Peanut allergies. In the 1950's, were school children occasionally carted off from the lunchroom experiencing.....

[RussellCattle]

......anaphylactic shock? Or breaking out in hives and being told "you probably shouldn't eat peanut butter"? As a child of the fifties, I certainly don't remember such things. As a grandparent who occasionally visits elementary school cafeterias, I wonder when all the cautionary notes and posters about allergies, even "peanut free tables", first appeared.

[Ocelot II]

1. Peanut allergies have been around for years -

a friend who was born in 1949 is deathly allergic to them, still gets horrible asthma attacks from accidentally eating just a small amount - but I don't remember it being an issue or a concern in school when I was a kid. Maybe the allergy has become more common in recent years for some reason.

[RussellCattle]

5. That's what I was thinking too.. Something has changed.

[William769]

18. Good morning sunshine.

[Aristus]

24. No. See below.

And stop posting anti-vaxx idiocy.

[Aristus]

20. Until the late 1990's, the prevalence of peanut allergies in the pediatric population was about 0.6%.

Then a study was published in (I think) the British Medical Journal reiterating the severity of peanut allergies, and wrongfully recommending keeping infants and toddlers away from peanuts at all costs, which is the opposite of how one prevents hypersensitive allergen reactions, which is gradual exposure in increasing amounts.

The percentage of peanut allergies exploded to the point that by about 2008, the prevalence of allergies among children was close to 50%. Certainly the sale of Epipens went through the roof.

Allergists have known for decades that the way to prevent allergic reactions was by gradual exposure to the allergen, not total prohibition. Babies who play around in the dirt and mud get far fewer allergies as they grow than babies who are restricted to near-sterile conditions as their systems develop.

No one is quite sure why the medical community got this one wrong, but we’ve been working to reverse the damage. For newborns who are breast-feeding, offering a tiny amount of creamy peanut butter in-between feedings, increasing the amount gradually, is the way to go.

[Walleye]

27. I grew up playing in dirt, climbing trees, taking care of animals. I have no allergies whatever.

I feel very lucky about that

[defacto7]

30. Me too.

[stoned]

64. This is the way

[Wicked Blue]

31. One of my daughters has severe peanut and tree nut allergies

She was born in the early 1980s. We discovered the allergies when she reacted to a cookie made with black walnuts when she was 4. She was also found to be allergic to eggs and cows' milk at the time, but those went away after a few years. At the time, peanut allergies were rare, and her elementary school had no procedures to protect her.

She was always allowed to play outdoors. In South Plainfield we had a big back yard. One problem was that half the yard flooded badly when Bound Brook overflowed. That particular waterway was loaded with all sorts of nasty chemicals from the many nearby chemical manufacturing companies. I wouldn't be surprised if some were deposited in our yard by the floods. I can't prove any kind of connection, but I wonder whether exposure to some unknown chemical may have triggered her immune system to react to certain proteins.

I also wonder if the ever-increasing number of chemicals and plastics we are all exposed to may be affecting immune systems, particularly in babies and children. Maybe some substance became widespread in the 1980s and 1990s that wasn't around earlier. I doubt we'll ever know the answer, though.

RFK Jr's blaming vaccinations is ridiculous nonsense and has been disproved.

[ShazzieB]

40. "RFK Jr's blaming vaccinations is ridiculous nonsense and has been disproved."

⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️ THIS ⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️

RFK Jr is a brain-damaged (from all the drugs he did) blithering idiot!

[Celerity]

47. adios ya fucking git

[ShazzieB]

53. Oh, I'll bet I know who that was! 😁

Sorry I missed it, but that's what usually happens when someone trolls me that early in the morning.

[RussellCattle]

35. Aristus - I should have guessed that you would be the one to come through with an anawer to my question. I've always...

.......enjoyed your expertise on things medical, here on DU. Thanks.

[orleans]

39. cat allergy here. we had several cats (at different times) when i was a kid

i coughed a lot (b/c i couldn't breathe properly), sneeze a lot, and would get asthma attacks.

finally a doctor determined, besides the fact that i had asthma, that i was allergic to cats.
our last cat had kittens and it broke my heart (and my mom's heart) that we had to take them to a shelter -- and back then there was no guarantee they wouldn't be killed.

doctors said i would "outgrow" the allergy. i'm in my sixties and still waiting to "outgrow" it.
still have asthma

so, my exposure to cats didn't work to quell that allergy i had/have. unfortunately.

