Peanut Allergy...Hype?

I know that having a peanut allergy isn't a joke but it just might have been blown all out of proportion to the danger it represents.  My youngest daughter was allergic to peanuts and eating them caused her to break out in a rash.  She grew out of it, though.  

I decided to check on the internet to see what the actual statistics were in regard to peanut allergies and their consequences.  I'll use the United States, population 318.9 million people in 2014.  According to a lobbying group, 150-200 of those people died from some sort of allergies but only 75-100 died from an allergic reaction to peanuts.  Then I read a Huffington Post report.  It seems that we've been misled.  Only 13 people (6 adults and 7 children) died from peanut allergies from 1996-2006.  Think about it...slightly more than 1 person per year in a population of 300 million.  And our children are not allowed to take peanut butter sandwiches for their school lunches any more.

Why do we allow ourselves to be manipulated this way?  It's similar to one person saying we shouldn't display Christmas trees in public places and everyone runs to accommodate that one idiot.

Now I'm not saying that parents should ignore the fact that their child is allergic to peanuts.  I'm saying the problem should be handled in a more sensible manner.  Don't expect 1000 children in a school to refrain from bringing peanut butter sandwiches for their lunches because one or two children have allergies.  Have those one or two children eat their lunch separate from the rest of the kids.  Doesn't that make more sense?

When we discovered that Shelley was allergic to peanuts we also found out that she was allergic to bird feathers and dust.  No, we didn't insist that the government should shoot all the birds in the country and, as for the dust, she lived in my house and was able to survive.  Sometimes we just need to use common sense.