This is every parent’s worst nightmare. In a few moments, your baby will be perfectly healthy. Next, they stopped breathing and turned blue. For many kids, just touching a nut is enough to send them into anaphylactic shock. Food allergies are on the rise, with the number of children affected more than doubling in the past decade. But simple preventive measures can significantly reduce the death rate. This week’s documentary “When Food Kills” sounded the alarm about the growing threat of food allergies.
For Sophia Neou, it started off like a normal day. Her 7-year-old son is at the playground; games and fun are the order of the day. She then got a call from a crying teacher telling her: “He was blue and had stopped breathing.” Paramedics witnessed his condition rapidly deteriorate. “He developed shortness of breath. He became very anxious and then his airways started to swell and he passed out.” William died within 30 seconds when the helicopter arrived, but they managed to bring him back.
Other families have not been so lucky. “There was a big hole in our house and his name was Johnny,” lamented Cheryl Whitburn. Her 15-year-old son died six years ago after receiving a meal in satay sauce from a friend. A small amount of peanuts in the sauce is enough to trigger a reaction. Although rare, severe food allergy incidents are on the rise. “Over the past 10 to 20 years, the incidence of severe food allergies has doubled or tripled,” says Dr. Alyson Kakakios of Westmead Children’s Hospital. No one knows why allergies are on the rise. Scientists still don’t know exactly what causes them.