[mnhtnbb]

48. I have a cat allergy, too, discovered

when I was about 6 or 7 and we got a new cat. Asthma.
Fast forward to my 30's and we ( my 2nd husband and I) started having cats as pets. Still allergic, but I learned to wash my hands after petting the kitty. Had cats for pets with both boys as they were growing up. Still allergic! Went to the allergist in my 40's after we moved to NC and my allergies were the worst they'd ever been. The day I was tested they told me I won the award for most allergies. My back was one large bump! Allergic to everything, weeds and grasses and trees. Put me on Advair and said get rid of the cat. I didn't!

Now that I live alone I no longer have a cat because it wouldn't be fair not to love on it and I'd be constantly washing my hands to prevent an allergic reaction. And I'm still taking the generic of Advair for my asthma, at 74.

[orleans]

57. i was eight yrs old when we took our cata and her two kittens to a shelter

and didn't have any pets/animals in the house until i was 14 or 15 and my mom brought home a little dog. since then i've lived with dogs all my life - never allergic to them.

[mnhtnbb]

63. I was never allergic to dogs, either.

My last dog went across the Rainbow Bridge in 2020. I just don't want another one.

[AllyCat]

49. Newborns? We still recommend nothing but breastmilk or formula

For 4-6 months. We don’t even recommend water until 4-6 months.

[MotownPgh]

55. My sister didnt breast feed,

Last edited Mon Mar 17, 2025, 03:29 PM - Edit history (1)

but we gave her baby boy peanut butter everyday. I think her doc told her to do it and he has no allergies but probably wouldn't have anyway. There's no way to know!

[Aristus]

56. Since the prevalence of peanut allergies in the pediatric community before the study was published was 0.6%,

those are betting odds. It's restricting kids from peanuts that leads to hypersensitivity reactions.

[Silent Type]

2. Interesting question. Quick look seems to indicate a big increase in peanut allergies in 1990s.

Don’t know whether it’s due to more exposure of issue or actual changes in food, environment, immunity, etc.

I’m sure RFKJr will figure it out.

[RussellCattle]

6. Oh my God! RFKjr !!! He might ban any mention of peanuts in schools and take down the posters.

[True Dough]

50. I'm more concerned

that they'll ban schools! You know how our ding-dong "dear leader" loves the uneducated, and the uneducated love him!

[marble falls]

22. Booby, huh? Dang LG, you don't even try. Pizza time!

[unblock]

3. Peanut allergies tripled during the 80s and 90s, leading to much more awareness

I think a lot of parents get their kids tested first or are otherwise cautious with peanuts now, especially if there's a family history of allergies.

For our daughter's first experience with peanuts, we drove to the emergency room pull-through and gave her a taste. Good thing, too. Had we done it at home, she would have died before the ambulance could reach our home or we could get her to the hospital.

Prior to all this awareness, I think a lot of kids simply died from their first exposure. So it was even rarer in schools.

[RussellCattle]

7. Please understand that I mean this with respect, but that bit about the "emergency room pull-through".....

......really does take parenting to a new level.

[unblock]

11. Yeah, well, sometimes being paranoid pays off....

[RussellCattle]

14. Nicely done though.

[defacto7]

32. We have a similar experience.

While my wife was holding our 18 mo daughter at home, I gave her one bite of a peanut butter sandwich I was eating. She immediately projectile vomited, got a rash and began wheezing. We went to the ER and her peanut allergy was suspected and later confirmed. It was a completely new phenomenon to us. She is my 4th child and there has never been such an allergy in ether my wife's or my family history. She's 21 and is at U of P studying nursing and has carried an epipen everywhere from the time she was able to administer it to herself. It has always been categorized as life-threatening.
It is puzzling to me to this day. I grew up eating and exposed to peanuts throughout my childhood and don't remember any other kid having such a reaction. I've always wondered if it's something environmental that's changed or if a suppressed gene is surfacing in populations.

[Grolph_]

4. Before Epi-Pens, they died

Probably never made it to school age
Never passed on the genes

[FirstLight]

8. Change in pesticides...?

That seems to also be what's behind the "new" celiac issues, they found it was RoundUp...

[ProfessorGAC]

12. A Reasonable Theory

But, the most common compound, flumioxazin, wasn't approved for use until 2002.
2,4-D is also used, but that goes back to WW2.
As other posts here stated, the explosion of peanut allergies occurred in the 80s & 90s.
Kind of late for it to be 2,4-D; too soon for flumioxazin.
So, I don't think that's the culprit.
That is, however, just an educated guess.

