No food allergies in my family - thank goodness.

I don’t resent accommodations for people with these allergies, but I am bothered by helicopter parents with allergic children. These people constantly hover over their children, and are ready to savage anyone who dares eat a peanut M&M around their child. Frankly, how are we supposed to know the child is allergic? They look normal on the outside. A bit more understanding – on both sides – would be helpful.

As for the Redbirds, I’m fine with a peanut free zone. I consider this a promotion, meant to bring in a segment of people who normally avoided ball parks due to the presence of peanuts. If it increases attendance for them then it’s a success. If it ends up alienating some of their regular crowd (who like peanuts, crackerjacks, etc) and reduces attendance it’s a failure and will be canceled. After all, the Redbirds don’t Have to do this – it’s a business decision.

Thanks Cards and Rascals! From a Mom of a peanut allergic child this allows us to go to a game with just a little less worry that my son could end up in the hospital from taking in America’s favorite pastime!

This is accomidation just like for those in wheelchairs, except for my son, it’s not that he cannot get where he wants to go, but instead he puts his life in danger by going at all! No there are really no peanut safe zones at a Ballpark (or most other public places for that matter), but just being able to know that the organizations are trying to allow my child to enjoy what most other take for granted is much appreciated!

Incidentally, I really wasn’t being facetious when I asked where all these allergies are coming from. One theory I read in an article written by a doctor suggested that we’re raising “hot house” children. In our obsession with germs, we’re sanitizing everything in sight. Our homes are climate controlled year round, filtering out anything that might be “lurking” in the environment. The child’s body never has to deal with various potential allergens and the child’s immune system never learns to distinguish between the deadly and the merely annoying. It made a certain amount of sense. As I said, back in the day, you seldom heard of all these allergies. But then we grew up in homes where there was no air-conditioning so anything floating around outdoors was indoors as well. The only sanitizing products were soap and water. We were surrounded by dogs and cats and, yes, even the dreaded cigarette smoke. By the time we entered school we’d been exposed to just about everything and our bodies had learned to cope with it.

Of course, this is just one theory. There may be something in current childhood immunization shots that really shouldn’t be there. There may be some environmental issues that are causing people’s bodies to overreact to what should be harmless substances. But there’s definitely something going on. I have no doubt that peanut allergies are real. But why are we having skyrocketing cases of peanut allergies?

If anyone is allergic to any kind of peanut dust how can they walk through the ball park without coming in contact with some kind of peanut dust? Great idea, but there is that problem with peanut shells in most all other parts of the ballpark.

As a bleeding heart liberal, sometimes I think things are taken too far. This peanut allergy thing has gotten out of control. A half of a percent of the population of the United States has this allergy and with varying levels of reaction. I agree with Pat Carpenter, I think we need to find out why we seem to have so many people who have allergies to certain products. In my opinion, it seems like to me it coincides with the proliferation of the ADD “epidemic”. Most parents send their children off to school loaded with sugar after eating a healthy breakfast of candy cereal, and make these 5 to 10 year old kids sit for an extended period of time listening to things to both kids and adults alike find completely boring. Children not paying attention in class? Of course not they are freaking kids! Everyone in this society that we live in love to be “different” or “special” or have something wrong with them to give them an excuse or a reason why they aren’t the best at everything they do. I’ve got to run, but probably not as fast as I really can though, I not wearing the right kind of shoes today.

The author wrote:
“My son is severely allergic to peanuts and eggs,” Depke said. “It’s not that he can’t go to games, but it makes us very anxious.”
I think we need a EGG free section in a my local IHOP or Denny’s. I get really anxious when i go to these places.
This is so freaking silly. I am deathly allergic to nuts as while and I find this silly. You just have to be careful and watch your surroundings. Baseball is Americas Pastime. Let people eat nuts where every they want.

Free peanuts??!!! Is this for every game or just special dates?

I hope they do a free beer night, too!

Dave - you are right it is scary. If someone is truly allergic to inhalling dust - I would think that peanut free section or not someone with that severe of an allergy wiould not be going to the ballpark.

My son has a contact allergy (in addition to injestion) - so when we go (anywhere really) we try to avoid contact by not holding handrails, bringing our own snacks and washing his hands a lot. Still, sometimes reactions occur. Having this peanut free area will not make the ballpark safe, but will at least keep him from having peanuts in the seat right next to his!

Nowhere is completely safe, but those with allergies cannot live in a bubble, you do what you can to avoid and spend a lot of time hoping that each time you go anywhere that it won’t involve a trip to the hospital or the need to treat for a reaction.

