Once a month we bring snack for my daughter's class of 20 kids. Because of allergies, the list of forbidden foods includes dairy, nuts, strawberries, and wheat. Which means the kids can have rice cakes, and cut fruit, and veggies, and...did I already mention rice cakes? While I'm glad to know he needs of allergic kids are being taken care of, I was stunned by the number of foods on the danger list. Turns out that allergies, like the deadly peanut one, are on the rise in the younger population. But I was even more surprised to learn why more kids are having these reactions, because it seems like it could be due to our collective cautious parenting.
One theory for the increase in allergies is that with our highly clean, sanitized, germ-free lifestyles, we have basically given kids' immune systems too much free time. Without the need to wage small battles against bacteria and other stuff, the immune systems start amping up a response to innocous things like wheat. And our zealousness at protecting kids from allergies themselves may actually cause problems. Countries that advise avoidance of peanuts early in life have seen the biggest increase in peanut allergies. One researcher is actually conducting a study with babies that have egg allergies and eczema, but no peanut allergy--he is going to give half the kids a snack containing peanuts, and then follow the children to see if the exposure actually prevented a peanut allergy.
And then there's one more factor in the cautious parent-allergy relationship: some parents may believe kids have an allergy when that hasn't actually been confirmed. In fact, "'Studies have shown that up to 25 percent of parents think their
children may have a food allergy,' says Dr. David Fleischer, of
National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, 'but they've
only been confirmed in about 8 percent.'" Good to know--maybe next year my kid's class will be able to ditch the rice cakes.
