Tomorrow is a momentous day for Duckie!

tiredmommy

Well-Known Member
Duckie has *always* been with other allergic kids, especially since her own allergies became bad. She went to preschool (2 years) and kindergarten with one friend who's extremely allergic to peanuts. She rode the allergy bus with this school, meaning she still needed to be peanut free to keep this little guy safe. Well, she changed buses starting today and, after verifying with the school nurse that there was no problem, she will bring her very first peanut butter and jelly sandwich to school tomorrow. She's very excited! :targetpractice:
 

busywend

Well-Known Member
Oh she is one lucky girl! That is my favorite sandwich!

PB&J rocks! I hope she gets some fritos and an apple, too!
 

Suz

(the future) MRS. GERE
Wendy, you just described my favorite lunch! Okay, I'll pass on the apple but not the Fritos! ;)

...and PB&J is THE BEST!

Totally cool, TM!

Suz
 

tiredmommy

Well-Known Member
Actually, I'm letting her eat an absolutely awful lunch:

PBJ on white
Doritos (100 cal pack)
Jello with mixed fruit cup (lots of red dye!)
Minute Maid mixed berry juice box

Who wants to take a bet that I'll be posting about a rough evening with Duckie tomorrow night?
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
TM

You might be posting about a rough evening, but here's betting this is one school lunch that will stand out in Duckie's memoriies. So, what the heck, why not make it a grand event?:laughing:

Every once in a great while, or Blue Moon, the reprocussions are worth the memory.
 

Star*

call 911........call 911
Dear Mommie,

Can you please pack MY lunch?

Love Star

ps. before I get thrown out of healthy living - can you make that a PB&J with no bread, low fat pnut butter, fat free doritos, jello and a bottle of Dasani water? (I have issues)

Thanks
 

Coookie

Active Member
TM,

This is too cute. :) One bad night is worth the smile I can imagine on Duckie's sweet face with every bite. :)

I will be looking for an update... bet she comes home with a drip of it on her shirt. :)

Hugs
 

Abbey

Spork Queen
It's amazing how something so little can mean so much. :)

We had a 'peanut-free' zone in our school. Kids got a snack twice a day and they had to make sure they stayed away from anything peanut oriented. The reaction can be horrible.

I hope difficult child had a great sandwhich and savored every bite.

Abbey
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
I'm curious as to where all these allergies are coming from. I find it hard to believe that prior to about forty years ago all peanut allergic children died off.
 

tiredmommy

Well-Known Member
I am too, Kat. They seem to be getting worse with each subsequent generation. Duckie's former kindergarten teacher now has an isolated classroom: no outside food comes in. The school provides snacks and even birthday party refreshments. I didn't know one child with a peanut allergy while growing up, Duckie has at least six friends I can name off the top of my head. Some theories say we are too clean, others say vaccinations have inadvertently caused the allergies because now our immune systems over react. I've even heard one theory that it's a failing evolutionary adaption to avoid cancer. The truth is, no one knows why. They are in the early stages of how to control, prevention is a long way off.
 

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
Yay Duckie!

Actually, a lot probably did die, but people thought the kids were asthmatic or some other mis-diagnosis. We're better at diagnosis-ing now.
 

tiredmommy

Well-Known Member
I dunno, Terry. Allergies travel through my maternal grandmother at least. She was allergic to latex, sulfa and bananas, no seasonal allergies. My mother is allergic to MSG and has seasonal allergies. Her sister is allergic to aspirin and has seasonal allergies. I had allergies to milk, eggs and oranges when I was child, but outgrew them. I have seasonal allergies. And I'm highly sensitive to insect/spider bites. And then there's Duckie that tested positive for everything tested at age four (the office didn't test for peanuts or spiders, though she had no noticeable reactions when eating peanuts as part of her rotation diet and no recent spider bites). Now, she's borderline allergic to soy, has seasonal allergies and indoor allergies. She's by far the worst in our family line, and each generation is progressively getting worse. My mother was investigated for abuse when she took me to the hospital as a baby when my eye swelled shut after a spider bite. It wasn't called off until a nurse noticed a tiny bite mark under my eye. But I apparently looked as though I'd been hit and given a black eye and there was extreme swelling. I was only a few months old at the time.
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
I don't know ... I've given this a lot of thought too. I'm probably older than a lot of you, and I honestly think that in many ways, we were healthier back then than a lot of today's kids are. When I was a kid, we never heard of "peanut allergies". A few kids had "allergies" but more the seasonal type - my dad called it "hay fever". I had it too and it meant you took an extra big hankie to school to blow your nose in! There were a very few diabetic kids, a very few with minor food allergies, but I don't remember anyone having anything really serious - certainly no kids dying from "peanut allergies". And I'm sure there was such a thing as autism, but it was very, very rare.

