The Five Strands of A Sedentary Empress

in a nutshell

I've been concerned for a while about the sudden explosion in allergies in children. This isn't just about my own child's dramatic reaction to amoxicillin either, but is more to do with the fact that it seems like every time I turn around, another kid has been diagnosed as intolerant to one thing or another. When I was a kid, I didn't know anyone with an allergy to food or perfume, and I certainly didn't know any autistic kids, but now it's everywhere, and I think it's time we got alarmed.

I know three people who have had an adverse reaction to amoxicillin.

I know four autistic children.

I know four children who are allergic to peanuts.

I know someone who is allergic to apple peels.

My sister blows up when she comes into contact with shellfish.

M. is allergic to some forms anaesthesia and experienced a year of short-term memory loss after surgery as a result.

This didn't happen thirty years ago, this epidemic of intolerance. It's like an EpiPen is the latest in accessories of the new millenium.

My nephew was formally diagnosed with a severe allergy to all things nut and pea-like yesterday. My sister called, verging on tears, rhyming off a list of things he will not be able to consume for life: peanuts, pine nuts, almonds, anything nut, lima beans, black beans, navy beans, lentils, anything bean or pea-like. That's pretty limiting when you consider that she's a vegetarian who has been trying to supplement her family's diet with legumes, but this allergy, it came out of nowhere. An accidental chocolate covered peanut while driving home from the candy store and my nephew Shamus started to scream that his tongue was on fire. My sister said that her heart instantly began pushing at her chest, knowing that this meant things were about to be different. No more quick trips to the grocery store, everything will have to be read. No more letting him go to my parent's house on his own as my mother is most likely to have a bowl of nuts lying about. There will always be worry, now. She will have to watch every meal, every snack, every nibble, until he's old enough to take responsibility on his own.

Something is wrong. Something is in our air, our food, our water. Something is harming the children.

My wee one will be going next week for a formal diagnosis on her allergy, possibly being tested for others as a precaution. Today, though her spirits are high, her nose has been running and her eyes have been pink and I know it's a seasonal thing. From me, I suppose, an allergy which came on when I was fifteen and hasn't gone away. My eyes itch, my stomach gets queasy, I am uncomfortable from now until July, usually. I had a particularly bad episode when I was seventeen in which the skins in the corners of my eyes closed over my eyeballs, not unlike a cat's would do, and I had to be rushed to the hospital where I was sufficiently drugged and later taken to my best friend's house where her mother could watch me as my own parents were out of town. That eye itching...it's the worst of the lot, because the more you rub the worse it gets and it wrecks your vision for hours. So, when I noticed my wee one was dealing with these familiar symptoms, I realized that she will be on Benadryl every summer until whenever. This is completely nuts.

Am I the only one panicking about this? Has anyone else noticed the exploding numbers?

I know I'm not alone, but the thing is that there doesn't seem to be a real sense of urgency about this, unless there is and it's hidden for some reason. I want a huge investigation into this. I want to know what is responsible for compromising the children's breathing, the children's cognitive skills, the children's chance for a normal life. What else is happening under the surface? What other maladies are on their way to exploding? I don't want to hear about the urgency around Swine Flu, thank you. It's just the flu, and hundreds of thousands of people die from seasonal flu each year so I don't think it merited the attention it got. That same terror needs to develop over the quieter pandemics. Influenza is a cyclic thing, but this...this is an unnatural response to something we're doing.

Diabetes, autism, food allergies...it's all on the rise. It's our fault somehow. I feel it.