Except according to Betsy's article, we're not being conservative at all. Sheesh.

Is anyone else having trouble getting into gmail?

NO PEANUTS! EVER! PEANUTS ARE SATAN'S LITTLE TOADSTOOLS!

(I think my kids ate peanuts in babyhood, in the form of peanut butter.)

Jeez. They're now saying avoid peanuts until 7 years.

Wow. We have no history of peanut allergy in the family, and I love peanut butter and ate it a lot while I was pregnant, so we only waited until a year with the kids. Actually, Sara might have been a little younger when she had those packaged peanut butter crackers. Ooops.

There are peanut-butter free elementary schools. I know peanut allergies are on the rise, but are there THAT many children so allergic to peanuts that having peanut butter in the building is a risk?

Nut and peanut allergies are among the more deadly food allergies, and that's part of the problem. Johnny won't just get a rash, or indigestion; he'll go into anaphalactic shock. Also, the schools have to idiot-proof the rules to protect themselves and the children, so I think we hear about it more, now.

When I was pregnant with Ben, I read something to the effect that the rates had risen. From what I remember, the point of the article was to stress that nursing mothers should take care about what kind of Vitamin E oil they used on their nipples. There was some speculation that because a lot of it had been peanut based, that babies were being exposed to too much peanut oil, too soon, before they could tolerate it.

Essentially, this is our town's rule: They've deemed the schools "Nut-Sensitive Zones". We cannot send in any obvious nut products (or peanut products), including anything with visible nuts, or nuts in the name. I think, when you get to the high school age, this is a bit of overkill, because children of that age are out in the world without supervision, and eating apart from the families often, and have to learn how to protect themselves.

The first few years, our school rules were, I thought, more sensible. If a class had peanut/nut allergic kids in it, nobody in that class could bring anything peanut/nut related for snack (which is eaten in the classroom). At lunch, there were peanut/nut free tables, and tables where you sat if you brought peanut butter (which Ben did--every single day). The children had a handwashing routine after lunch, so they didn't bring the nut oil traces back to lunch. We had a pre-approved (by the parents of the allergic kids) list of food we could provide for a party. The two kids in our school are in Ben's grade, and have always been in his class. Their parents are extremely accomodating, and reasonable--much more reasonable than I'd be, if I had a nut allergic kid. Anyhow, the approved list of foods was brand and type specific, because the parents knew the ingredients in those particular brands were safe, and that they were made at safe plants: Hostess Chocolate Cupcakes; Capri Sun Fruit Punch; Goldfish Crackers; etc.

The policy changed last year though, because, at another school in town, a teacher had eaten peanut butter for lunch (in the teachers' lounge). She passed back papers after lunch, and a child had an allergic reaction just from coming in contact with the residual (non-visible) oils left on the paper, by the teacher.

Wow, I took too long to write that post. That was beyond Xposting.

She passed back papers after lunch, and a child had an allergic reaction just from coming in contact with the residual (non-visible) oils left on the paper, by the teacher.

Wow. That sucks.

OMG. One of my coworkers is explaining American Pie to the rest of them.

The song, not the movie. One of them didn't know the title of the song, and they're treating the "this is about the death of Buddy Holly" like it's news. I'm willing to let "Hotel California is about drugs" slide, but not American Pie! I'm the music-illiterate foreigner here!

Is there a relatively simple explanation as to why peanut allergies are more common/dangerous than other food allergies?

I was blown away when I found out that "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright" is actually about Art Garfunkel.

Unfortunately, I found this out around 1993.