Allergic kids vs kids without allergies at school
Jan 17th 2014, 5:33 pm
#46
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Re: Allergic kids vs kids without allergies at school
"... The prevailing theory is known as the Hygiene Hypothesis. Simply put: we’ve become victims of our own compulsion for cleanliness. “In the past 20 or 30 years, we’ve certainly been living more cleanly. Our housing has changed, we take antibiotics, we have vaccinations. So our immune system, which has less infection to fight than it has in the past, has become dysregulated, and has begun to react and become hypersensitive to things in the environment that are harmless,” says Dr. Susan Waserman, an allergist and clinical immunologist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont. “Why should anyone become allergic to something like a peanut or ragweed? It doesn’t really make sense.” The hypothesis is supported by the fact that the entire western world, including the United States and Europe, has experienced the same allergy trend. One well-known study compared relatively clean West Germany with more polluted East Germany and found far lower levels of allergies in the East (although, since unification and the westernization of the East, the levels have risen sharply)... "
Jan 17th 2014, 5:34 pm
#47
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Re: Allergic kids vs kids without allergies at school
Fred drifting ever so slightly.....a teacher of my acquaintance had a new colleague start at her school. Well, I say start at her school, but actually she hasn't yet. Said teacher has a severe scent allergy apparently. So severe that the School Board had to remove all cleaning materials - soap, hand sanitiser, cleaning products - from the school before she could start after the holidays. The idea was, presumably to replace them with scent free products but the execution was flawed as they were not replaced before school started. So for a number of weeks the school had no cleaning products on hand. For a building with 400 kids in it. The teacher, with the severe allergy? She's not yet been well enough to start her new position at the school.
Madness I tell you. On the subject of scent allergy, it seems to be a uniquely Canadian thing in my experience. This no scent zone thing. Not something one sees back in the UK or even in the US for that matter.
Madness I tell you. On the subject of scent allergy, it seems to be a uniquely Canadian thing in my experience. This no scent zone thing. Not something one sees back in the UK or even in the US for that matter.
Jan 17th 2014, 5:35 pm
#48
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Re: Allergic kids vs kids without allergies at school
Not really.
An epipen buys you maybe 20 minutes to get to emerg and serious medical intervention. They are affected by temperature and exposure to sunlight, so may not always work effectively. In something like 1 in 5 cases a second shot is required in any case to prevent immediate cardiac arrest.
What Im saying is its a numbers game and sooner or later your luck in an allergic attack might run out. 200 kids a year still die of peanut allergies. But maybe thats a drop in the bucket compared to drownings or car crashes so we should just not give a shit.
An epipen buys you maybe 20 minutes to get to emerg and serious medical intervention. They are affected by temperature and exposure to sunlight, so may not always work effectively. In something like 1 in 5 cases a second shot is required in any case to prevent immediate cardiac arrest.
What Im saying is its a numbers game and sooner or later your luck in an allergic attack might run out. 200 kids a year still die of peanut allergies. But maybe thats a drop in the bucket compared to drownings or car crashes so we should just not give a shit.
It appears to me that, however, deadly her allergy may be, she is still around despite the number of episodes.
Just as diabetic children have to learn what does, and what does not, affect their condition and how to avoid situations that may do so, maybe, just maybe, this particular child should have to learn too.
Jan 17th 2014, 5:36 pm
#49
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Jan 17th 2014, 5:39 pm
#50
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Re: Allergic kids vs kids without allergies at school
Not really.
An epipen buys you maybe 20 minutes to get to emerg and serious medical intervention. They are affected by temperature and exposure to sunlight, so may not always work effectively. In something like 1 in 5 cases a second shot is required in any case to prevent immediate cardiac arrest.
What Im saying is its a numbers game and sooner or later your luck in an allergic attack might run out. 200 kids a year still die of peanut allergies. But maybe thats a drop in the bucket compared to drownings or car crashes so we should just not give a shit.