But we lived a very different lifestyle back then - not discounting the tremendous advances in modern medicine - but we were a much more active and less "clean" and sanitized generation and I wonder if we didn't build up more immunities to certain things. We only went to the doctor if we were really sick and our parents were worried that we weren't getting over it on our own. We got immunizations, but nowhere near what they get today - and now kids are getting even more than my own kids did not that many years ago. There was no such thing as "hand sanitizer" and nobody worried about removing all the bacteria from the air we breathed - and most of our parents smoked like chimneys! Not that that was good, but that's the way it was! We spent all day outside climbing trees, riding bikes and rolling in the grass. We dug in the dirt and held worms in our hands - and sometimes a Twinkie in the other hand. You washed your hands before meals unless you could fake it and a lot of times we did! There was no "hypo-allergenic" anything and we got by and adapted. And to this day, I still have the worlds greatest immune system! I hardly ever get sick and I think I've taken antibiotics maybe once in the last twenty years! There has to be something to it.

I honestly don't know what the answer is. But it does seem like we were a much heartier breed back then and that each generation that comes along becomes a little less so.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
TM...my husband died of a very rare bone marrow disease that required ongoing immunosuppressive tx. He lived nearly 8 years with a disease normally considered to be lethal in 1 year.

His doctors attributed it to his being a member of the last generation allowed to eat a certain amount of dirt<g>.

I'm not downing peanut allergy nor the validity/veracity of allergy reports to peanuts. I am shellfish allergic to the point of anaphylactic reactions if I come in contact with shellfish at all.

There have been studies done that show that Ashkenazi Jews are more likely to have the sort of shellfish allergy I do because (I'm one, or at least a descendant) observant Jews do not eat shellfish, hence no exposure over generations.

I know they've changed recommendations on how to introduce new foods to a child's diet, etc., and wonder how much of it is that.

I know that some older oncologists (cancer doctors) and infectious diseases specialists feel that we've gone too far in keeping children protected from immune system challenges.

Like I said; I wasn't trying to be flip about the thing. I know it's a really scary allergy to have and to deal with
 

tiredmommy

Well-Known Member
Kat,
I don't think you were flip at all. :) Allergies are a growing concern, we both can attest to that. They can be life altering, in many ways. It's been difficult to keep Duckie doing normal things, everything was a chore at it's worst. Normal allergy medications hadn't controlled her allergies, normal interventions hadn't worked either. So we went experimental, which wasn't covered by our insurance. The whole ordeal nearly broke us financially and mentally. I hope that the experts can figure out what is happening before too many more parents have to go to the extremes we did.
Duckie earned that sandwich!
 
F

flutterbee

Guest
I have no insight into the allergies, but I, too, am one that had never heard of such a serious peanut allergy until I was an adult and a neighbor's son suffered from it. As far as immune system, I think we do protect ourselves too much. But the flip side is the overuse of antibiotics that have allowed germs to become stronger and more resistant. They are now showing commercials from the health department saying germs are getting stronger and to stay home when sick. I don't know that previous generations were heartier. It didn't use to be all that uncommon to die from the flu. I think it's possible that people before died from things that today are no longer considered all that lethal so these other illnesses didn't have the opportunity as they do now, Know what I mean??

As far as PB&J, that is my favorite comfort food. Everyday when I came home from school, I had a PB&J, applesauce, cheese, chips and a glass of milk. Mmmmmm..... I hope Duckie enjoyed it.
 
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