[XanaDUer2]

9. In the 70s one of our lunch choices

Was PB&J. never heard a word about anyone dying or being ill.

I do wonder sometimes why they're are so many food allergies

[eShirl]

17. bs

[marble falls]

21. Did you buy your peanuts from the vending machine by the watwr fountain in the library? ...

... in the seventies there lawn darts, too. Asbestos was everywhere, lead paint was on your walls, some cars were unsafe at any speed. I worry for you, I really do.

[Phoenix61]

10. Peanut allergies have tripled.

“For example, one theory, called the hygiene hypothesis, highlights how the way people who live in developed countries may have an impact on childhood allergies, including peanut allergies. Babies born in developing countries have lower incidence of allergies than those in developed countries. But if a family moves to a more developed country, their children’s incidence of childhood allergies increases. So simply being in the environment of a developed country seems to change things.

The hygiene hypothesis suggests that children who have more exposure to germs and certain infections at a very early age develop immune systems that are better suited to differentiating harmless substances from harmful substances. In this theory, exposure to certain germs teaches the immune system not to overreact. It would also explain why children who grow up on farms or those who have certain types of pets are less likely to develop allergies than other children. But much more research is needed to understand exactly how childhood germ exposure might help prevent allergies”.

https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mayo-clinic-q-and-a-number-of-children-with-peanut-allergies-has-increased-significantly/

Guess drinking out of the garden hose and kissing the family pets was a good thing.

[defacto7]

33. My kids have always lived a down and dirty life.

My daughter has a life-threatening peanut allergy but not my other kids nor in our history. This is anecdotal of course but it's our experience.
I just read that the incidences of child allergies in Great Britain is now falling for some reason.

[RussellCattle]

37. When my kids were little, late seventies, there were parents that would pick up the pacifier from the floor and.....

......go sterilize it in boiling water before giving back to their child. We would just plug it back in to kid and figure it was no dirtier than the thumb it was replacing.

[rickyhall]

13. I thought Trump banned peanut allergies.

[bottomofthehill]

28. Yes, by executive order

Only no one told the peanuts

[bucolic_frolic]

29. Inflammation level is high now from sugar, toxins, frankenstein foods, pollutants

When the dam is full, the least little shower causes overflow or breakage. Our inflammation response is near that level. So therefore more susceptible to peanuts. Explained to me by allergy doctor, 1990s.

Maybe it's passed from parents to kids in vitro, worsening each successive generation.

Few bee allergies way back too. Rarely heard of it.

[Sneederbunk]

34. But peanut paste is saving lives in Africa. Go figure.

[Hekate]

41. One product for malnourished babies is called "Plumpy Nut. " When asked by an American about...

…peanut allergies, the African nurse caring for the babies & toddlers said she had never heard of such a thing. And since the little ones in question were dying of starvation right there, the point was moot.

It just makes me wonder what have we done to our food supply in this country.

As for the numerous posts from Message Removed — personally I don’t think it’s vaccinations. There were some children even in past eras who were severely allergic to things like bees and peanuts. They just died quietly at home or in some ER and never made it to school.

Weird stories abound. I’ve been told that “nobody” got breast cancer in Ye Olden Days, but anyone who reads books (!) can name women both fictional and real who died of this terrible disease — and die they did.

[Sneederbunk]

42. Yes. President John Adams daughter had a masectomy.

[yardwork]

54. Not anymore. Trump pulled all the funding.

[Celerity]

46. bye bye asshole

[Maninacan]

51. Allergies

At camp a boy was forced to eat bread after stating he could not eat bread. Don't remember the result. The only thing i cannot eat is beets. no allergies.
I guess camp commanders have to keep discipline.

[Voltaire2]

52. Not just peanuts.

Allergies in general have been increasing in the population of developed regions for a long time.
Asthma is now epidemic, it used to be fairly rare.
Here is an article about the history of the allergy epidemic.

Asthma in children did not start to increase until 1960, but by 1990 it had clearly increased to epidemic numbers in all countries where children had adopted an indoor lifestyle.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4617537/

[orange you glad....]

58. I wonder if giving kids

4X the vaxxes they used to get in the '60s would have any adverse effect on the immune system...

[William769]

59. Boy you must really love us.

[Voltaire2]

60. in fairness moving on from autism induced by vaccines took enormous intellectual effort. nt.

[GP6971]

61. Good morning Sunshine!!!

[Kali]

62. read a fucking book while you are there