ABC Health Insider

Ironic that Maria Hardy, with no qualifications what-so-ever, but with a direct conflict of interest, tries to attack the medical qualifications of a renown Professor at the Harvard Medical School. She is the poster child for mass psychogenic illness.

I think it's a little extreme to try and ban all nut products from schools. I understand a parents concern and wanting to protect their child (my child has a shellfish allergy)but nuts will always be a part of that childs life. I think its wiser to educate you child and the school of your childs allergies. I think it will better prepare you child for the future. My three year old knows to avoid shellfish because it makes him sick. Should I try and have shellfish banned from schools? What about dairy, there are children with dairy allergies, do we ban that too? I grew up deathly allergic to bees, maybe we should stop outside playtime to avoid the possibility of a bee sting.

If we substitute the word CYANIDE for peanuts in the whole peanut ban discussion - how would you feel? Would you still consider the ban a case of mass psychogenic illness or epidemic hysteria? Sounds extreme? Not really - for people with severe peanut allergies, it's the same thing. Just as dangerous, just as fatal.

American freedoms are finished. "If people think I'm crazy; they think I've over the top, I don't care." Basically - if she needs to diminish the lives of the 99+% of people who don't have food allergies, she will. Hey lady - pack a lunch! Selfish woman...

Laura, how is this idea? We substitute the word BEER for word "milk" the kids get on their break and that way we can all be accused of having kids engaged in underaged drinking when their are having their morning milk.

Laura, it's hard to believe how pussified the American people have become because of wankers like you.

Back in the 17th Century the first British colonoists could have been driven off the American continent if the Indians had only pelted them with peanuts.

American, the land of the wuss...

I am the mother of a son who has a severe peanut allergy. It's not just the eating of the peanuts that is bad. If he so much as touches something, like a desk or chair or table that a kid who touched peanut butter touched, he has a reaction. What I think the problem here is that people don't understand what a REAL peanut allergy is. I hear people telling me, "Oh, my son is allergic to peanuts as well, he can't stand to eat them..." That is not an allergy, that is an aversion. When people say they are allergic when they are not, it causes problems for everyone, and indeed, DOES cause a hysteria by the true definition of the word. My son can go into anaphylactic shock if someone opens a bag of peanuts in a room with him. As far as just bringing a lunch, that doesn't work--think back to your childhood when it was popular to switch lunches with people, and kids don't always know that there is peanut product in a food. Gummy bears are processed with peanuts, etc. Even kids vitamins can be. Am I petrified? You bet. Do I think that schools should ban peanuts? To be honest, peanut butter makes lunch affordable to thousands of kids across the country. I think parents can work with the schools, and if they don't feel safe (like when I found actual peanut butter on the peanut free table at the school cafeteria) then do what I decided to do--Home school.

I have a step daughter who has a deadly allergy to nuts. I do not stop feeding my other children peanut butter or keep them away from things they enjoy in the house. By the way, she is also allergic to bananas, chicken, and pork. We have the necessary tools on hand should she forget and eat something she is allergic to, but she has known how to read labels and ask what is in stuff from the age of 6. To ask that a school ban nuts is not right and not going to happen. She sits at a table for allergic children, if she wants to, or if a classmate has brought a pernut butter and jelly sandwich. Each year, a new type of allergy is found. If we start with nuts, and then less then half the kids are now allergice to milk, do we remove that from the school as well..what about wheat and glutens? There comes a time to inform and trust. If you can't trust your child's teacher or school- then why not just remove them from public school and home school them in a bubble? They will eventually need to know how to spot their food allergies on their own, I say at school on a daily basis is a great start!

@ Laura:

Difference is cyanide is dangerous to everyone. If you're looking at 1-2 kids in a school of even over 100 that's a small percentage. Education of the school and child involved are the best way to prevent without making restrictions for everyone. My child's school does not ban peanut/nut stuff - in fact their alternate lunch choice from the main course/hot lunch is PB&J. However in her classroom there is a nut allergy and her teacher just says no peanuts in snacks that are brought for the whole class. Education of all parties is the key.

I am allergic to peanuts and other nuts. This is a very dangerous allergy. I do believe that this doctor is underestimating the affects of this allergy. Young children are not known for questioning what they are eating. Therefore, if a 5 year old who is allergic to nuts is given this as a snack, they will not turn it away. Schools should remove nut products completely. However, I do believe that it is also the parents responsibility to inform the school of any allergies or other health conditions that their child suffers from.

This is getting absolutely ridiculous, ban nuts, ban perfume, ban electronics, ban everything that everyone is allergic to and you have NOTHING! Children should be taught what they can eat and what they cannot, if they can't learn or your to afraid to allow them to be in society, then keep them home and school them.

Laura as for the cyanide argument...absolutely STUPID, the majority of the population cannot ingest cyanide and be ok...ridiculous argument

I saw two peanuts on the subway. One was as-saulted! Don't trust nuts! They hide in the their hardened shells just waiting to get us. Be wary of those who hide themselves. But I could be mistaken. This anti-nut campaign may well be a result of a supreme conspiracy by Jelly to take over the ENTIRE sandwich.

My oldest child has a nut alergy and it was deadly no avoidance for her or rather it is up and leave now type of avoidance not watch what you eat. Nuts put out oils into the air and they are the dangerous ones. Cig smoke set off her asthma even the smell of a fellow student in a smoking family.

Obviously this is survival of the fittest.

Children who can't eat peanuts have inferior genes and can't adapt to a public eating enviorment.

The banning of nuts will lead to a weaker America.

The main point of the British Medical Journal article is two fold:
1. Only 150 people (children and adults) die each year from ALL food allergies combined (nuts are a tiny fraction of this 150 total), as compared to 50 people who die each year from bee stings, the 100 who die from lightning strikes, and the 45 000 who die in motor vehicle collisions. The risk of nut allergies is TINY compared with the 10000 hospitalizations of children each year for traumatic brain injuries acquired during sports or the 2000 who drown or the roughly 1300 who die from gun accidents.
2. All of the studies of nut allergies show that like all other allergies, avoidance in infancy INCREASES the likelihood that the child will develop the allergy.

My son has several allergies: milk, mold, seasonal, etc.. I never demanded the school stop serving ice cream or milk at lunch. Parents nowadays want all responsibilities to be put on institutions instead of teaching our children to handle themselves. I just told me son, "don't drink milk or eat any ice cream" it's worked for us.

Hank Irelan, gimme all your money else your kid gets it with a peanut or an unlighted cigarette.

You know, nature's way is to weed out creatures with defects like this in order to prevent them from reproducing and make a species stronger.

Wonder what the long term effects of the healthy sacrificing to accomodate the sick and disabled will be. Sure, it seems like the nice thing to do.

If your child has this exteme of allergies and you're this concerned, a life or death situation, then why are you even sending them to school. How can you actually take your child anywhere that you cannot control? Ex: a store, a restaurant or even church. I mean your are expecting the entire school system to change for your one child. Are you kidding me? This is selfish.

150 deaths adult and child...
So let's presume 100 were kids.

With 80,000,000 kids in school/college, etc in this country, that means that
you have a 1 in 800,000 chance of dying from a peanut reaction. that is 1/8000th of 1%. It's not just 99.9% being forced to change their ways--it's more like 99.99875%.

That is nuts (pardon the pun).

I think so many of the people leaving comments here are uniformed. So many are comparing it to other allergies such as milk, wheat, etc. The BIG difference here is that those things do not leave residue behind that can be touched and transferred causing a reaction. Peanut butter and peanuts leave an oil behind that can be dangerous to a child allergic to it.