An epipen buys you maybe 20 minutes to get to emerg and serious medical intervention. They are affected by temperature and exposure to sunlight, so may not always work effectively. In something like 1 in 5 cases a second shot is required in any case to prevent immediate cardiac arrest.
What Im saying is its a numbers game and sooner or later your luck in an allergic attack might run out. 200 kids a year still die of peanut allergies. But maybe thats a drop in the bucket compared to drownings or car crashes so we should just not give a shit.
IMO, we do the best we can but it's the WORLD. There's peanuts in it. There's dairy in it along with the source of all evil, cows. There's also eggs and those ******* chickens.
And there's things derived from them EVERYWHERE.
I'm sorry, but there has to be a line drawn somewhere. Again, if she is so worried why not homeschool?
Last edited by ExKiwilass; Jan 17th 2014 at 5:41 pm.
Jan 17th 2014, 5:39 pm
#51
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Re: Allergic kids vs kids without allergies at school
Shes 6.... Its a bit young to be loading all the responsibility on to her dont you think.
Jan 17th 2014, 5:40 pm
#52
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Re: Allergic kids vs kids without allergies at school
I really don't think this mother is so worried about her kid dying, if she was, she'd homeschool end of. She's worried about her kid not having a normal time at school like all the other kids. Well, I"m sorry but her allergy is not normal, it does impact her day to day, and it's not fair to expect all the other kids to act as if they, too, have an allergy so her kid can feel normal.
Last edited by ExKiwilass; Jan 17th 2014 at 5:46 pm.
Jan 17th 2014, 5:41 pm
#53
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Re: Allergic kids vs kids without allergies at school
Fred drifting ever so slightly.....a teacher of my acquaintance had a new colleague start at her school. Well, I say start at her school, but actually she hasn't yet. Said teacher has a severe scent allergy apparently. So severe that the School Board had to remove all cleaning materials - soap, hand sanitiser, cleaning products - from the school before she could start after the holidays. The idea was, presumably to replace them with scent free products but the execution was flawed as they were not replaced before school started. So for a number of weeks the school had no cleaning products on hand. For a building with 400 kids in it. The teacher, with the severe allergy? She's not yet been well enough to start her new position at the school.
Madness I tell you. On the subject of scent allergy, it seems to be a uniquely Canadian thing in my experience. This no scent zone thing. Not something one sees back in the UK or even in the US for that matter.
Madness I tell you. On the subject of scent allergy, it seems to be a uniquely Canadian thing in my experience. This no scent zone thing. Not something one sees back in the UK or even in the US for that matter.
Jan 17th 2014, 5:41 pm
#54
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Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 20,185
Re: Allergic kids vs kids without allergies at school
they live in the world.
IMO, we do the best we can but it's the WORLD. There's peanuts in it. There's dairy in it along with the source of all evil, cows. There's also eggs.
And there's things derived from them EVERYWHERE.
I'm sorry, but there has to be a line drawn somewhere. Again, if she is so worried why not homeschool?
IMO, we do the best we can but it's the WORLD. There's peanuts in it. There's dairy in it along with the source of all evil, cows. There's also eggs.
And there's things derived from them EVERYWHERE.
I'm sorry, but there has to be a line drawn somewhere. Again, if she is so worried why not homeschool?
Jan 17th 2014, 5:46 pm
#55
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Re: Allergic kids vs kids without allergies at school
This is a scent free zone. The person sniffer is called Nancy. She's subject to shouts of "Hey, Nancy, get a whiff of this" and the like each time someone farts.
Jan 17th 2014, 5:48 pm
#56
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Re: Allergic kids vs kids without allergies at school
they live in the world.
IMO, we do the best we can but it's the WORLD. There's peanuts in it. There's dairy in it along with the source of all evil, cows. There's also eggs.
And there's things derived from them EVERYWHERE.
I'm sorry, but there has to be a line drawn somewhere. Again, if she is so worried why not homeschool?
IMO, we do the best we can but it's the WORLD. There's peanuts in it. There's dairy in it along with the source of all evil, cows. There's also eggs.
