Potatoes - Not just a toy but a food that kills!

Eat It - "Weird Al" Yankovic

Parody of  Beat It by Michael Jackson

People have always suffered from allergies but it seems to me that some people have taken the concept of "It Takes a Village to Raise a Child" to new heights making everyone responsible for the individual health concerns of someone else's child. I only remember knowing of one child who suffered from food allergies and from the age of 5, this tyke was taught to ask if something contained "red dye" or whatever oddity he was allergic to whenever he was offered something. His parents made him independent and responsible. Now granted it wasn't exactly a life-threatening allergy but I am illustrating the difference and what society is dealing with today. 

The most common allergies today are milk, egg, peanuts, fish, shellfish, sesame, soy, wheat, mustard and tree nuts. Tree nuts? Does this include acorn? Does that mean that visits to the park is off limits? Seriously, where did all these allergies come from or is it because society has become responsible for the well-being of the sufferers that we have simply become aware of them. I do remember hearing from the pediatrician when my children were born that care had to be taken when introducing milk, egg and peanuts to the infants diet. They had to build up their immune system a bit first. So maybe that is a partial cause of the increase in severe allergies. Our obsession with an antiseptic environment. Everything must be cleaned and disinfected with antibacterial wipes and soaps and cleaners, the air is infused with chemicals and what can't be washed or scrubbed is sprayed down with more chemicals. No doubt the anti-bacterial potion that we use when going to the germ infested doctors office or hospital may have some beneficial use, it must be remembered that along with killing the bad germs, it is also killing the good germs. Yes, good germs! Those nasty little bugs that don't kill us but give our immune system a work out by learning how to fight them. With the little battles, our bodies are better equipped to fight the war. Perhaps we aren't letting our children fight some of the battles on their own? I think that is part of the problem. 

The majority has been forced to become responsible for the survival of the few. The policies of the modern day school system has to be put under the microscope here. Recently a Sir Charles Tupper Elementary School in Halifax Nova Scotia has taken the radical step of banning all potato products, because ONE child is very allergic to all types of potato vapours. What about the children on gluten-free diets who rely on potato based breads to survive? Consider the ramifications of being allergic to potato vapours. You might as well live in a bubble. Friends, malls and food courts, theaters, restaurants, sports arenas and more would all be off-limits. Is the province of Nova Scotia going to go potato-free for this child? He/She better stay away from New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island or their economies are going to fall flat. Yes, it is ridiculous and even one allergist-immunologist admitted that this latest ban was controversial because it leaves one to wonder when will it stop. Indeed! 

It started with peanut butter in the schools. Most schools weren't peanut free but rather just the classrooms with allergic students. I worked in a classroom one year when a child told the teacher that they were allergic to peanuts. With a blink of an eye, a "Peanut-Free Zone" sign was slapped on the outside of the room and each student went home with a note outlying the accepted and unacceptable food products. No one talked to the parents of the child, no one requested a doctors note for proof. Instead, for the sake of one student, 20 or so others were no longer allowed their favourite food - peanut butter sandwiches. Students approached staff and asked worriedly if their granola bar that Mom packed was safe to eat. Then came Hallowe'en and the snacks turned to teeth-rotting fare. Suspecting much of the treats handing out at that time 5 years ago was probably not peanut free, I asked the classroom teacher who was responsible for ensuring that our allergic student was indeed safe from that offending peanut. She stated that the schools' liability ended when the sign was affixed outside the classroom and the note went home. On a lark and to prove a point she asked to look at the sugary snack that the allergic student was eating and guess what was written on that label? "May contain peanuts". An entire class is being inconvenienced while the "problem" child happily munches away on the offending product. This is an issue that is easily remedied however. A doctors note should accompany each and every claim of an allergy that in any way impacts the school community and it must be updated yearly. People have been known to outgrow and overcome allergies.

Let's assume that the allergy is actually legitimate. For a life-threatening allergy that can pose the risk of anaphylaxis, an epi-pen is often the first course of medical treatment that an exposed child should receive. Maybe I am wrong, but if my child is in danger of dying without an immediate injection of epinephrine, I am going to make sure that my child always has it on their person. Especially at school, where I know that the staff will be aware of my child's severe allergy and have all had training on how to use the epi-pen. But where is this life saving medicine kept, in the office. Why don't the students carry their own life saving equipment? Often it is because the children aren't made aware of their medical fragility, sometimes it is because the parents don't want their children to stand out from their peers by having to carry this around with them at all times. Good point, put their life in jeopardy instead? 

When it comes to the school community, I always thought that all the individual students in the school with allergies should eat their lunch together in a separate room. They could form a sort of camaraderie and discuss strategies on how to deal with their allergies. And the rest of the school population could be free to eat what they chose. My children's elementary school had banned peanuts, eggs, fish and mayonnaise. Making lunch was a frustrating process and expensive. Peanut butter was an inexpensive, nutritional alternative that the kids never complained about eating. Not particularly picky eaters fortunately, they still were not comfortable with taking a salad or cut up veggies for lunch. Tuna, egg salad, was out we had little choice but to turn to the highly processed lunch meats or worse the artificial mystery meat - bologna. 

But parents of food sensitive children are fooling themselves and living a life of denial if they think that the world will always bend and mold to the service of their children. While the food industry has certainly taken up the gauntlet and boldly labelled some of their products as peanut-free, I have not yet seen a similar sign outside a restaurant, or store or any other public gathering place. As a self-absorbed teen, the children are thrust out of the cocoon of the elementary school system and face the real world in high school. And while some cafeterias may be peanut free, no one is telling the students that they can't eat peanut laden food products. They eat in the halls and smear their dirty hands on the lockers and door handles and the desks that your sensitive child may be sitting at next period. Is it time now to teach your child to be a little bit responsible for their own health? If you want your child to see 18, I would suggest it is indeed that time! I hope it isn't too late. 

If you haven't done it recently get your children re-tested. My own son was allergic to shellfish and I taught him to take responsibility, if he wasn't sure, he would ask if the food contained shellfish. Not a life threatening reaction, he merely vomited, although with continued consumption it could have gotten worse perhaps even anaphylaxtic shock. As a preteen, he wanted to try a homemade chowder and took his chances on eating some. Low and behold, he was fine. He had outgrown his sensitivity. In my early 20's I had cause to go see an allergist, his findings - I was allergic to chicken and eggs. I've always eaten those food products, in fact they remain a main staple in my diet and never had ill effects. I was on high alert for any physical changes for a long time and removed them from my diet to see in there was the remotest possibility that it was true. Maybe there was a mild reaction that day, maybe the test was misread, but there certainly wasn't any cause to permanently modify my food choices as he suggested. 

Something needs to be done to stop the madness or there will be nothing left for our children to eat when they are outside of the home. Alternatively I suppose that the schools could force all students to leave the school and go home to eat whatever they want. That will throw a wrench in the economy when parents have to ensure that someone is home during the lunch hour to welcome the young 'uns or arrange for child care.