get better spontaneously.

I had a miserable time at school really miserable- ended up with eating disorders but as my undiagnosed milk intol caused me constant pain and diarrhoea proably no change to overall health eh? My kids ahve same intol (well, 3/4) and are lucky that they are picked up and well

I also probably have what is undiagnosed AS: based on a sound knowledge, the fact I have 2 kids with ASD and my Mum and Grandad also have clear undiagnosed AS.

God I had a shite childhood, really and truly awful where people didnt get it, I was bullied by kids and teachers (one teacher taught a class when I was away sick called something akin to 'Why Sanct ti a cretin) adn yes my name and cretin deffo there)

Thank goodness my boys have been picked up and you know, are not seventies kids

Also- lots of theories why ADHD / allergies / AS more common now if theya re: ranging from a different societal set up so that peolpe with the genetics thmselves mroe likely to have kids threough diet to pollution and the better detection

if you have the answers OP pray tell coz it's ahuge debate professionally atm

Colliecross, I too started school in 1965, and I certainly remember a couple of classmates who were asthmatic. Along with two of my brothers (one older, one younger than me). They didn't have inhalers as such things simply weren't available then. Hence some people died of asthma.

Agree with other posters that dyslexia/ADHD/nut allergies, etc. simply went undiagnosed.

The good old days, eh?

Colliecross - that's the thing we will never know but there is still 'funny skin' in the family - my ds has eczema which fortunately is improving all the time.

My dad himself born more then 70 years ago weighed 6lbs at the age of six months due to some sort of undiagnosed intolerance/allergy. Again we will never know for sure!

We didn't have none of these blacks either did we? We was white and proud.

I appear to be turning this into SOH family anecdotes but when my Dad was young (born in '57 so some time in the 60s I would imagine), the local children's home (S Derbys) took in a child who just happened to be black. Local people protested, stood outside with banners (I like to imagine poor spelling and bad grammar myself, just to set off the racial slurs nicely) and got him sent away. Nasty coloured people not allowed in peaceful mining communities. They belonged in Londinium or Abroad. I repeat, this was the 1960s. Somewhere underneath the veneer of free love, peace and understanding there was a healthy dose of intolerance, ignorance and 'la la la la la la la [fingers in ears]'. But that's the dichotomy between how we choose to remember and what actually happened. History is just a little story you tell yourself after all.

Born 1968, asthmatic, no inhaler until I was about 11, it was tablets taken daily up to then. Not entirely sure when inhalers became common place, but certainly I became aware of 2 others in my class with asthma later on.

DH, born 1965, diagnosed with dyslexia in his late 30's. Like TAF said, just dismissed as lazy and thick and left to rot in the education system.

Ah, the good old days....

Industrial school that is now my kid's primary took from 5, basically a fancy equivalent of workkhouse from what I can see.

There was a kid in my class a complete nightnmare- satbbede a teacher at 7 level of nightmare (no real damage done). In and out of care. At 18 he was dx'd with the new dx of ADHD. He received therapy and help and now runs his own business although has to be very careful to avoid certain foods and manage his adhd behaviour in certain ways.

What a shame it wasn't picked up at 4 and he had to go through that eh?

Carry on SOH I love reading your (and everyone else's!) anecdotes.

Urgh for gods sake- when will people get it into their thick skulls that a disease has to be found and named in order to be diagnosed?????
You can have GP's milling about going 'ah yes- you have whatsi macallit!'

people had HIV centuries ago but were just 'ill' - didn't mean they dsnt have it by today's standard ffs.

In "Nella Last's Peace" there is a very sad tale about her friend and neighbour suffering PND and being sent to a Mental Institution for months.

Slightly off-topic, but my father (born 1928) was regularly caned at school for being left-handed.

I love the past!

We have these threads frequently .

As others have said there have always been food allergies and hayfever etc....

Adhd,autism etc all existed mostly in a nameless way and some of the people suffering ended up with terrible mental health labels locked away in secure buildings and many just got on with it some by being the 'odd kid' some helped by the constraints of timetables and strict routines in those days - life seemed less complicated in those days.

Illnesses that seem to have come up since the 70s are things like M.E/CFS (my son has this) and whilst Im sure it was around to some degree in those days and the children were described as 'weak' 'invalid' etc etc seemed to have increased due to pressures placed on children today.

We really can only take so much.

Yes there were they were just not recognised aswell then, YABVU

princessF I suppose you were more aware of the others with asthma because you had it in your family.
I didn't say no one had asthma, I only said I never heard of it or saw an inhaler.

showofhands that is awful. I lived in rural Lincs and there was one black boy in my class - only one in the school. He was very bright and a keen footballer and I never witnessed any discrimination. I know he passed for the boy's grammar school and I wouldn't have seen him after that.

I don't think we were especiallly insulated. There was a 'special school' near us, mostly children with DS and cerebral palsy as far as I know. I used to play with a little girl who went there. We envied their lovely playground that we weren't allowed in.

No I think they were around just a lot more ill and miserable .

I think there might be some truth in the assertion that allergies are worse now than they were due to changing environmental factors. But as to ADHD and the like..nope those would have just been the quiet kid, or the stupid kid or the naughty kid.

BTW I have had quite severe athsma probably since I was a baby - only diagnosed when I was 6. I had tablets and a spinhaler until I was in my teens I think until I got a modern ventolin inhaler.

Girls didn't have periods till they were 13 or 14 , or so, when i was at school. now they are having them at 8 or 9.
I have no idea why we have more ADHD now, or why periods so young now. noone has any idea why these things are happening.
but it sure is a shame.

I remember 2 boys in primary (70s) who almost certainly had something along the lines of ADHD/Aspergers. We thought nothing of it. They were just who they were. One was popular and had friends, the other was not popular, girls would not play with him - we thought him weird - but boys sometimes would.

My family knew abou anaphylactic shock because distant cousins and friends had experienced it. But at the time nobody understood what was happening to them. At leSt one of them died from the reaction, though others survived. The hospitals knew they were having a massive allergic reaction but could not always identify the trigger

In the 80s I volunteered with a charity serving SN children and their families. There were autistic children, and autism had been known about for decades.

These conditions have been around for as long as we have been around. Sometimes they havd been hidden, sometimes they have been accepted as part of the norm, sometimes sufferers have died.