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Having a son who's extremely allergic to "peanuts"...
Last year at a local high school, a girl sprayed her perfume as she was walking through the door to her classroom. FIVE kids back a student with a peanut allergy walked through the mist, took 10 steps and fell down as his throat closed up on him. He went into anaphylactic shock and even with two hits from an epipen he had to be rushed to the hospital.
My son worked for Krogers (grocery store) as a bagger. He'd never had a problem at the store and others know about his allergy. He picked up a jar of peanut butter (never a problem before) and put it in the bag and finished bagging the customer's stuff. About 3 minutes later, someone else realized he was really scratching his palm and asked "what's wrong?". He didn't know he was scratching till then. He stopped and said he didn't know but his hand really itched. The cashier said "do you think it was that jar of peanut butter?". He didn't think so until the MANAGER said "Oh, I wonder if I got peanut butter on that case of jars I shelved about an hour ago. I broke one and cleaned the mess up WITH MY HANDS. I didn't wash before putting the rest of the jars on the shelf. I wonder if that was one of the jars?". So, by this time my son was having problems breathing and used his epipen. It worked so no trip to the ER.
His girlfriend had to completely change her makeup and lotion brands. Many use coconut oil, which almost everyone with a peanut allergy is also affected by.
EVERYTHING he eats and drinks he has to check the ingredients. Every time he goes to a restaurant, even if he's been there the day before he asks what kind of oil do they fry with (they'll change depending on what's available). Every time he goes to a friends and eats anything, he has to check. Every time he buys groceries he has to check.
Did you know that many milk brands use coconut oil in their products now? They supposedly add it as a "sweetener". Funny how it also causes people to not be "refreshed". So, we end up drinking more.
I have some bad allergies (bees/wasps/hornets, antibiotics, tetanus shots) which are pretty easy to work around. Every day I see the stress my son has to deal with because he's allergic to that damn enzyme in "nuts". I can't imagine that.
This allergy is just now being seen by the public. Yes it's been around for a long time, but more and more products are involved.
Do this. Go to the store and start picking up items. Look all over (no federally mandated location) for a "tree nut, coconut" warning. You'll be shocked what all has it. Even worse, that warning IS NOT REQUIRED.