To be laughing at this?

[Ilovecaindingle]

My ds12 has just started a new school and has his first science lesson today. We were catching up on his day and he said they had to do an experiment. The experiment was to heat a peanut up to a certain temp and record when it burnt etc. But due to school allergy advice they aren't allowed to use a peanut.

So he used a Wotsit instead!!
Now I am def not laughing regarding allergy advice obviously but what things do kids accept as normal now that didn't occur to us /happen when we went to school?

There must be an explanation - microwaves, wifi, food additives?

And pollution, processing of food...

Lots of children with SEN were routinely sent to special school, or just in low sets. There, but less visible.

Also, we've improved mortality rates for children in the womb and under 5. Perhaps it's vigilance and intervention earlier in life that means that more of them are still around once they get to school age?

Yes, I'm 45 and there were definitely more special schools- one girl with CP at my primary, no learning difficulties, went to SS for secondary- I don't think that would happen now. I remember a girl with terrible execma, but like a couple of pp I sadly think that a lot of allergic children passed away (possibly what is identified in much older records as fits or choking).

I'm in my 30s and didn't go to school with anyone with allergies. There was one girl with exercise-induced asthma and one girl with eczema, that's it.

I have no allergies, and none of my kids do either. But I fed them earlier than recommended, and didn't adhere to any of the timelines for introducing particular foods. They were very young when they had dairy, peanuts, honey, eggs etc. I do think the delayed introduction of particular foods does more harm than good (I'll go get my flame suit on now).

Pluto30 - there are timelines for introducing food? I never knew that .... DS seems to be okay - only been sick twice in 11 years and one was food poisoning from ice cream parlour. He rarely gets a cold and still hasn't had chicken pox.......

there are timelines for introducing food?

Yep! No introducing peanuts or peanut products until x age, no eggs until 12mo, no honey until 12mo, no dairy until 12mo etc. We didn't follow any of those and I reckon my kids could rival Keith Richards and cockroaches.

I'm in my 50s. One boy in my class with asthma. He had to sit out when we did gym.

I can't remember anyone with allergies, but one boy almost certainly had Aspergers. He was born in France (French mother, English father) and spoke English as his second language. All sorts of odd behaviour were explained away as a result of being half-French! Facebook tells me he is now self-employed in a highly technical niche industry.

Four of my classmates had a sibling in a special school - three had Downs, I don't know about the other. Far fewer kids nowadays have a sibling who is educated elsewhere.

I used to do it with Cheerios

57 here. No food allergies but I did have allergy tests while at primary which concluded that I was allergic to dogs, cats, horses, feathers and house dust. I also remember going for a weekly injection to try and combat my reaction to these allergens. No suggestion that we get rid of the family dog though!

Off the top of my head I can think of one boy in my class at secondary who probably had ADHD and another who probably had Aspergers.

I'm another over 60. We had a boy who wore calipers at school due to polio, and two sisters who had serious growth issues, and were in and out of hospital. We wrote letters to the one in our class. I don't remember any allergies. I do remember a small minority who were dirty, and poorly clothed but we all seemed pretty healthy.

That experiment is a nightmare for anyone with allergies as burning the peanut also vaporises the peanut oil so if you are in the room you breathe it in. Wotsits work brilliantly as their 'puffed up' structure means they catch fire and burn really easily. I don't really understand why you found it so funny but the discussion on prevalence of allergies is valid.

Definitely remember kids with asthma and excema at school in the 70s/80s and also a girl with epilepsy but think she went to a special school.

My son has exzema, asthma and allergies. I read a book when he was little about it being to do with all the additives and preservatives in our food. (Fed up with asthma by Sue Dengate) The book mentioned that the aboriginals had no incidence of asthma until they had access to the western diet. Now we avoid some preservatives - no asthma, avoid cows milk - no exzema. We did have a really long list of allergies when he was little, and also for my dd which meant that I had to cook everything from scratch and I'm sure it helped them to grow out of some of their allergies.

I have quite bad asthma (mid 30s), & so does my mum (early 60s). We've both had it since early childhood. My mum had to have an inhaler that she carried around everywhere in a box like a gas mask, she didn't know anyone else with the same problem. Thought it was wonderful when pocket inhalers became available!

