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?

I had severe eczema and asthma as a child in the 70s, in and out of hospital but survived some bad attacks, others didn't so wouldn't be in the general population. Not as much help or support back then and the emphasis was on being 'normal' (for want of a better word) to be able to attend school etc with anyone who didn't fit in the mainstream being shipped out. Now it's much more inclusive and aware.

Pretty sure there are some environmental factors but often its genetic as people survive who wouldnt have done in years gone by and pass it down. I do resent the attitude of a friend of mine that these conditions are avoidable if you get a pet/dont take antibiotics as a baby/eat dirt more often/take supplements, maybe in a some cases. My son is currently dealing with severe eczema, he was born with it and to imply its because I wrapped him in cottonwool and bleached too much is a bit ridiculous and just adds to the crippling fecking guilt.

From original op I find the extra curricular activities at school now funny/amazing compared to what we had available. There are Samba drumming and Code workshops, we just had chess and football!

In retrospect there was one boy who would today have been diagnosed as dyslexic (very, very intelligent - but he could NOT read, despite trying very hard). He used to be in tears about it, poor lad.

There was certainly no ADHD (a couple of "naughty" kids, but none that were out of control), none with asthma or allergies that I can recall, One kid who had ringworm . None that could have been on the autistic spectrum. Some who were Downes' Syndrome ("mongols" as the rather nasty expression was then), and a couple with callipers due to polio.

There definitely was not the "epidemic" of diagnoses we have now. I think really badly intellectually disabled children possibly didn't attend school at all.

BTW, I am 63 and throughout my school life from 5 -18I was in classes of 40 children. I would think if there'd been allergies etc in any huge numbers I would have encountered at least some.

But this was also in the days where disruptive behaviour in the classroom was punished and parents backed up the teachers if their kids had been toe rags.

I was reading the "Thunderstorms" thread, and was smiling at the number of people who were hoping for a "Snow Day" off school. We went in all weathers. If the heating broke down (not an unusual occurrence) we sat in our coats, gloves, hats and scarves. One of my fondest (!) memories is going to the toilet (outside) and having to break the ice before having a wee or poo.

Happy days!

The only person in my small rural primary with asthma died following an attack when he was 9 ☹️

Early 40s here. One form entry primary with prob about 28 in each year.
A couple of asthmatics in my class at a school, a couple with excess, a type 1 diabetic (v envious of that as he got extra chocolate from time to time - obviously had no concept of it as an actual illness).
During the 7yrs at school, I remember 3 children who died due to cancer or similar (again, due to age not really sure), three in wheelchairs, three or four others using frames, one deaf, a variety of other physical disabilities but no SEN. They were all at the special school a couple of miles away.
My mum is in her late 60s. Amongst her baby/toddler group friends, there were several whose children died before school age, some within days of being born, others of cot death & others of various ailments/diseases that are now treatable. Only one friend of mine has had a child die before school age and, even extending my circle to include friends of friends I only know of two others.

HappyFlappy - the children had Downs Syndrome, rather than were Downe's Syndrome

There were lots of kids who were excluded, mocked, learnt to hide their conditions because they were mocked, not sent to school because there was no provision for them, died from conditions which are now controlled, died where they would now survive due to medical advances.....it was pretty far from the good old days!

I'm Irish (born in '78) and growing up I'm pretty sure I was the only child in the country with allergies (all respiratory).

I can only assume all other Irish babies with allergies were exposed on the side of a mountain, in the manner of Spartan infants who weren't up to scratch.

In the winter of 1988 in Dublin we had a very bad smog. I developed asthma that winter, and (presumably unrelated) ended up with allergies to bloody everything that moved - fur and dust. I never met anybody else with an inhaler.

There is a theory which links the fact that we've largely eradicated intestinal parasites from our bodies in one generation with the rise in auto immune diseases. Along the lines of the parasites give out something to suppress the host immune system which we've evolved to turn up. Parasites gone we now burn at max immune system activity which leads to immune system problems such as coeliac.

Might be bunkem but I thought I'd throw it into the debate. Light googling finds some research papers on it.

Pardon me, Hazey.

I find it difficult to keep up with PC nomenclature.

My uncle couldn't eat potato soup as it made his mouth swell and his tongue tingle. This was in the 30s. My DB has very severe asthma and wasn't expected to live until his first birthday, then to go to school, or then to see 21. He was born in the 50s. DD1 has severe multiple allergies and brittle asthma. She has been close to death more times than I care to remember. She is in her mid-20s. She now has a child and they have been ultra-careful while weaning her, but so far so good. We all had pets as children, although DD1 is very allergic to animal hair. Her allergies are such that the doctors were not sure she would be able to carry her own child, as there was a danger that her body might reject it as an allergen. DD2 has mild allergies. I have hay fever for a few weeks per year.

I am not sure why DD1 has such severe problems, although I have some ideas. I was told otherwise, but they still linger (parental guilt). I was not overly precious about cleanliness and she was offered everything to eat that I was having. She actually was reacting to what I was eating and feeding her through my breast milk. I knew from 4 days old that she couldn't have formula - it has food colouring in it...

I was at school in the 70s and 80s. Asthma and hayfever were reasonably common. As people have said, presumably a combination of better diagnosis, more children surviving an initial anaphylactic attack, and increased sensitivity due to incorrect advice for pregnant women and toddlers to avoid nuts etc would explain the increase in allergies to a certain extent. Add to that increased air pollution and the very big increase in public awareness of allergies (leading to people self-diagnosing, maybe mostly correctly but sometimes not) and it's not surprising it's so widespread.

