There's a girl at my children's school who has such severe nut
allergies that the entire school has been declared a Nut-Free Zone and
the school office is equipped with an EpiPen
(which came in very handy
once already). Given the fact that my kids can no longer pack a
PB&J, I've wondered a time or two what possibly could cause an
allergic reaction so severe that this angelic-looking 3rd grader could
be dead in a matter of minutes after breathing the same air as someone
who had recently eaten, say, a granola bar containing a few nuts.
That's pretty damn severe, and has the entire school checking the
ingredients lists on the granola bars we send with our kids.
It
turns out there is a major connection between infantile eczema and nut
allergies. It's now thought that the eczema rash is susceptible
to absorbing additonal allergens, and planting a nice juicy wet kiss
on a child with eczema after you've had your own PB&J can cause a
sufficient amount of environmental peanut exposure for the
child to develop nut allergies later on. Obviously, there are
other methods of exposure, especially since peanuts tend to remain in
trace amounts even after washing, but it's pretty scary that something
so benign as a kiss may not be all that benign after all.
