OakRidgeStars wrote:While we're on the subject of weird food reactions, where did this whole "nut allergy" thing come from? At what point did we start breeding children that can't even look at a picture of peanut without inciting a near-hysterical response from every parent and first responder in town?
Is this the future of our offspring? Sure we can handle wars, famine, pestilence and even nukes but someone accidently leaves some peanut oil residue around we're doomed.
Maybe the ChiComs and Iranians should start dropping dirty nut bombs on school playgrounds around the country. We will all be doomed.
At least we will still have our pork sammiches. Now with nut-free barbecue sauce.
Besides the Asian Curse (lactose intolerance, they can have some but not straight milk, the thought is that my ancestors from Japan did not have cows and milk so we did not develop the enzymes to process it properly), my children are thankfully allergy free.
I read up on this while they were babies young and I was at school. There are lots theories out there, part of my studies to get my degrees we had to research allergens as it influenced our product and what the customers were/would be looking for and how to clean/prep with and work with them.
Warning this gets long winded, so please skip if you don't care. 
One of the theories is (and I think is probably one of the causes): We wait to long to give our children nuts, be cause everyone is afraid. Most parents wait till the age of 2 years to introduce peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, shell fish, etc etc. "Another hypothesis for the increase in peanut allergies (and other immune and auto-immune disorders) in recent decades is the hygiene hypothesis. Comparative studies have found that delaying introduction of peanut products significantly increases the risks of development of peanut allergies,[9][10] and the American Academy of Pediatrics, in response to ongoing studies that showed no reduction in risk of atopic disease, rescinded their recommendation to delay exposure to peanuts along with other foods."
People were told not to eat shellfish, nuts, while pregnant, breast feeding etc. Which is horse poop, unless you are allergic and can't have it. Eat it in my opinion.
Another theory is ( and I can see this as being true for some of the other people as well): People are getting so hysterical about peanuts and so scared about it that they are making their kids sick.
" However, there is an increasing body of medical opinion that, while there definitely are food sensitivities, the dramatic rise in frequency of nut allergies and more particularly the measures taken in response to the threat show elements of mass psychogenic illness, hysterical reactions grossly out of proportion to the level of danger:[15] "About 3.3 million Americans are allergic to nuts, and even more—6.9 million—are allergic to seafood. However, all told, serious allergic reactions to foods cause just 2000 hospitalisations a year (out of more than 30 million hospitalisations nationwide)."
I am not a medical doctor, but most of them now have said, be careful what you give them but let them try it.
They way we did it, (note with my background we eat a lot of Asian food, seafood, shellfish etc normally. No known allergies in my family) was after one year, and when they started solid foods, we would give them one thing new in their diet, and just watch them. If they did not react to it great, let them have that and their other food for three days, then try a new thing. Parents are so afraid to give their kids anything and listen to old 'don't give your kids anything" other than bananas and rice cereal that they are making their kids over sensitized when they actually get something finally.
Now that is not to say there is no allergies at all, and that it is all in their heads. Sure there are people that have those allergies. But we don't do our kids any service coddling and making their food bland and flavorless. My pediatrician knows I am a chef and I made all of there baby food. He told me go ahead and use spices, cinnamon, cardimon, cumin, cilantro, garlic, everything. It makes the food taste better. I have the theory, that babies want to eat flavorful food too. Who wants to eat pureed blanched chicken breast, without rosemerry, lemon, thyme, a little salt and pepper? Not I. My kiddos ate up the meals I made. They are and always have been willing to try anything at least once.
It is known as we get older our pallets get dulled, hence the "aquired tasted".
I guess it is all about being educated and informed, and not coddling them and making sure that they are allowed to be kids. When my first born was little I wanted to freak out when he touched the floor (husband broke me of that, he said "a little dirt never hurt anyone"), now I just let them do their thing, within reason, and hose them down later.
Wow that was a long winded response.
I know wiki is not the leading resource, but here is some more information, also where I got the quotes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanut_allergy
"Not to worry, I got this !!! " "Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here." Captain John Parker
