Peanut Allergy Risk Overexaggerated

[blutoski]

The anecdote somewhere above, about the great-grand uncle who died at a picnic, got me wondering. It sounded a lot like choking, but was credited to anaphylaxis due to shellfish. Was it choking? Or, conversely, how many historic chokings were actually allergic anaphylaxis?

The specific example was pretty obviously anaphylaxis - there was no airway obstruction. My grandmother's brother.

My father appears to have inherited the problem. He carries an epipen.

 

[gdnp]

I recall hearing of one death related to "allergy overreaction syndrome". Someone who thought this peanut allergy stuff was all hooey gave a an allergic kid an item with peanuts in it and he died. So regardless of your beliefs on the prevalence of such allergies, it is best to assume that anyone you are told has a peanut allergy really does have one.

 

[shadron]

From Bruce Schneier's CRYPT-O-GRAM. Bruce Schneier is an internaionally known expert on computer and physical security, and CRYPT-O-GRAM is an email newsletter about security news:

Some parents of children with peanut allergies are *not* asking their school to ban peanuts. They consider it more important that teachers know which children are likely to have a reaction, and how to deal with it when it happens; i.e., how to use an EpiPen. This is a much more resilient response to the threat. It works even when the peanut ban fails. It works whether the child has an anaphylactic reaction to nuts, fruit, dairy, gluten, or whatever. It's so rare to see rational risk management when it comes to children and safety.
http://www.todaysparent.com/shared/print.jsp?content=20080725_100226_4688 or http://tinyurl.com/dalfgy

 

[tesscaline]

From Bruce Schneier's CRYPT-O-GRAM. Bruce Schneier is an internaionally known expert on computer and physical security, and CRYPT-O-GRAM is an email newsletter about security news:

You know, what he describes is exactly how these things were handled when I was in school (admittedly, that was quite a long time ago), and it worked just fine.

And honestly, that hasn't really changed from then to now in some places as this "peanut allergy overexaggeration" didn't seem to exist in my son's school. If it did, I certainly never heard of it -- despite me providing numerous classroom snacks and potluck dishes over the years.