I was flipping through channels on the tv this afternoon and came across a show with a child who has severe peanut allergies and I just rolled my eyes. I'm one of those people that just doesn't get it... why the sudden increase in peanut allergies? So I googled it. I have to admit, I'm not really shocked at what I found:
Experts who are looking at why allergies appear to be on the rise have come up with a number of theories - for example that we have all become too clean.
Clean water, antibiotics and vaccines have eliminated many of the most toxic challenges which the immune system is designed to fight such as parasites, viruses and infections, so the immune system finds something else to battle such as eggs, wheat or some other innocuous food.
It has also been suggested that children born by Caesarean section, which have risen 40 percent in the last decade, could be at higher risk for allergies, perhaps because their bodies are never exposed to the healthy bacteria in their mothers' birth canals.
But much of this is no more than speculation and while scientists may have a basic understanding of how allergies occur, the complex immune system remains in many respects a puzzle.
Novel approaches are being tried with some success where the offending ingredients are introduced in tiny amounts to see if they can treat, cure or even prevent food allergies from developing in the first place.
The hope is to ultimately come up with a peanut-allergy vaccine.
There are pages upon pages with the same theory - from scientists and doctors. It makes fricken sense. I look at too many parents these days who wash their kids toys, don't let them eat candy out of the dirt and have them wash their hands so many times a day they have rough skin. I don't have anything against hand washing or washing things in general, but lay off a little bit! Those germs are HELPING, not harming.
Demon #2 was a pacifier addict until she was 2 1/2. I couldn't count how many times it dropped on the ground, in the dirt and she picked it up and stuck it in her mouth. And if it was that dirty, I cleaned it off with my own spit and dried it off with my shirt.
The thing that pissed me off the most is that instead of telling these parents to chill the hell out, they are working on yet another vaccine to stick into kids? I laughed at my doctor when he asked if I wanted the demons to get the chicken pox vaccine. Oh, they got it eventually... the natural one. The one that they got from a friend, the one that made them itch and scratch and look like a connect the dot book. Thats the one I gave them. And when they get a cold or the flu? They lay their butts on the couch and let it ride out. I've heard so often "are you taking them to the doctor". Heck with that. I don't want their bodies to be so pumped full of antibiotics that they can't fight off a pimple.
I can say that I'm lucky that I haven't had any serious illnesses with the demons, outside of their hypothyroidism & the occasional psoriasis outbreak, but I don't think it's luck. I think we've made that happen by buying a bottle of NyQuil instead of dropping a co-pay for some antibiotic. We don't have anit-bactrial soap in the house, we wash our hands when we have to, we eat off of each others plates and the dogs kiss us on the lips. We're all healthy, get sick rarely and we sit back and shake our heads at these over-protective, germ fighting, paranoid parents who think that if their child breaths the same air that another child breaths it's going to kill them. And we all stick our fingers in the peanut butter jar.
Yep, we are a peanut butter addicted house. And my kids have been eating peanut butter since before they were walking.
Lighten up, thats all I say. Let your kids get dirty, keep them out of the doctors office (do you know how many fricken sicknesses are in that waiting room?) and let your kids get sick - and get over it - by themselves. I haven't encountered a cold that chicken noodle soup didn't cure.
... and thats my rant for the day.
What's your cookie jar look like?
