For my baby daughter, and millions of others with food allergies, nuts can be deadly.  Not a bad stomach ache, or a rash, they can kill her.  Now that’s not going to happen, but it could.

You see a couple weeks ago, we found out she is allergic to eggs and nuts.   She had bad reactions to both- Eggs, on her first birthday when she gave herself an icing mask, and Nuts when I was eating them while carrying her in my arms.  When I say bad reactions, I mean hives that made us take her right to the urgent care center.  Scary stuff.  So after the nut thing, we made the appointment with an allergist, had the tests done, and sure enough, eggs and nuts.  Done.

Instantly I went from the Dad that was just aware of food allergies to a member of The United Order Of the Epipen.  When our oldest (now 6) started pre-school, I thought it was overkill that no one was allowed to send their kid to school with peanut butter or nuts, and that anything you sent for birthdays had to be store bought not home-made.  What a pain.

Of course after hearing the news I went into full-on research mode.  Here’s some statistics you may not be aware of:

• 8 foods account for 90 % of all food-allergic reactions in the U.S.: milk, eggs, wheat, soy, fish, shellfish, peanuts, and tree nuts (e.g., walnuts, almonds, cashews, pistachios, pecans) .
• More than 12 million Americans have food allergies. That’s one in 25, or 4 percent of the population.
• About 3 million children under 3 in the U.S. have food allergies.
• More than 3 million people in the US report being allergic to peanuts, tree nuts or both.
• Peanut allergy doubled in children over a five-year period (1997-2002).
• Even trace amounts of a food allergen can cause a reaction.

I know the debate.  Where does it stop?  It should be on the kid and their parent to make sure they don’t eat or come into contact with foods they are allergic to.  Back in September 2008, a Dad-o-matic Dad wrote  Nuts!, discussing the burden that food allergies places on families that are not affected by the condition.  The problem is, some kids are so allergic that all they need is contact with the dust of a peanut to send them into an anaphylactic crisis.

Look, a lot parents have been given far worse news from doctors about their kids.  Our daughter won’t be able to eat out at most restaurants, or go out for ice-cream, but there are far worse burdens to bear.  We’ll take all of the precautions and educate her.  I’m just asking for a little help and understanding.

Be aware that Food Allergies are not just an inconvenience to the people affected by them.  When your kid’s school sends home the notice, or has a rule, just respect the policy.  It’s not about fair, or an intellectual debate.  In the end, do you really want to be the one who sends my kid to the hospital because it was just easier to make peanut butter and jelly for lunch?

Ian is the father of two young daughters (Carly 6, and Sydney, 17 months).  He is the editor of RecallNewsletter.com and  has a podcast about starting a business at Startup Daddy

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