What Are Peanut and Tree Nut Allergies?
First grade has been a difficult parenting year for Anne. Her 6-year-old son, Justin, began eating lunch in the cafeteria with hundreds of other students armed with their peanut butter sandwiches, peanut butter crackers, and all those hidden peanuts in their processed foods. For Justin, who has an extremely severe allergy to peanuts, it means sitting at a peanut-free table. But Justin isn’t alone: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) estimates that 6% of children younger than 3 years old have some kind of food allergy, putting them at risk of an allergic reaction at home or, even more dangerously, away from home. Peanuts are among the most common allergy-causing foods. But because a peanut allergy is less likely to be outgrown than allergies to other foods, it becomes more common among older kids and adults. It’s likely that more Americans are allergic to peanuts than any other food. Peanuts are actually not a true nut, but a legume (in the same family as peas and lentils). When