-”This is accomidation just like for those in wheelchairs, except for my son, it’s not that he cannot get where he wants to go, but instead he puts his life in danger by going at all!”

- You know, it risks my life every time I go running around an open field waving a golf club above my head during a lighting a storm, that’s why I don’t do it! I sorry to say, if it is such a threat, you might not be able to do it.

In Nov. 2005, a mom named Lisa Turner, whose children do not have food allergies, posted the letter below on the Kids with Food Allergies (KWFA) forum. She gave permission for anyone to use it should they need it, and I have gotten permission from the head moderator of KWFA to post it here.

I think it’s an amazing letter that is all the more powerful because it’s written by a parent who initially was very upset that her family would have to change its life a bit to accommodate others, and then — because she educated herself — came around to see why it was necessary.

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Dear Parents and Guardians:

I am writing this letter to you because your school has decided to implement a ban on peanuts, tree nuts, and/or other foods that have been associated with life-threatening allergies, and I know the initial reaction you may have regarding such a ban.

I am the mother of a little girl who started school this year. About two weeks before school started I read in a local newspaper that the school she will be attending has decided to put such a ban into effect.

My first reaction was one of shock, but it quickly turned into complete ANGER! I couldn’t believe that the school would actually do something that drastic because ONE child had an allergy. Since when did the misfortunes of one dictate the rule for the majority? I rallied support together, I wrote to the newspapers, I called television stations, and I put up posters expressing my outrage and encouraging parents who felt the same way to attend the next school board meeting and “let our voices be heard”. I even drafted up petitions to have the members of the school board removed so that a new school board could be elected, one that looked out for the needs of every child instead of just one. After all, nobody was going to tell me that I couldn’t send my picky eater to school with a peanut butter sandwich! Then I went online to get some ammunition.

What I got however, was something completely different. I got an education. I stumbled across a site for people with life-threatening allergies and the parents of children with life-threatening allergies. The first thing I found out was that, although rare, it is a lot more common than I had realized, but being angry I posted my question, “Do you really think that a ban is necessary?” I used all my arguments. If a child is allergic to bees, do you keep all the kids in at recess? If a child is in a wheel chair, do you build a ramp or tear out the stairs? I mean after all, there are other allergies out there, and there is no way to guarantee that the school will be completely free from these foods, so where do you draw the line?

At first I wasn’t open at all to hear their reply, I was just venting, but then I really started reading what they had to say, and it was then that I started learning. You see… I put my daughter on the bus for the first time in her life. I was afraid she wouldn’t find her classroom. I was afraid she would forget to raise her hand before she spoke. I was afraid she would get on the wrong bus coming home, but what I wasn’t afraid of was that I would get a call from the school saying that my daughter wouldn’t be coming home; she is being rushed to the hospital by ambulance because of a common, everyday peanut butter sandwich. It was then that I realized what these parents are going though. Some don’t have the luxury of worrying about little things.

These parents aren’t trying to take anything away from our kids; they are trying to keep their kids safe. I looked back at my initial reaction so I could figure out what had made me so mad, and when I was completely honest with myself, I found the answer. I was mad because I was going to be inconvenienced. I was willing to put a child’s life in danger so my daughter could eat a sandwich, and what did that say about me? I mean, if I saw a dog attacking any child wouldn’t I do whatever I could to protect that child? And if that is the case, why am I so opposed to eliminating peanut butter from 5 meals out of the 21 she will have in the course of a week?

The fact of the matter is you don’t keep all the kids in at recess, but you don’t put a child with a bee sting allergy in a lunchroom full of bees either.

The fact is EVERY child is entitled to a “free and appropriate public education in a least restrictive environment”, translated that means the school has a legal responsibility to provide a safe learning environment for ALL children, and where do you draw the line? You draw the line when the unique needs of the community served by the school have been met.

It’s not easy to put your child in the hands of strangers when you know that many of them may have just eaten, or are bringing to lunch, the same thing that is poison to your child, and many of these parents would home school if they could, but just like you and I, sometimes that is not an option.

The parents of children with life-threatening allergies don’t expect us all to learn this overnight, and they don’t expect us to shop for our children as if they had this allergy, and while they know that the school will never be completely free from these foods, one less sandwich, or one less snack containing these foods being brought into the schools, will be one less risk to their child’s life.

I am not saying that it hasn’t been a struggle at times, but you have to ask yourselves… Is convenience really more important than life? In my book, that answer is no, so any small inconvenience I have is worth it.

Sincerely,

Lisa Turner