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?

I think children with ADHD were the naughty ignored kids at the back who got nothing from school. I had two friends who were allergic to a variety of stuff and I had hayfever!!

But there are some children unnecessarily labelled nowadays and loads more who benefit from an explanation as to why they behave the way they doa nd can get help.

Oblomov, my mum had hers at 11, in 1968.
She was heavy for her age, afaik there is a link between weight and onset of menarche, prob just one of many factors. Nowadays children are taller and heavier, not neccessarily obese before people think I am adding a new scare to OP.

Not a nice story at all...

My Dad's severely allergic to many things, as I mentioned above. He can't tolerate most small animals. At his school they had guinea pigs and you took it in turns to take them home (I suspect they no longer do this, was still happening in the 80s when I was little. Is it class teddies now?). My Dad was adamant that he wouldn't take them home as they caused bad asthma attacks. The teacher was insistent that he was lazy and refusing to take responsibility and forced him to take them home. Well, I won't be too graphic but my 6yr old father put them in the fire bucket. The fire bucket had water in it. My Dad's normal I promise and to my knowledge has never hurt a living thing again.

My Dad also organised a walk out at his school aged 9 as a protest against corporal punishment. Of course my Dad was one of the people constantly in trouble for being lazy and having no attention span or ability to learn. At other times he was excitable and/or irritable. He had a lot of problems as he got older.

He was an awkward difficult man my Dad. Oddly enough the bipolar dx and subsequent treatment made the world of difference. He's almost normal now.

I was 5.5 stone and started my periods at 10, 1984.

There was a boy in my primary class in the 80's, plainly dyslexic which wasn't exactly unheard of then, but he was just called Danny the Dunce, by the teacher.

There ia a very interesting statisticOblomov on that. Girls brought up without their father start their periods sooner. So that ties in with the rise in single-parent families.

Has any one else heard that ADHD is linked to maternal alcohol consumption? I don't know if that's real research or speculation. Apparently the increase in both is exactly the same?

I'm sure lots of people had undiagnosed asd or similar, but it does seem as if allergies are on the increase, maybe due to environmental factors? Or perhaps people just died from them; thankfully infant mortality rates have greatly improved!
Oblomov, re the period thing, is it not linked to body weight? Girls are now heavier/taller (on average) so start them earlier I suppose. Anecodatally, the girls who were early developers in my class at school were all bigger/fatter/taller than average.

I wonder if there is a link between the prevalence of allergies/ADHD and the prevalence of orange and brown nylon?

I'm sure I've read that age of menarche is related to weight in most girls, and it can also be related to how stressful a childhood they experience.

There were fewer single parent families around 50/60 years ago because the children were either adopted or put into orphanages run by the Christian Brothers in Ireland for example.

My father had terrible problems with his ears as a child in the 1950's, which meant he missed a lot of a school and fell behind in his work. Instead of being helped and encouraged he was left to flounder as the other children progressed and he didnt. He left school not being able to read or write very well and has been in poorly paid employment ever since. He learnt to read at 50 when he went to an adult education class.

It would have been much different if he were born nowadays. A simple operation would have cured his problems and if not then the school would have worked thier hardest to help him. Instead he was wriiten off and no-one bothered.

Shadeofviolet - not only were ear infections left untreated, but children regularly had their ears 'boxed'as a punishment - often breaking the ear drum - and that has lead to hearing loss in many adults now.

But I suppose children in an orphanage would be subject to the same environmental conditions ie. brought up without their father?

Also, as a mother of 2 boys with peanut and coconut allergies (who both carry epi-pens) and one with ASD I am very grateful for way things have advanced.

cyteen.

This thread, like many, is just an excuse to have a pop at things people don't want to understand. Intolerence.

Both DH and I are 60's babies and we both have hayfever and DH was diagnosed with lots of allergies as a child and is allergic to tree nuts.
Our DS has treenut and seed allergies

DH also couldn't read until he was 10 and nowadays would have been diagnosed as dyslexic,unfortunately he had his childhood ruined because the condition was largely unrecognised in the 60s.
DS has similar problems but thankfully to a more enlightened system and phonics has been able to thrive at school.

My great uncle was born with Down syndrome in 1911. He was put in an institution aged 10 I think and died aged 56.

My great grandmother became mentally ill. She was put in an institution in her forties I think and died in her sixties.

Autism used to be regularly diagnosed as 'infantile schizophrenia' and children would be put into institutions, where they stayed.

I met some people 1996 when I joined the NHS who'd been in an asylum since the 50s, some of whom had no observable problem that couldn't be explained by institutionalisation. I am extremely glad to see the back of those asylums despite everything that was/is wrong with how care in the community pans out.

My mother almost certainly had PCOS. She wasn't diagnosed with it in the late 50s (although it did exist) because the diagnostics were much more difficult, and they couldn't have done anything about it anyway.

My mother is also extremely nervous about the number of disabled people in this country and the 'burden' this places on the rest of us. She talks about it every time I see her . She talks about how midwives in the good old days (30s) used to just kill off obviously disabled children and how much better that was for everyone.

Sometimes I can't believe we're related.

I raise a glass to living in 2010, tbh.

Many human medical conditions have been around for as long as humans have. They are just labelled and reacted to differently. It is not that things were not around, society just acknowledges them now. Of course, some conditions have increased due to environmental factors and no doubt we will continue to understand more about them in the future.

I know that's the point but it really gets to me when I here this sort of comment. How can people be so narrow minded???? Do you know that in the nineteenth century it was aceptable to chain people with mental health problems up in basement dungeons as they were seen as the work of the devil? So is schizophrenia and bi-polar a recent invention then?

I had a friend through primary and seconsary school in the 70s/80s who was clearly ADHD but was just seen as the mad boy, almost chucked himself out of the school library window once [shocked]. Poor boy never ended up in jail (that I know of) but did get involved in illeagal stuff etc as he was attention seeking all the time. So, no label, but it was definitely there.
Back in those days there were no TA's, and classes were separated into tables according to ability (at primary school) with the "dunces" together on one table. Soooo sad.

And I was a smelly kid but noone picked up that this may be the sign of issues at home, thank god these days people are more aware of all sorts of things that may salvage a few potentially sad lives......

Colliecross - because it's not always as simple as one cause one effect. Children in orphanages may have been subject to more stress - which can lead to earlier age of periods starting - but they may also have been fed less and have been lighter in weight compared to children now - which would lead to periods being later.

Oh and of course there were all the single mums placed in institutions until they died as obviously becoming pregnant out of wedlock is a mental disease too [sceptical]

maktaitai I have heard that too about midwives killing obviously disabled newborns :( :( :( and it was commonly known and accepted.

stretch I for one am only saying what I remember as a child, not having a pop at anyone. Naturally my childhood recollections are not an accurate diagnosis of anyone's problem.

Many disabled babies are still being killed - but it's during pregnancy and called abortion.

Lovely 74, I don't see much of a difference in putting children of similar abilities together on the same tables with streaming of year-groups. Please tell me this still goes on in your children's schools as it is the only logical way to teach. This way, the lessons are pitched in such a way that the brighter children are stretched while the slower children are not left behind.