Just FYI, the food guidelines are ever changing ... But the one that doesn't change is honey.

They are quite strict about honey because of botulism.

A good summary of why is here: www.poison.org/articles/2010-jun/dont-feed-honey-to-infants

Short version is pasteurization does not kill the botulism organism that produces the botulism toxin (although any toxin present is killed during pasteurization). This means the organism can produce more toxin after pasteurization but before consumption, which you can then poison your baby with. Mechanisms to counteract the toxin don't develop til around 6 months or after - which I'm guessing is why the conservative guideline is 1 year. Breastfeeding mothers may eat it as their bodies can deal with the toxin.

You can of course choose to take the risk ...

Pluto, where do you live? Because those aren't the UK guidelines for introducing certain food types except honey which is 12 months - because there's a risk of contracting botulism, best avoided that one...

X-post with expat

Somedays Australia. We were told not to give peanut products until FOUR years old. This may have changed since DS1, but that's just bloody nuts (heh).

With regards to children with disabilities - I think more children would have died at birth (ds probably would have) more children with additional needs would be at special school (I used to volunteer at a special school in my teens - so early 80s - a lot of the children there would now be in mainstream) and a lot of children would just have been thought to be clumsy/odd/naughty.....

I think some conditions like coeliacs, asthma, eczema and allergies were not talked about as openly and were almost seen as a bit shameful. My cousin had coeliacs and my aunty used to do that 'hushed voice, eyes down thing' as though it was a dirty word - my 8 year old self was massively jealous of her because she got special wafers at church and missed a lot of school. Again I think because schools had no things like care plans to deal with medical needs, children with allergies etc would miss a lot of school and there would have been less visible support for children who did have these issues.

My pe teacher at school regularly mocked my asthma at school and joined the kids in calling me my friend who both had eczema 'scabby hazey and scabby ' If I needed my inhaler it was like a walk of wheezy shame while the pe teacher told everyone they would have to wait with much sighing and eyerolling.

I am sure there is a rise in certain allergies due to environmental factors - catalytic converters have supposed to have contributed to a rise in lung problems in children as toxins are released at street level. However the band with of certain diagnoses has been expanded too - more children have inhalers because ventolin is used to treat a variety of short term breathing problems and coughs, whereas in the past ventolin was pretty much only used by people with asthma.

it is in parents and medical professionals interests to invent a syndrome that gives them more help/earn more money. I am afraid I think this is bollocks, and I would love to know more about these money spinning syndromes.

There were definitely asthmatic kids in my class at primary. I remember really wanting an inhaler (you know, in that stupid way kids do with no real understanding - I always wanted a plastercast and crutches too) then aged 14 I was given one for suspected asthma and it wasn't nearly as fun as I'd thought (obviously!)

There were also SEN kids in my class, but they were known as the "slow" kids and were on a separate table, did different work.

there were definitely allergies too, though I don't remember peanut allergies. I have three friends my age with nut allergy though, and I assume they would have been allergic as kids too.

We had a Remedial class at secondary school, which contained all the slow learners. One boy might have had some sort of syndrome as he looked odd & had a really small head. He was epileptic.

My friend's sister had quite bad asthma but I can't remember anyone else with it. I'm 51 for context.

My husband's in his early 60s and had asthma as a child. Hardly surprising given the prevalence of coal fires and smoking at the time. Both his parents smoked heavily around him. He missed a lot of school but fortunately outgrew it in the end.

I'm in my mid 50s and remember at least one girl in my year suffering badly from hayfever at exam time.

I agree with all the other people - sadly, lots of children with allergies and other serious conditions would have died in days of yore.

Re the special schools - yes, lots of children were removed from the mainstream (or never went to mainstream schools at all) for all sorts of reasons, not just learning disability (as they didn't call it then). There were special schools for 'delicate' children, i.e. children of normal intelligence and neurotypical, but with physical health problems, in recognition of the fact that mainstream schools were not set up to look after these children properly. Some would say not enough has changed in that regard.

Back in the day, if you had a bad allergy, you just died from it and no one knew why it happened. That's why there weren't that many of them knocking around in your science lessons at high school.