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06 May 2007, 12:07
Hyperactive (ADHD) children’s diets.It shocked me, as I’m sure it shocked everyone who heard the tragic news, that a 13-year-old Esquimalt girl died last week from a severe allergic reaction after eating some fast food.
Any parent can relate to the loss of a child – be it from a car crash, a case of meningitis or the accidental consumption of a drug from a water bottle, as happened to 22-year-old Zoë Read a week earlier. Yet the sudden death of Carley Kohnen, who died after eating a burrito, really hit home for me.
My youngest son is about her age and he too carries the burden of a potentially life-threatening allergy. It’s not clear what allergen killed Carley – she had allergies to peanuts and dairy products – however it is clear that she lapsed into anaphylactic shock and never recovered.
Her death reminded me that the very same thing could happen to my son, Ben. It also reminded me of the three times when I thought it would.
The scariest occurred about 10 years ago. I was called to his sitter’s house because he was having trouble breathing. I arrived to find him with his face swollen and mucous trickling from his nose, the only obvious sign of moisture on his dry, bumpy, cracking skin. So I drove him to a clinic about five miles away as he moaned from the back seat, “I’m dying, dad.”
I had the sinking feeling that he might be right. That drive to the clinic was the longest five minutes of my life.
Another time, the family was flying to California on Southwest Airlines when the flight attendant starting handing out bags of peanuts. We didn’t realize until then that peanuts are the airline’s signature treat. Ben, then about five, reached for a bag before anyone could stop him. I’m still not sure if he’d gotten some peanut residue off his face or if the aroma from 100 little bags of peanuts was to blame, but he had an uncomfortable flight. When we pointed out Ben’s problem, the airline was kind enough to serve raisins on the next three flights we took – and I don’t recall anyone complaining.
The third crisis flared up at home. I arrived to find half the local fire department in the living room attending to Ben, who had almost no blood pressure. He had eaten a confection from a supermarket bakery that the server assured Ben’s mom didn’t contain peanuts. I suspect the girl must have misheard the question – because the treat was oozing with peanut butter.
About 10 years has passed since Ben and his parents had a scare like that. A lot has changed since then – not the least being that his mother and father are each now married to another spouse. What hasn’t changed is the danger peanuts present to Ben. We’ve always tried to stress that he must be vigilant – although the last thing we want to do is make him paranoid.
Not long ago, I caught a PBS documentary about David Vetter, a boy who had no immune system and who lived his life in a plastic bubble. Simple exposure to the environment could kill him (and eventually did when he was 12). The gravity of his situation weighed on his psyche, casting him into a profound depression that might well have killed him had the germs not done so.
Ben is much more fortunate. His good fortune, though, has led to some complacency. On occasion, he has gone places he shouldn’t without his EpiPen. That’s the saddest part about Carley’s death – her life-saving medicine was in her school locker. She was very vigilant about her condition, her parents told a local newspaper, but she let her guard down and it cost her life.
Ben can only vaguely recall one of his brushes with anaphylaxis. Yet he’s smart enough to realize that peanuts represent a real threat. In a few weeks, he’s leaving on a trip with his school band. It will be the first time he’s gone anywhere for any extended time without at least one of his parents. I’m scared to death.
Of course, I have to let him go. The world is a dangerous place. He just has to navigate one extra danger that most of us don’t have to think about.
Estimates vary, but about one per cent of the population in industrialized countries have a life-threatening allergy. The most prevalent by far is to peanuts, although shellfish and dairy products are also common. Theoretically, the human body can develop a severe allergy to any protein.
In the U.S. about two million people are allergic to peanuts. About 100 die every year. That’s about a one in 20,000 chance per year or a one in 200 chance over 100 years.
I suspect that those seemingly favourable odds are because people with peanut allergies learn from a young age to be careful. Improvements in food packaging and general education are also helpful. Shortly after Ben was diagnosed, I recall a woman indignantly telling me that it is impossible for someone to die from an allergic reaction to peanuts. I now encounter less of that insensitivity to people with food sensitivities but it’s still there.
While the mechanisms behind these allergies still aren’t fully understood by medical science, the problem can be stated simply – such as peanuts are poison to some people.
Unfortunately, they are a cheap and nutritious food for everyone else. I used to love peanuts but I haven’t wanted to eat one for years... [read more]
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