Kassaundra

There are 3 of us in my sibling group (me and two others) our parents have absolutely no allergies of any kind, not medicine, food or even hay fever. All 3 of us have severe and life threatening allergies to foods and medicine. All the allergies are different mangos, gluten, strawberries, peaches, seafood, citrus (and olestra a fat substitute not sure if that should be in the food catagory) are the combined food allergies we have. In addition to the serious ones some of us are also allergic to some different soaps and get body hives from them.

We were not raised in an overly clean environment (sometimes our environment was down right filthy by anyone's standards) we didn't have the luxury of being picky eaters, it was eat what was provided or not at all situation, we were not kept indoors, most of our youth was spent outside. I do not know for a fact but am pretty sure we were formula raised children. Nearly all our allergic reactions happened as adults or late adolescence.

The only allergy I can directly attribute to genetics would be mine to penicillin, even though my mother didn't have that allergy her mother did.

Fizzle

Is it possible that allergies have always been around but in todays world we are going to doctor way more than before?
We run to the doc for absolutely everything. Doctors are way more knowledgeable and we are diagnosed with all kinds of things. Maybe things that we had 50-75 years ago but with no diagnosis. We just worked around them.

That kid that could not run in PE class was called a weakling but in reality had severe allergies?

Onebyone

I never knew one child in my school years that had a nut allergy. Now it seems 1/4 of the kids in my grand's class has one. I think waiting too long for a child to be exposed to nuts,dairy, wheat, whatever, tends to have the body react to the foreign food in a harsh way. My kids got a tiny taste of peanut butter at a young age and every month after a bigger taste. Same with eggs. Kids of past generations were eating every day table food by the age of six month so I think the body adapted to handle it in the majority of kids.

Anniedeb

I think maybe some allergies are genetic, or maybe they aren't allergies, just reactions to certain foods, and then there are true, life threatening allergies. My brother and I are "allergic" to fresh pineapple and fresh kiwi. I like the taste, but the resulting canker sores aren't worth it. DH and both sons cannot tolerate penicillin. One son cannot tolerate sulfa based antibiotics. We learned that the hard way with a frantic ambulance ride! I have a friend who says she is allergic to "everything", but has never had a reaction to anything! I have another friend that cannot be near certain kinds of seafood, and always has an epi-pen on hand, and I've seen him have to use it.

As to causes I think there are many reasons/causes. Allergy, immune deficiency, environmental, preservatives, chemicals, and a myriad of other factors. You are right though...I don't remember much talk about allergies when we were kids.

Kassaundra

Yes I am a paramedic the word "allergy" is not well understood by many people. You can have an adverse reaction (canker sore for instance) when eating a particular food, or an adverse reaction to some medications, like headache when using nitro, but these are not "allergies". An allergy involves an immune response and can range from mild annoyance to immediately life threatening. If you have an allergy that is a mere annoyance you should never be complaisant and knowingly expose yourself to it b/c it is playing Russian roulette and can become life threatening at any exposure.

osewme

I'm 76 years old and have never had allergies. When I reached around 55 I did start to have some seasonal problems due to what I guess was pollen in the air. I did not go to the doctor to "analyze" my stuffy nose, running eyes & headaches during the season changes. Now I've "outgrown" those seasonal problems & have no allergies whatsoever. As kids we played outside all day long & well into the night. We always ate home cooked meals & never ate fast food. We went to a sit down restaurant about twice a year. I never remember us kids having to go to the doctor's office unless it was for the time my brother broke his arm & I got a huge wooden splinter in my behind while my brother was pulling me across the floor on a thin rug. I personally think a lot of allergies are caused by our environment, food additives & chemicals. To this day I still have fun with my daughter by telling her that I think the reason she is never sick/needing medical attention is because I caught her eating tree bark & dirt with she was little.

Anniedeb

This made me smile so much! It reminded me of myself, and the 1st kid, 2nd kid syndrome. With my first, I thought for sure he would die if he fell, got dirty, ate something off the floor, you name it. Two years later, with his brother, I was like...is he still breathing...oh ok, everything's good. Fortunately, the younger one always led the older one to take chances, go for it, and be adverturous, despite my attempts to bubble wrap him!

tropit

I certainly agree that we have more issues today with chemicals and additives. I'd also like to bring up plants and herbs. Some of us just can't tolerate certain, strong smelling, or tasting plants. For example, if I eat celery, I'm taking a chance that it might cause me to wheeze, have a runny nose and make my eyes start to water. My mom was that way too. Anything with a intense, resiny character, like fresh oregano, can also cause my asthma symptoms to kick up.

I think that it's a complex medical issue, that they still don't have all of the answers to.

~ C

Onebyone

I lived with a lot of siblings and cousins. It's wonder we didn't poison ourselves. We would dare each other to eat all manner of things we found growing in the woods. I do remember we would never eat a mushroom, poke berry, or buckeye. We were told once they were poison and if we were dumb enough to eat one then we were dumb enough to die according to adults. I can't remember any child having a protective parent when I was growing up. In fact if we did get hurt, usually we got a spanking for it.