Peanut allergies have plummeted

[mike]

I thought this was interesting.

[Szdfan]

I saw that. Also thought it was interesting. Is it because exposure to peanuts is reducing allergies?

[mike]

I’m not sure. But it seems that at least overreaction and hyper worrying about allergies made allergies worse.

I’ve seen some people be so quick to blame everything on allergies to the point where I wanted to question how one person could really have so many different allergies. I wonder if the reduction in allergies comes from people seeking out diagnoses less often. Doctors I fear tend to diagnose according to what patients want sometimes when it comes to conditions that are pretty subjective or hard to diagnose.

[ken_sylvania]

I thought this was interesting.

I don't have X so I can't read all the comments on the original post but can somebody explain to me how banning (or un-banning) peanuts from schools affected the immune systems of infants and children under the age of three (the age group examined by the study).

[JohnH]

Here's the article to read: Peanut Allergies Have Plummeted in Children, Study Shows - The New York Times

Here is a WSJ article from a year ago, with theories on how this happened: How Pediatricians Created the Peanut Allergy Epidemic - WSJ

[QuietlyListening]

I can't read the articles but I do know folks who have children that were so allergic even being able to smell peanuts or any nuts and just touch milk sent them into shock. That is a more extreme form of the allergy and not sure how many have the allergy that bad. But classrooms started keeping all peanuts and pb out of the classroom for reasons like this. No school or teacher wants to be responsible for a child going into anaphylactic shock.

But I also know my niece is/was allergic to peanuts and when she was older gradually introduced her to the peanut allergen slowly under a doctor's care til finally her mother would give her tiny amounts of peanut butter and over time she is no longer allergic. And I have heard doctors telling people to give their children peanut butter when they are young rather than keeping them away from it. Same with eggs and other common allergens.

But not sure that keeping it out of the classroom was responsible for causing this- I'd say more keeping parents giving it to their children when they were young may have been a bigger factor.

[JohnH]

The articles should be easy to read - no paywalls needed. The consensus is that the problem was avoiding peanuts, not being exposed to them.

[ken_sylvania]

The articles should be easy to read - no paywalls needed. The consensus is that the problem was avoiding peanuts, not being exposed to them.

Right. The study seems to demonstrate a connection between greater exposure to peanuts and lower incidences of allergic reactions.
What seems odd to me is Jonathan Haidt's claim that this study shows that "banning peanuts from schools" caused children's immune systems to develop improperly, when the study was limited to infants and children under three years old. I seriously doubt that "peanuts in schools" has much effect on children under three years old.

[mike]

The articles should be easy to read - no paywalls needed. The consensus is that the problem was avoiding peanuts, not being exposed to them.

Right. The study seems to demonstrate a connection between greater exposure to peanuts and lower incidences of allergic reactions.
What seems odd to me is Jonathan Haidt's claim that this study shows that "banning peanuts from schools" caused children's immune systems to develop improperly, when the study was limited to infants and children under three years old. I seriously doubt that "peanuts in schools" has much effect on children under three years old.

Jonathan Haidt is a thinker and writer who has for a long time proposed that society is being overprotective of its children and that this is harming them. For one example I remember, he thinks children should be allowed to walk to school unaccompanied by an adult. I read his book the Coddling of the American Mind written with Greg Lukianoff years ago and thought he had a lot of valid points. Society is so protective of children that they don't develop properly. That's his main point.

So this study fits with a thesis he has been putting out there for a long time.

[ken_sylvania]

The articles should be easy to read - no paywalls needed. The consensus is that the problem was avoiding peanuts, not being exposed to them.

Right. The study seems to demonstrate a connection between greater exposure to peanuts and lower incidences of allergic reactions.
What seems odd to me is Jonathan Haidt's claim that this study shows that "banning peanuts from schools" caused children's immune systems to develop improperly, when the study was limited to infants and children under three years old. I seriously doubt that "peanuts in schools" has much effect on children under three years old.

Jonathan Haidt is a thinker and writer who has for a long time proposed that society is being overprotective of its children and that this is harming them. For one example I remember, he thinks children should be allowed to walk to school unaccompanied by an adult. I read his book the Coddling of the American Mind written with Greg Lukianoff years ago and thought he had a lot of valid points. Society is so protective of children that they don't develop properly. That's his main point.

So this study fits with a thesis he has been putting out there for a long time.

I actually agree with that general concept.