Thursday, January 15, 2009
Read this essay from Dr. Robert Wood--an FAAN medical board member and lifelong peanut allergy sufferer printed in today's L.A. Times. FAAN also has a link to this story--check their "In the News" section.
Now I promise I'll stop talking about this--Mr. Stein doesn't deserve any more discussion. I'm so over this person!!!!
I will ask all of you one thing, though. FAAN needs to come out strongly when these stories occur. They still haven't addressed Dr. Nicolas Christakis (not an allergist) who is running around saying that nut allergies are largely an invention of "hysterical" parents and that we need to stop taking them seriously because it creates "fear."
One of the biggest things that bothers me about this "hysteria" thing is that it is mainly mothers that are being called into question and called hysterical. This is blatantly sexist and needs to stop, pronto. Fathers care about this too--not just mothers.
I've contacted FAAN about Dr. Christakis, and I hope you will consider doing so, too. We need FAAN to speak out loud and proud--it really does help.
Also, I only post these negative stories to make us aware of what's going on. I'm actually really pleased with the progress that food allergies have made. The negative stories are not nearly as numerous as the positive ones. And no matter what anyone says, we know we'll keep advocating for our kids. If you're an adult with a food allergy (like Dr. Wood) you have a really important voice to share, too.
Rock on, everybody! Don't let the "@!*#" get you down.