Mom Demands School Go Peanut-Free For Allergic Child

[MADem]

199. Re-read the article.

1. It's been very successful;

2. It's not so much a question of qualifying but finding the money for the trial to fire up; or alternatively finding an allergist/immunologist to take on a patient and do a one-on-one (so the issue is money--a search for grants or fundraising might be required);

3. They do take a long time--but a lifetime takes a long time, too.

4. Because the patient does this in a controlled environment, any "triggering" can be immediately ameliorated.

This is a "proper cure," or the closest thing to one that anyone is likely to get in the near term. It's either that, or stay home, don't eat anything that could be a problem, and be miserable, frantic and perpetually hypervigilant. AND have people, behind the afflicted child and parent's back, roll their eyes in exasperation.

It's a long article, and it deals with treatment for multiple allergies, but it is full of information.

If the problem is just peanuts, here's another type of study to seek out and apply for:

http://kfor.com/2013/02/18/simple-cure-in-the-works-for-peanut-allergy/

I don't agree with shutting peanuts out of schools to satisfy one person. You're never going to "guarantee" a peanut-free environment (peanut dust on clothes, for example) and making the claim that a school is "peanut free" opens the district up to lawsuits if some kid brings in a Payday bar.

Sometimes, one person needs to think of the larger group, or take steps to solve their problem. Help IS available, as these trials demonstrate--if the problem is money, the schoolkids' parents can get together and fundraise. But that "Special Snowflake" stuff isn't helpful to anyone. There's a paragraph in the NYT original article I posted (link in my last post) about that aspect, too:

But profound change is profoundly unsettling. Tessa lost a defining aspect of her identity. Would she not be special anymore? Would she get less of her mom’s attention? Tessa still wouldn’t eat any of the food that was formerly unsafe at parties or at school. While Tessa told a few close friends about the treatment, she was reluctant to reveal it more widely. When I asked her why, she pursed her lips and studied her nails. Was she afraid that it would make people doubt the severity of her former allergies? “Yeah,” she said without looking up.

If the environment needs to be controlled to the point where a child will be in danger by being in proximity to food he or she is not eating, the child needs to be kept in a controlled environment--like the home. The world does not adapt to people with that degree of special needs--it just doesn't. A "peanut free table" in a school cafeteria is one thing; a peanut free school or world is just not happening, and anyone who thinks that it should happen needs to take a different direction, because it just will not happen.