Does your child panic at the sight of peanuts?
In school, my son found a "rubber peanut" among toys. The teacher was not aware of the peanut being there.
Drew started to panic. HE was worried that he might die from being near it. The teacher told me that he would not go anywhere near the the area that it was in. She was not aware of the peanut there.
He has panicked if he thought that he touched something that might have had peanuts in it or have eaten something. Worried about dying.
I talked to him about the incident afterwards but he was at that point like it was no big deal. He did not even mention it to me. I had to bring it up to him. Grrr. I tell him that he needs to tell me everything. I guess I have to chalk that up to him only being 5. My oldest never tells me anything. Oh well.
Best wishes to all,
Renee
Well, my son isn't old enough yet to even recognize them. (Although on the rare occasion that we come across them, I show them to him so he will know. For example, raking the lawn the other day, I found some shells that an unknowing squirrel had scattered in our yard for us!!)
But his older sister, who is six, and who takes his allergy very much to heart, definitely has similar reactions.
She even told me that she didn't want her brother to come to her music recital because they were singing a song about peanut butter and jelly!! (Aww, cute, huh???)
Which reminds me... her music teacher was telling me about all the times that she has "offended" parents by choosing the wrong songs. (I.e. Some people don't acknowledge Halloween, and she made the mistake of choosing a Halloween song for a recital once.) But she went on to tell me about how a parent took a strip of her once for doing a song about peanuts, because, "It may traumatize a child who is allergic to peanuts!" OMG, it's JMO, but isn't that taking it a LITTLE bit too far??? [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/biggrin.gif[/img]
My son is definately terrified of peanuts and tree nuts. He is five also, but we homeschool him, so the only time he sees them are when we are out somewhere. He has experienced similar reactions to the sight of them. He is actively involved in an Awanas program through church and when he was in Cubbies they had an Elephant that was obsessed with peanuts. In the beginning of the program he would freak out when the elephant puppet mentioned peanuts. I must say that I think it is their way of protecting themselves and I would much rather them be afraid of peanuts than NOT being afraid of them.
[This message has been edited by NaomiR (edited October 06, 2001).]
My son is 5yrs and he is also gets very excited and nervous when he sees peanuts or peanut butter especially in school. The first day of Kindergarten this year (Full Day) they walk in the hallway holding someone's hand. Well he asked the child who was holding his hand if he ate PB for lunch. The child did not know what he ate and said "I don't know I guess so" so my son freaked out and wanted to wash his hands.
I am glad he is aware, however, I do not want him to get anxiety over this. I know what that is like and I do not want him to go through life nervous about everything. Also, I do not want him discussing PB with the children in school. Now at 5 years old they are pretty controlled. I do not want him to be picked on or have peanuts thrown in his face. Children can be very mean. I hope this doesn't sound crazy. It wasn't too long ago I remember when I was in school and children who were picked on were really tormented. At first its funny, but, you are really hurting people. It is terrible.
My son is almost 2 so he still doesn't understand his allergy yet. He knows there are foods he can't have 'cus they'll make him sick, but not much else. His 6 year old brother, on the other hand, totally understands. And he is VERY protective of his little brother. Like the post from "teacher" said, it's sweet and cute but sometimes I have to remind my older son not to go too overboard.
And as someone mentioned about having to ask and pull information out of kids, yep, same here with the 6 year old. So how was school? Fine. What did you learn? Stuff. Anything fun? Yep. Sometimes I feel like I have to play detective or recruit the husband to help play good cop/bad cop to get the kid to talk about his day. I cringe to think what he will be like at 16! Grin. Yet, when it comes to protecting his brother, my eldest is a chatterbox. Warmly, Julie B.
No, he's not scared of them, but definitely cautious. In fact, he points them out whenever he sees them to inform me where they are. Like the girl holding a bag of roasted peanuts at the playground or a bag of peanuts on the lower shelves of the grocery store where they keep the pineapple. At his eye level, not mine! He likes walking in the middle of the aisles that have peanuts at the grocery store and I commend him for that. Just the other day when he slept at grandma's house, he asked her to check the ingredients of her toothpaste. Bless his heart! He's using his head. Then comes the afterthought (we PA-concious parents always try to think ahead)--what if someone touched the toothpaste top to a toothbrush that was used on the mouth of a peanut eater. Quite plausible considering many other grandchildren staying at her house on different occasions. Next time, we'll bring our own.