Leading Experts Rethinking Food Allergy Causes

Whomever wrote this article is a complete moron and a danger to infants and toddlers, and children. Clearly this "expert" has never had a toddler go into anaphylatic seizure from being in a baseball stadium where there were peanuts on the floor. This article is irresponsible and should be removed. Does this "expert" have a medical degree or any experience as an allergy specialist? It is a real insult to those of us who have raised children with severe food allergies that are life threatening. We are vigilant night and day to keep the peanuts and so forth away form them, yet some parents don't consider peanut butter cookies as an allergin, because there are no "nuts" ON them! Remove this article before someone naieve reads it and actually believes it. It is an outrage.

sunflowers seeds and peanuts have sent my 4 years old grandson to the hospital, it is very real

@AZ Since when do you have the authority to call a PhD a moron? I don't see you going out and doing any research. A personal experience is one in 10,000. Get off your high horse.

Yes AZ the statements are from " Dr. Hugh Sampson, director of the Jae Food Allergy Institute at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York" This man is a leading expert on allergies in children. YOU are an expert on your 2 children. Don't confuse the masses with your own experience!

@AZ: If you did something as simple as READING the article, you would have read that they said "...a child becomes tolerant to a variety of food proteins through exposure in the first six months of life and some 80 percent of infants who are allergic to eggs or milk will outgrow the allergy by their teenage years." Meaning, if you can comprehend this, you would have had to start exposing your child as an infant. But I'm gathering your child is no longer an infant, not even a toddler. Probably what? 5 or 6? It's probably too late for him, as he didn't build the immunity that we would have as an infant. So yes, exposing children (not infants) to things they are allergic too would be harmful, because they never had the opportunity to build immunity. Kinda like playing your lottery numbers after the cut off time. It's too late.

So next time you start going off on a tangent and calling people who are far more qualified in this field than you morons, you may want to think before you speak. Moron.

My question on this article...How do you introduce these "foods" at 6 months? My doctor had all 3 of my children on nothing but breast milk or formula at this point. Then adding only cereal. So I don't see this as realistic introducing these"foods" at that early of an age.

Mom - Aren't children exposed to what you eat through breast milk? If that is true, I suspect that is what they mean by exposure to the foods in the first 6 months.

AZ, why would you take your child to a baseball park knowing there were peanuts on the floor and peanuts sold there if your child was severely allergic to peanuts? How can you blame the stadium for your own lack of judgement? I'm not saying the child should live in a bubble, but jeesh, sounds like you are the problem with that scenario.

Sometimes one can't help laughing when one hears ridiculously obvious product-warnings, but AZ's response to this article reinforces my belief that there SHOULD be better-trained science/medicine reporters...reporters (or at least their editors) who know the caveats that should be included in a story. True, AZ is not a competent reader or s/he would have easily noted the expert's position as well as the proviso that potential allergens be introduced in infancy -- NOT after a full-fledged allergy has been diagnosed. Who knows? Maybe AZ is just one of those seriously neurotic hyper-conscious parents who seizes any (befuddled) excuse to announce that s/he is a (good) parent. (You know: the ones who also talk way too loud to their children in stores?) Still, I'm pretty confident that even SOME infants might actually have early-onset (even pre-natal) allergies. Given that allergic reactions can be extremely serious, any thinking reporter/editor -- recognizing that there are many interested parent-readers -- might include a brief conclusion suggesting that these are the results of an INITIAL study and that concerned parents might ask their pediatrician about this new research and whether/how potential allergens might be introduced into their infants' diets. It IS scary that, on the basis of this careless report, some idiots might presently be grinding up peanuts to mix into the applesauce. Just saying.

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Mycology and Mycotoxins are what the Medical Industry is no longer having to study which is the missing piece to the puzzle.

i know several moms whose kids are allergic to "everything". They were what I refer to as "breast-feeding nazi's". They breast fed their kids for years, compulsively disinfected everything in their homes, kept their kids home in the winter, etc. I breast fed for 1 year, but not exclusively. I exposed my kids to everything. My kids have no allergies. My kids rarely get colds in the winter. I am a firm believer that their early exposure to things is a big part of why they do not have allergies. The moms that are posting things like "my kids allergies are real", no one is saying they aren't, But maybe if the advice you had been given when they were infants was different, they wouldn't be allergic now, or it wouldn't be so bad. No one is saying early exposure would prevent ALL allergies. Some kids will get allergies anyway. I, myself, was allergic to milk as a child, but I did grow out of it.