I remember one boy in my class who had diabetes. It was diagnosed after he fainted in class. He fainted right beside me and the teacher blamed me saying he had tripped.over my bag. I thought for years that I had somehow given him diabetes by tripping him up. Wracked with guilt till I was a teenager.

There was also a boy who in hindsight should have been diagnosed as being dyslexic. He couldn't read well, and transposed letters and formed them incorrectly. He was labelled stupid early on and was ridiculed for misspelling his own name. No help given, he was just "thick".
This was mid1980s.

40 years ago we had a remedial unit in my senior school which had about 30-40 kids in it, we were told that they were the ones who could not be taught because of bad behaviour. It was nothing unusual, just the norm and we all thought it was OK.

hazeyjane - well said . (and it's not ' PC nomenclature' to point out that anyone who has a disability is more than their disability)

to the poster on the first page that made a comment about in the old days the odd kids would have been ASD - thanks for that, too.

I'm 42. There were 2 girls in my class at secondary with diabetes and 2 with asthma and at least a couple with ezcema. One with epilepsy. In a class of 27.

None officially with ASD but with benefit of hindsight, one girl's diagnosis was screamingly obvious. In later years there were eating disorders and other mental health problems as well, almost none getting diagnosis and proper help.

And I should have had a diagnosis of asthma, not just 'can run because she gets out of breath' and almost certainly ASD as well.

In primary there was one boy with ezcema so severe his hands were constantly cracked and flaking. And another who probably had ADHD. Who was just 'out of control'.

I was in school in the 60s as we're most of my siblings. A few of them have been diagnosed as coeliac in their 50s so totally missed. Two boys couldn't read so left at the back of the class. Probably dyslexic. One girl caused havoc but was removed to a special school. One boy constantly ran away etc. Possibly ADHD. Saw some boys severely bullied due to being a bit odd. Aspergers?? So they were there but forced to survive in a quite unwelcoming environment. Most children were very well behaved due to strict discipline at home and in school, although not corporal punishment. That we could do with more of.

I'm 35 and had a bit of asthma in childhood, plus I'm allergic to cats. Nothing serious though. There were several children in my year with asthma inhalers.

I'm not sure that our recollections of how many children had asthma/allergies are particularly informative though. I wouldn't trust my children to tell me how many of their classmates had these conditions to within a margin of +/- 100%!

junebirthday a friend of mine only realised she was coeliac when she was doing a paediatric gastro clinic and grasped she had the same symptoms as all the kids.

Dawned on her that she wasn't short with weird bowels but lifelong coeliac with stunted growth as a result

Sadly I was too thick to realise in paediatric asthma clinic that when I had all the same symptoms, it wasn't because they were overdiagnosing asthma and making a fuss over nothing thank-you mother, it was because I had asthma Took another 10 years of coughing and wheezing for the penny to drop.

I am mid 40s. Children with SEN did exist, but were hidden away in bottom set or the 'Remedial Unit'as it was in my school (!). More were in special schools. There were fewer labels but similar percentages of children in these groups (even if they weren't classified as SEN). Sadly this meant a bright but very dyslexic child would be treated/taught in the same was as a child with moderate general learning difficulties! Parents were often less involved and less informed.

As an SEN teacher now, I see parents being very pro active but older colleagues say in the past, it was unusual to see this. We, as a society, are generally more open and accepting about discussing SEN (with exceptions).

As for allergies, I do remember a child in my class having a severe nut allergy in 1980s. We have children at school now with genuine allergies who have EpiPens and consultants' letters, but there are also lots who have parent diagnosed allergies which I sometimes think are a result of being over cautious. (These are the kids sent to school with chocolate/treats which 'may contain nuts' and don't bat an eyelid despite their alleged allergy - those with genuine allergies would leave the room if someone opened a tin of Quality Streets).

There was boy at playgroup in 1972 who got ribena in a special cup when we had our milk break. At 3, I thought he was very lucky as I wasn't keen on milk.

There were kids with dairy allergies, asthma and other health conditions.
There were clearly kids who needed help and support who were labelled "odd" "slow" and "backward".
Thank God that isn't the case these days
Children with complex needs never made it to mainstream schools in fact a friend as recently as the mid 80's was told to place her baby who had downs syndrome in an institution and not to take him home from hospital.
But yeah it's all made up to get benefits and attention isn't it
(According to the ignorant fuckwits on this thread )

also wellsaid hobnobs.
some of these posts remind me of that bloody one that goes around FB... 'in my day we played in the street & didn't have video games, ate what we were given, got the ruler from our teacher & our parents didn't complain' etc etc etc.
some things were great about my childhood (I'm 45 this year). some weren't, and that includes that so many kids with different disabilities were labelled as naughty and had the piss took out of them, or were ignored and isolated. Things are better now, but still a long way to go.

junebirthday coeliac disease doesn't always develop in childhood

Sorry Rufus, but no. I was the 'kid' with the life-threatening anaphylactic nut allergy - now an adult carrying 2 pipes everywhere I go, and if someone opened a tub of quality street near me, I'd dive in for a toffee coin and just chuck the rest away. It's not like opening a bag of old-style revels where contaminants are 'naked' against one another. You learn very early on with allergies what is an acceptable level of 'risk' and nothing in your comments that would a be a red flag. 'May contain traces of nuts' warnings are - sadly - now totally meaningless for us with severe allergies. I've even seen it on a bag of fruit. It's purely there to cover against insurance claims in today's compensation culture world, but as far as 'helping' us with allergies go, these are pointless.

I read recently that babies born via caesarean are more likely to have allergies etc. Something to do with not gettng the bacteria from the birth canal.

Apparently some people now 'swab' their infants with said bacteria.