Check out this piece written by a mother in Des Moines. In her quest to advocate for her peanut allergic child she’s supporting the removal of all nut products from schools. Not a bad undertaking I’ll admit but when you read on it’s clear that she’s taken allergic advocacy to a new level. Every peanut butter sandwich is, after all, “like a gun pointed at every child with this disability.”
I’ll have to admit that the world has gone a little peanut crazy. Just today I evaluated a three-year-old in my office and he happened to be grazing on a bag of trail mix. When a peanut accidentally dropped to the floor the mother pounced suggesting that it could kill if it fell into the wrong little hands.
While the incidence of nut allergy appears to have doubled between 1997 and 2002, aggressive public education has created hysteria in some cases. Random mindless ramblings and Plainly Speaking think this has gone a little far.
For the record I’ve never characterized allergic dietary restrictions as disabilities since the condition typically doesn’t interfere with mental or physical functioning.