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60k kids have avoided peanut allergies due to 2015 advice, study finds

(www.cbsnews.com)
349 points zdw | 9 comments | 21 Oct 25 03:53 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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forgotoldacc ◴[21 Oct 25 05:20 UTC] No.45652698[source]▶
There was a period of a few decades (I guess still ongoing, really) where parents sheltered their kids from everything. Playing in the dirt, peanuts, other allergens. It seems like all it's done is make people more vulnerable as adults. People assume babies are super fragile and delicate, and in many ways they are, but they also bounce back quickly.

Maybe part of it is a consequence of the risks of honey, which can actually spawn camp infants with botulism. But it seems that fear spread to everything.

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rtpg ◴[21 Oct 25 05:36 UTC] No.45652797[source]▶
"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" makes for a fun little statement. It's not actual natural law though, right? I feel like it's fairly well documented that good hygiene is a win for humanity as a whole, so I have some skepticism for generally saying "well let the kids eat dirt". We did that for centuries already!

The thing I'm a bit curious about is how the research on peanut allergies leading to the sort of uhhh... cynic's common sense take ("expose em early and they'll be fine") is something that we only got to in 2015. Various allergies are a decently big thing in many parts of the world, and it feels almost anticlimactic that the dumb guy take here just applied, and we didn't get to that.

Maybe someone has some more details about any basis for the original guidelines

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1. birksherty ◴[21 Oct 25 06:10 UTC] No.45652947[source]▶
> Various allergies are a decently big thing in many parts of the world

Maybe we live in bubbles.

I am from Asia. I have only seen people need to be taken to emergency hospital in American tv shows for any allergies. Here I've never seen it in my whole life and didn't even know allergy can be this dangerous. We don't have peanut allergy too. First time even I saw it in TV, I was very confused.

Allergies do exists here, but "not to the extent" like what I've seen in American TV shows or heard online.

Only thing I remember is people need to take medicine for to allergy from venomous caterpillar hairs, they mistakenly touched those. And stung by honey bees, wasp etc.

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2. ChadNauseam ◴[21 Oct 25 06:41 UTC] No.45653101[source]▶
It makes for good TV. I think only a couple hundred Americans die a year from anaphylaxis. And many of those are from medication allergies.
3. mock-possum ◴[21 Oct 25 07:12 UTC] No.45653268[source]▶
If it makes you feel better I’m nearly 50 and I have never in my life heard of people needing to take allergy medication for mistakenly touching caterpillar hairs.
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4. wil421 ◴[21 Oct 25 07:44 UTC] No.45653439[source]▶
Or maybe the prevalence of peanut allergies is really low.

A quick google search says Asians populations have more allergies to buckwheat, royal jelly, and edible bird nests from swiftlets. Shellfish is still one of the highest allergies anywhere.

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5. sofixa ◴[21 Oct 25 08:25 UTC] No.45653669[source]▶
Same in a decent chunk of Europe too. Allergies exist, but are rare and more of the type where you're not quite sure you believe the person telling you they're allergic because it hadn't even occurred to you there can be an allergy for that. Like tomatoes, peppers, raw carrots.

The UK seems to be a bit of an exception. And it shows, the only two countries I've been asked if there are any allergies by waiters as a standard are the US and the UK.

6. birksherty ◴[21 Oct 25 18:31 UTC] No.45659690[source]▶
Those are not normal food where I'm. Never eaten any of those. Basically I've never heard people getting allergy from foods that we eat here.
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7. birksherty ◴[21 Oct 25 18:34 UTC] No.45659746[source]▶
That one incident was serious, the person slept over a caterpillar getting stung all over body. Here all caterpillars have venom in hair. Personally I've touched many times by mistake, but didn't have to take medicine, the itchiness & swelling goes away within a hour.
8. rtpg ◴[22 Oct 25 03:01 UTC] No.45664481[source]▶
I think this is selection bias. I know plenty of people in Asia who have plenty allergies to some degree or another (selection bias on my side as well)

Hell, most of hayfever season in Tokyo is a bunch of people with allergies!

I think you should remember that American TV shows will use certain kinds of extreme scenarios to make a story. Lots of people who are allergic to things in a fairly benign way.

And also just more generally, I think Americans will be more likely to identify that _they have a shrimp allergy_ when every time they eat shrimp they feel bad. But I know plenty of adults who just go through life and be like "I guess I feel sick every time I eat this" and not be willing to use the word "allergy".

9. wil421 ◴[22 Oct 25 18:28 UTC] No.45673224{3}[source]▶
Google says HLA-DQ and HLA-DR genes vary more in Asian populations. Seems like it’s a factor in both allergies, immune systems, and an increase in diabetes.