Was there anyone who was allergic to nuts when you were at school

[Reallytired]

30 years ago were there children with epipens and major nut allergies? Or even 15 years ago.

Yet my son's school has three kids out of 500 with epipens. I know because my son's school holds its after school club in the dining room. There are pictures of the three children on the walls warning dinner ladies that these particular children have serious allergies and where to find their epipen.

I just wonder why. Did all the children with major allergies die before school age? Why the increase in number of children with life threating allergies? Is it pollution? Changes of diet/ weaning habits? Or were kids just made tougher 30 years ago.

Or is my son's school just very lax about confidentality.

My brother had a nut allergy, he had to eat alone in the office every day, so the secretary could watch him.

and yes, i think children with nut allergies a) used to die, and people thought they had choked, and b) didn't come across nuts at school very often.

Average 80s packup was bleached bread, fake ham, a penguin, monster munch, and a bruised apple, remember. There were no mueslie bars that my mother would fork out for every day.

there has been a massive increase, not just in allergies to nuts but anaphylactic reactions to all kinds of things - as well as the milder allergies to things like wheat.

no one knows why.

one theory is the rise in use of anti-bacterials - keeping kids in too sterile an environment - but some scientists think that is too simplistic

others regard the increasing precautions, as contributing - if you have such allergies in your family, for isntance, you may be told to avoid nuts in pg (I was), which may in turn prevent your child from developing appropriate reactions. Again 50% of scientists in the field think the opposite is true.

there is a lot of research going on about it atm though

yes there was - 15yrs ago school of just 50 pupils (aged 7-18) - I nearly killed him by giving him a chocolate (didn't actually have a nut in it) in the general excitement of a huge performance the school were about to do no-one thought to stop him/me and he had a massive reaction minutes into the performance. Was truly terrifying for me as I had to wait until the interval to find out if he was ok.

I am 36. We had a girl in my primary school class who had severe nut allergies. Not just peanuts, but it started out as just peanuts. This was of course 30 years ago. There were no nuts, people took it seriously.Chocoloate spread, or any spread containing nuts were not allowed.

The teacher had advised all parents that if she were to be invited to any birthday parties, there could be NO NUTS in the house hosting the party.

my sister - except she didn't find out until she was about 17. She just kept being ill

Maybe we are more aware of it now and test earlier?

my sister - except she didn't find out until she was about 17. She just kept being ill

Maybe we are more aware of it now and test earlier?

Yes...ME!!

And for years I thought I was the only one!

When I was a kid (am over 50) kids and adults went to parties and no one checked for allergies/intolerance. No one brought their own food or checked the packet labels (not that packets had much info on then)

It has to be all recent and that is scary

RT you copied me lol, I started a thread in chat lol
great minds.

I know only 1 person our age who has a nut allergy- but it is quite severe. Even the smell of nuts makes him heave.

Sadly, I think SmugColditz is right about children dying. I'm only 40something and I remember knowing children who died suddenly and nobody really knew why, which could have been anaphylactic shock. Things went undiagnosed more often then.

EPPM - I'm like that with peanut butter

i too remember about 4-5 kids that died quite sudenly and unexpectedly,one just after an exam in the cafeteria!
I am 46 so quite a while ago.
My mum and i were duscussing this she also remembers some children suddenly dieing.

I think vaccines may have something to do with it..but that is completely a feeling and totally not scientifically thought out at all

dying

jeez

My DH is 47 and is allergic to Brazil nuts and various other things, no idea when he first had it, but all the time he has know me which is 21 years.

The only children I knew that died suddenly at school were all undiagnosed heart defects.

Two of my DCs have both been diagnosed with peanut allergy. The others are fine. I don't know if it's something to do with the fact that I liked peanut butter and banana sandwiches during pregnancy or something else, but strange when I think that ten years ago (when DD1, who isn't allergic, was little) it was quite normal for peanut butter sandwiches to be served at children's parties without a second thought. This problem really seems to have become quite widespread in recent years - it has always existed but seems far more prevalent nowadays.

I'm not sure it has anything to do with confidentiality, after all if you have a serious allergy you need as many people as possible to know about it!

Not at my school. But my husband's nut allergy developed when he was 7 and he had a near-fatal reaction at 17. He's 38.

One change is that Epipens are now widely available. Until about 15 years ago, DH carried adrenaline in little, delicate glass phials, with a separate syringe that had to be filled by hand. I guess maybe doctors didn't prescribe those so widely and schools may well not have been willing to use them. And possibly the risk of an anaphylactic reaction after previous, mild ones, was less well known.

But I'm guessing.

Not that I can remember...

Riven, I can't find your friend. Can you post me a link. I would like to read it.

I don't remember anyone dying mysteriously when I was at school. People that I know who have died have died of things which are fairly explainable, but nevertheless horrible. For example I know one girl who commited suicide.

Prehaps people are more cautious than in the past. I naively thought that an epipen was only ever prescribed if someone had had a near fatal allergic reaction. I thought that mild allergic reactions were ignored by the medical profession.

They would probably have gone home for lunch if they had known dietary problems. 20 odd years ago someone died in a Debenhams restaurant after unwittingly eating a lemon meringue pie.

Sorry Riven, pregnancy brain, I meant find your link. I'll read it in the morning.

Please don't laugh at me.

I remember a girl in primary school dying aged about 10.

I remember seeing her on the Friday night and then on Monday morning at school was told she was dead.

It wasn't until years later, as an adult, that I found out that it had been meningitis.

Debenhams story iirc this tragedy was instrumental in changing food labelling guideines.

Also the child's father set up the Anaphylaxis Campaign in respond to his daughter's death and has done an awesome amount of work to raise awareness.

My husband was nearly killed by a cheesecake at almost exactly the same time (20 years ago). The biscuit base had muesli in it, containing tiny fragments of nut, which landed him on the recuscitation table.

I didn't know anyone with a nut alergy at school, but my freinds DD has a nut alergy.

There was a girl with a cheese alergy, though, when I was in 6th form (I think it was cheese - she had to be rushed to hostpital after eating a crisp)