To be annoyed by people pretending to have allergies?

[crunchymint]

It seems to be fairly common for people to pretend to have allergies when they just don't like something. Which just means that those who do have allergies get taken less seriously. My DP is allergic to walnuts. Luckily not life threatening, but he does come out within minutes of eating walnuts in a painful rash. A number of times he will order something that has other nuts in it, check there are no walnuts in it, and come out in a painful rash. When talking to the server, they always say - oh there were hardly any walnuts in it, so I thought you wouldn't be able to taste them. Aaarrgghh.

How do you know people are faking it?

I tell people I have a diary and Soya allergy.
I don't. But my daughter who I'm breastfeeding does and so I've had to eliminate it from my diet.

Far easier to say I'm allergic.

Also it can be hard when you are at the food diary stage and under referral to immunology which can take a long time. You may have suspect food groups but not be totally sure so people might think oh last week she wasn't eating any citrus now it's only oranges.

I think that is fine falcon. It is the people who say they are allergic to fish one minute and then ordering fish and chips the next.

People tend to think it's funny when I say I'm allergic to pineapple but as I get anaphylaxis it's not really.
I tend to not go out for Chinese food or get Chinese takeaway as even when I am clear I seem to get cross contamination or even giant bits (can't you just pick it out?)

My sister has lots of allergies that seem to come and go as the fashion or her current faddy diet goes - drives me mad.

Forgive me if I'm misreading this, but it seems that you're assuming that other people pretend to have allergies when they don't but you don't like it when others assume the same.

I think the restaurant was definitely in the wrong to add walnuts when it was specifically mentioned that there was an allergy involved (or even if your DP had said he simply doesn't like them) but I do think that you actually contribute to the reason why some people don't take allergies seriously by stating that other people "pretend to have allergies", particularly when your own DP has one.

Ds has an issue with dairy and wheat - it's not a conventional allergy like dh's nut allergy, the reaction is a build up and he's not sure when he's had too much to provoke a reaction. As you can imagine it's hard for him to stick to his diet and sometimes, maybe once a year, he'll have a pudding in a restaurant with wheat and dairy in it....we do tell the staff his food issue is a build up but I can see how some people would view it as him being fussy or not really having a medical condition - if it makes you feel any better, after cheating he'll have a very sore stomach the next day (sometimes it's worth it for him) and if he continues to eat his trigger foods his oesophagus will become swollen and inflamed and he won't be able to swallow food.

My grandson has been diagnosed as lactose intolerant and like a pp can eat a small amount of cheese or ice cream. We're now on a food diary for his little brother to see if he is the same. Luckily the only other food allergy is DS1 who is allergic to oily fish, which is easy enough to avoid.

HobnobBob
I have a family member who has decided they are allergic to lactose.
I'm not sure it's possible to be allergic to lactose. Lactose is a sugar. Allergies are specifically IgE-mediated reactions to proteins, although you can sometimes get a reaction to a normally non-immunogenic protein that has something else stuck onto it. It's possible to be allergic to milk but the common allergens are proteins: various forms of casein, lactoalbumin and lactoglobulin.
You can be intolerant to lactose if you're deficient in the intestinal enzyme that metabolises it (lactase). Lactase breaks down lactose to form galactose and glucose, which are absorbed from the small intestine. If the lactose isn't broken down in the small intestine it passes unchanged into the large intestine, where it is fermented by bacteria to produce large volumes of carbon dioxide, which causes bloating & flatulence.

Skiiltan
To be honest I’m not sure how it’s even come about. Why in your mid 30s would you decide you’re allergic to lactose? Having had a child with a diagnosed CMPA and the stress it involved I find it all a bit weird.

The cafe is ultimately at fault- but yes, there are many made up allergies. I’m gluten intolerant until I see pizza seems to be common, which then buggers it up for those genuinely intolerant. Medication allergies are very commonly made up- work in ED. And have had many penicillin allergies, based on my Mum said her sister got a rash, so we have never had it........ it is dangerous because I think it lessens the impact for those with a genuinely allergy, and desensitises the public to real allergies and intolerances. But ultimately a business whouls always take the customer at face value and not try to ‘sneak’ an alleged allergen in