Profile: jsooudi
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Thank you for your comment. Do you have experiences with other areas addressed the rule as well, where perhaps the supportiveness of airline staff and fellow travelers has differed?
Methinks you have an agenda. Highly suspicious that the child of a physician who is hyper aware of bad things that can happen coincidentally has not one, but three life threatening allergies. Have you heard of Munchasen by Proxy? Do you realize that most kids have mild reactions to various food items that they invariably grow out of by the age of 5? Food allergies have to be the most overblown imagined health problem of our time. Hypochondriacs all.
jsoodi – You have one major perception in your post, “Peanut allergy is common,”. It is NOT common. It affects somewhere between .6 and 1.5% of the US population and “severe” reactions are far more rare then that.
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I’m a physician, epidemiologist, and mother to a four year old boy with allergies to milk, peanuts and egg. My son’s dairy allergy is severe, and he has had numerous life-threatening anaphylactic reactions to trace amounts of milk, which required multiple doses of epinephrine and trips to the Emergency Department. Tests indicate that his peanut allergy is worse, but fortunately he has only been exposed once to a peanut; he put one in his mouth and had a relatively mild reaction.
I’ve traveled with my children and despite calling ahead, making requests, and reminding employees at the door, I’ve rarely had respect, let alone consistency, in any kind of peanut-free buffer zone or flight. Several years ago Continental Airlines customer service headquarters informed… more »
I’ve sat with my epi pen in hand on a filthy flight with visible peanut crumbs on the floor while a flight attendant insisted on offering peanuts to the passengers around me because “it was their right.”
Fortunately for me, my son’s peanut allergy is not severe enough that it prohibits us from air travel. Now that he is old enough to not put things in his mouth, and to protect himself, we are safer. However, I know of many, many others in the allergy community, children and adults who simply can NOT fly.
My son’s dairy allergy is quite severe. The world would be a much safer place for us if no one consumed milk near him. If his skin touches anything that once touched milk, even if it was partially cleaned, he will get severe hives. If he consumes even less than a drop, within seconds his lips, eyes and face will swell, he will be covered in hives, vomit, and be gasping for breath. Without epinephrine he would probably die within minutes. But milk is ubiquitous, and milk allergy relatively uncommon, so we must protect ourselves. Peanut allergy is common, and it is a simple step to serve an alternative peanut based snacks for a short period of time. So why is this a big problem?
The vast majority of potential reactions would be eliminated by simply avoiding snacks that have peanuts or peanut butter as an ingredient. Peanut oil is known to contain very little of the actual peanut protein, and would be of little risk in an airborne environment.
As a physician, I have responded to the call from airline staff asking for emergency medical assistance. I am well aware of how expensive and inconvenient it is to ground a plane. In addition, most epi-pens come in two pack doses, each of which are good for maybe 10 to 15 minutes. Which in a severe anaphylactic reaction is simply not enough time between the beginning of a reaction and the patient reaching EMS.
I’ve found that other passengers, as a rule, are extremely supportive, and are more than happy to help with a fellow passengers safety. I think the people commenting on this site would react entirely differently were they seated next to an allergic child on a plane. Of course they would refrain from eating peanuts for a few hours if they knew it would hurt someone they were looking in the face. But I am sympathetic to individuals who are unhappy with yet another discomfort inflicted on air travelers. This restriction is designed to protect people with allergies from the airlines callous disregard for cleanliness and for our safety, not from our fellow passengers.
My son wanted to also write a letter.
“Hi. My name is Steven. I am 4 years old. I am allergic to peanuts, eggs and cow milk. If I eat a peanut I’ll get sick. I ate a nut one time and got a big bump on my lip and it swelled up and it was hard to breathe. It was scary and my dad gave me some medicine that made it better. I would like for them to not give out peanuts so I won’t get sick because I’m allergic. Everybody should drink Sprite and eat Pringles and Pretzels.”
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