And there's things derived from them EVERYWHERE.
I'm sorry, but there has to be a line drawn somewhere. Again, if she is so worried why not homeschool?
Maybe she considers that she is not broadly enough educated herself to offer a decent wide ranging education to her child.
Maybe she considers the social interaction of attending school with hundreds of other kids as important as the academic lessons learned.
Maybe she thinks that she shouldnt have to home school because the school board has a policy to accommodate people with severe food allergies and said they would make “every reasonable effort” to keep her child safe.
You are right, a line has to be drawn somewhere. Im not qualified to do that and neither is the parent. Perhaps that's what the Human Rights Commission is there to decide.
So why all the fuss? "Parent uses available institutions to resolve dispute with school board" is not such a juicy headline I guess.
Jan 17th 2014, 5:49 pm
#57
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Re: Allergic kids vs kids without allergies at school
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilt...hool-1.2496310
But Elodie was still around dairy and eggs on almost a daily basis, Glover says. “She was in her classroom with her classmates, while they eat her allergens around her,” she said. “It’s terrifying. Any parent with a food-allergic child knows the feeling.”
But Elodie was still around dairy and eggs on almost a daily basis, Glover says. “She was in her classroom with her classmates, while they eat her allergens around her,” she said. “It’s terrifying. Any parent with a food-allergic child knows the feeling.”
The child would need to consume the allergen for there to be a problem. Sitting ten feet away from a kid eating a chopped egg sandwich isn't going to do anything.
Personally, I am getting sick and tired of these parents demanding that everyone conform to their child's alleged allergies. I say alleged not because I don't believe that this child has a dairy allergy, but because so many people claim things like peanut allergies which are just BS. Peanuts are not nuts, they are legumes so they are the equivalent of lima beans and only about 0.6% of the population is actually allergic to peanuts.
Strangely enough, I am one of those people as I have a mild peanut allergy. But I grew up in a house in which other people ate things like peanut butter and I never once had a problem with them doing so. We only discovered my allergy after I scarfed down a bowl of salted peanuts one day. When discussing the issue with the doctor we were informed that so long as I didn't ingest peanuts I wouldn't have any more problems. We didn't demand that other kids at my school stop eating peanut butter and the like, nor did the members of my family stop eating it, and I have never had a problem again. But these days we constantly have parents claiming their child is allergic to peanuts and demanding that others alter their behaviour so as to accommodate their child, which is ridiculous.
Jan 17th 2014, 5:51 pm
#58
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Re: Allergic kids vs kids without allergies at school
agreed, but loading all the responsibility on a bunch of other 6 year olds/their parents is a bit rich.
I really don't think this mother is so worried about her kid dying, if she was, she'd homeschool end of. She's worried about her kid not having a normal time at school like all the other kids. Well, I"m sorry but her allergy is not normal, it does impact her day to day, and it's not fair to expect all the other kids to act as if they, too, have an allergy so her kid can feel normal.
I really don't think this mother is so worried about her kid dying, if she was, she'd homeschool end of. She's worried about her kid not having a normal time at school like all the other kids. Well, I"m sorry but her allergy is not normal, it does impact her day to day, and it's not fair to expect all the other kids to act as if they, too, have an allergy so her kid can feel normal.
Anyway this discussion is going round in circles. The Human Rights Tribunal will side with the board (they always do) and that will be the end of it.
Jan 17th 2014, 5:51 pm
#59
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Re: Allergic kids vs kids without allergies at school
They've done that. They don't have a duty to make all children suffer the miserable life to which this one is condemned by her handicap and by her unfortunate choice of parent.
Jan 17th 2014, 5:55 pm
#60
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Re: Allergic kids vs kids without allergies at school
I call bullshit on that. Many an anaphylactic episode has been triggered by exposure of the skin alone to an allergen. Some people with peanut allergies can be set off by touching the oily residue from someone elses treat and thats the argument behind banning all peanut traces from schools. Its not necessarily about a kid eating someone elses food.