Ballpark bans Peanuts and Crackerjack

It may be a bad business decision but I bet you've never had a friend or relative almost die due to food allergy concerns. I have, my granddaughter is absolutely deathly allergic to tree nuts and peanuts, and has been hospitalized multiple times for exposure. I know, I know -- it's your right to have peanuts at ballgames, but people seem to trivialize the seriousness of these allergies. It's tough seeing a 5 year old carrying 2 epi pens and learning how to give herself shots just so she knows how to survive.

First thing I would do is change the name from an "allergy." Doesn't sound so bad, I mean we all have allergies. But some can kill you. Kinda like turf toe doesn't sound so bad for big bad football players. I'm not trying to be argumentative at all here, I just hope people would realize that these kinds of allergies are real.

No, I don’t think so. Ice cream is pretty well contained within their little tubs or on sticks or cones. Not much of a chance of getting some inadvertently in a different food source. I suspect that the ballpark wants to avoid any possible cross-“contamination” of this sort since it doesn’t take much to trigger a reaction, and as you’ve read, the reaction can be deadly. 

Thanks Irimi.  I KNOW it's a touchy subject with people because so many people want to shout out that it's their right to eat peanuts (etc) wherever they want.  I get it.  But this is a problem that is growing, for some weird reason, in our culture today. As I said, if they changed the name to something more ominous it might be treated differently.


The last time my granddaughter was in real jeopardy was eating at a restaurant that they've frequented before .... but they got cross contamination nonetheless.  Epi-pen injection in the bathroom and a trip to the hospital, and this is a restaurant they trusted. Restaurants, school cafeterias (and peanut butter sandwiches), airplanes, ball games .. the areas of problem for someone like this are myriad.  Professional ballparks have actually had "peanut free days" and they've gone to games on those days because it's a normal thing for kids to do.  Sorry for the long winded reply, but this is a tough one for her, and lots of people.

While I'm on my soapbox, if anyone wants more info, Food Allergy Research & Education's (FARE) website will give you lots of info.  
www.foodallergy.org/




  

As someone who has a severe nut allergy, even the particles in the air can give me migraines and bad reactions. Yes eating them is worse and makes my throat close up, but having the particles in the air can still be bad. It's completely different than something like ice cream and diabetics. Most people don't understand peanut allergies, but they are extremely severe and it's not just from eating them like other food allergies (lactose, gluten, shellfish, etc).

would a particle mask help? I don't know much about nut allergies. 

Not sure. I've never tried wearing one. I've always just sucked it up at baseball games and tried to sit away from people eating nuts because watching baseball is more important than my health.

I appreciate you expressing what has become a real issue in our culture. We discovered a couple of years ago already that my 2 1/2 year old grandson is DEATHLY allergic to peanuts. He had hives and other weird reactions, and not knowing what had caused them they did a multi-allergy testing workup. The test for peanuts blew off the charts. The doctor classified his issue as life-threatening, not just eating peanuts or peanut butter, but even having contact on his skin via kisses from family - anything that could get to his bloodstream could kill him within 30 minutes.

So, all of us in the family have scrapped anything containing peanuts (hazelnuts in his case as well). The epi pen absolutely has got to be close on hand wherever he goes. It’s tough, his dad played for the Beavs and is a high school coach, and my grandson lives at the ball park. He loves it, and his motor doesn’t quit, so it takes a whole village to keep him away from the peanut shells on the ground under the bleachers, etc. As a school counselor, I’ve watched our schools get tighter and tighter on restrictions as this very real health risk has become more prevalent.

I’m not sure what is causing the increase in cases of severe allergies in our kids. I have to think that as we continue introduce more and more unnatural stuff into our environment and the processing of food that it can’t be helping. Whatever the cause, this is a problem that is no joke. Responding to it appropriately as a society may be inconvenient and possibly even effect some people’s bottom line, but it must be taken seriously.