Nuts...why are they so bad

[NotAnotherScarf]

Nut allergy

Can someone please explain the fact that 54 years ago I started school and did 14 years without meeting anyone allergic to nuts...now everyone is and I can't enjoy a snickers without feeling guilty.

It is actually a serious question how we have got to the situation where so many people are in trouble if I open a packet of dry roasted.

I think there is definitely something about "foreign" foods.

My great grandmother could have been allergic to kiwis or soy or brazil nuts, but she died in 1954 and such exotic foods wouldn't have reached her rural village.

There is much more to be allergic to now. Food in itself has become more complicated too, coming from all over the world and being (ultra)processed into other food items.

I remember a lot of kids at primary being allergict, with the t, to strawberries.

I have read that c-sections are associated with higher food allergy rates.

My baby DD has been referred to a specialist for potential egg and dairy allergies and she was born by c-section. Cue major mum guilt of course despite not really having had a choice.

I grew up in the 60s and recall having packets of salted peanuts occasionally. I don't recall anyone with allergies - although I developed a bad grass pollen allergy at age 15. I don't think it has anything to do with vaccines, I think it's a dietary issue, that diets are more deficient now than back then.

After 12 miscarriages and 1 still birth I was advised not t eat nuts in my next pregnancy. I gave birth to my lovely DS who has a nut allergy.

A few good points raised here, but also, like autism and ADHD, it's probably an awareness thing as well.

I had a completely different experience, my GP has done everything to not prescribe antibiotics to my daughter, it's a last resort. Same experience as my mum friends.

Actually, same as me over the last couple of years, our GP is very reluctant to prescribe antibiotics unless absolutely necessary.

My LO had antibiotics at birth as she had a serious infection, thankfully she's as healthy as a horse.

There's a lot of evidence that exposure to the outdoors, particularly mud, reduces the likelihood of allergies and autoimmune conditions.

For example, studies comparing schools with natural playgrounds vs artificial surfaces have found far less incidence of a whole range of childhood illnesses. Something to do with early exposure to a wide range of immune boosting stuff.

They were pretty common in my childhood in the 90s. I remember a girl dying from one round the corner. We also just care more about not killing those people now!

I agree with the poster who said nuts are now in a lot more foods

Exactly

also more vegetarian/vegan foods contain nuts. I love it so feel very lucky
Im not allergic!

I wish people would stop repeating this. Nut allergies existed before this advice and they are still around.

I am born in the 70s and developed allergies to some nuts in my early teens, after being raised on peanut butter and Nutella.

Funnily enough all my allergies came about when I became a vegetarian.

I avoided nuts with DC1 and didn't avoid them with DC2. Neither has food allergies.

As other posters have said, the reasons for nut allergies and the fluctuations in their frequency at population level are not fully understood and there's likely to be several reasons.

This makes you sound like a right dick op

Dw mine was allergic to dairy and eggs and I had a vaginal birth. His dad is allergic to stuff and very eczema-y, it just runs in the family.

I listened to an interesting Zoe podcast about allergies. There was a researcher there who was talking about how peanut allergies are almost non-existent in Israel because there’s a peanut puff snack that is very popular and which babies eat from a young age. With our boy, we were told to dilute down peanut butter and let him lick it off a spoon at 4 months to stave off allergies based on research like this.

Re: why are nut allergies so bad- from what I’ve seen, it seems you can’t grow or ‘ladder’ your way out of them. I do the medical register at a school as part of my job and often children will join in reception allergic to soy, sesame and nuts, then by year 6 they’ll just be allergic to nuts. In my own experience my CMPA+ soy+ egg boy grew out of soy, was laddered out of milk (we had ice cream today!) and is getting there with egg. He had a scary reaction to omelette a while ago so we had to pause egg ladder and only do challenges in hospital from now, but he can eat it cooked in cakes and biscuits.

I had friends at school in the late 70s / early 80s with nut allergies.

I started to become allergic to foods in my twenties (now late 40s). Some are anaphylaxis-causing allergies, some are not. (For example there are a couple of different allergy-causing proteins in most nuts. One type might cause anaphylaxis whilst another causes a less severe reaction).

I grew up in a non-sterile/not immaculate house.
I ate well, not overloaded on UPFs.
I never had antibiotics as a child.

I ate all the things I’m allergic to with no issues for years. it’s very frustrating.

So, my pregnancy craving with DS was peanut M&Ms, it was ok yo eat them whilst pregnant in 2006. My son has a severe nut allergy.
I avoided them with My other 2 children but did introduce peanut butter in small amounts from 6 months, neither has the same allergy!
Could be a complete coincidence
, who knows.

I was born in 1966 and first realised I had nut allergy age about 6. It was unheard of then! I had a fairly bad reaction, the doctor came, mum put me to bed and thankfully I survived the night! Perhaps the doctor gave me something (antihistamines?) but I don’t remember. I don’t think anyone at school knew. I just avoided nuts.
now I carry 2 EpiPens and antihistamines , ask for nut free flights, remove myself from people eating nuts etc.

I was born late 50s and my mum told me of two of her acquaintances whose babies died from choking on nuts. As time went on there were questions as to whether these awful deaths were caused by anaphylaxis rather than choking.

I didn't mean whole- definitely agree that's a choking risk hence NHS advice being not until age 5.
For under 5s, I give nut butter on toast and in porridge, and ground nuts stirred into porridge, cakes, biscuits, almonds in curry sauce, crumble topping. Not only reduces the allergy risk but is a great way of getting a little extra protein in to fill the children up for longer (and reduce the incessant demands for snacks!)

I don’t know anyone with a nut allergy and never seen it banned in my kids schools etc

Are you in England? I thought most/all schools in England are nut-free.

I grew up in the 60s and 70s, too. We regularly heard of infants choking on nuts.

What really happened was that they choked because their throats had swollen up.

My late sibling was allergic to so many things in the 1970s/early 80s. They died in childhood. Anyone who was in their primary school class would have had some exposure to the phenomenon.

I am 35 (born 1990) and have been allergic to peanuts my whole life presumably. I was diagnosed as a small child. In my experience, knowledge around allergies and access to allergy testing in the 90/00s was terrible in comparison to now.
But it’s just like anything isn’t it, our knowledge and means of diagnosis are increasing all the time so makes sense that more aware people, more people have a diagnosis, and the statistics therefore show an ‘increase’.