I have food intolerances, which are the same as allergies only it's like you start with an empty bucket and the more things that you are intolerant of that you eat/drink, the fuller the bucket is and the worse you feel. MANY children diagnosed with allergies and ADHD etc, should really be checked for dietary problems that cause their other issues. I am Salicylate intolerant - Google it and you'll find tons of info about symptoms etc. Symptoms include things as bad as anaphylactic (spelling?) shock, or more milder like hives, or other things like asthma attacks, irritable behavior, headaches, stomach issues, behavioral problems. And this is from all kinds of natural healthy foods - I cannot even be around the smell of fresh oranges, cannot eat broccoli, artichokes, cannot have spices of any kind, cannot eat gravies, no potato chips, no fruit juices, the list is endless - but once you start only having the low end reaction stuff you sleep better, behave better, scratch less or no at all, asthma can disappear totally. It's worth checking out for anyone who is unsure on the allergies their kids have and wants to talk to a doctor more about this!

"A little allergic to peanuts"? I hope you're more careful with your child's peanut consumption than your attitude shows here. Peanut is the most FATAL food allergy while milk is the most common food allergy. I've been an allergy nurse for 3 years and have seen a lot of food allergies and done thousands of allergy tests (skin prick and blood testing) for food allergies. Please tell me there is an epi-pen (epi-pen jr if under 66 lbs) in your home--preferably two, because you usually need both doses of epi with food anaphylaxis. There are no allergy shots for food allergies--avoidance is the best policy. DO NOT LET YOUR ALLERGIC DAUGHTER EAT PEANUTS!! Check out www.foodallergy.org for tons of useful information regarding management of food allergies. Please just be safe!

Yes, you can be a "little" allergic to peanuts. My son will break out in a mild case of hives every 4th or 5th time he eats peanut butter which is his favorite food in the whole world. They aren't severe and he has the blessing of his allergist from the Cleveland Clinic to continue eating it. It's alarmists like you who try to get peanut butter banned from schools. If your child is severe then yes stay away from it but not everyone with an allergy needs to. If it's a mild allergy it's perfectly fine to be exposed in moderation. I'll have faith in my allergist from a world reknowned medical facility over someone claiming to be a nurse on the internet. Talk to your own doctors. Don't take the info on the internet as gospel. Everyone's allergies are different & you and your doctor know what your reactions have been & what they'll likely be in the future. It's not black & white no matter what the alarmists will try to tell you.

I think the real issue here is not really that anyone is wrong but the far too broad use of the word allergy. Really in a perfect world the nurse is correct someone with an actual peanut allergy should never be exposed. As an actual allergy will always have a strong immune response, these can range from mild to severe but with an actual allergy testing this is exremely dangerous once it is developed, as with a "full food allergy" your symptoms actually worsen with exposure. Now an intollerance is different. An intollerance can be improved upon with exposure. And both can be avoided or improved upon with exposure during infancy, via breastmilk and other simple avenues. The lack of breastmilk containing these "particles" and enzymes to break them down, when in infant has an allergic or intollerant mother who is avoiding those foods may actually be the reason for allergies appearing in families. Such as the Mother heather was trying to explain...by attemping to expose her intollerant daughter to these foods she has succeeded in decreasing her intollerance where as the mother is still stuck at a point of severe intollerance or food allergy. This is actually good parenting :D Just as I nor my cousins are allergic to shellfish even though my grandmother and her daughters are, because our parents allowed us to experience those foods even though they had an allergy. This is a new way of thinking but it makes perfect sense. If an allergy is already developed KEEP YOUR CHILD AWAY FROM THE ALLERGEN.

You have no idea how lucky you are, but your smug remark doesn't help the millions of families who aren't so lucky.