Aw, nuts!

No matter what your sister says I told her in 1971, I am not a medical doctor.

But I have long been interested in this peanut allergy problem. For real, right after  my father's funeral, I had to stop at the funeral home to settle some paperwork, and the place was packed with kids from my old high school mourning the loss of a classmate who ate what he thought was a Christmas sugar cookie, but it was a peanut butter cookie, and his reaction was fatal.

I have asked lots of people in the know about how something like this happens, but I can't understand the explanation, owing to the fact that it has to do with chemistry and the like. 

BUT! Even if I can't understand peanut allergies, learned people can, and they are doing something about them! And now we are finding that the rate of allergies in kids has been dropping since doctors have encouraged parents to introduce peanuts into a child's daily menu.

A trial in 2015 showed that it would be good to feed peanut products to babies, and they figure it will cut the rate of kids affected by over 80 %.

And now, eggs are the #1 food allergen for the small fry.

Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez, a pediatrician at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York, says, “We’re talking about the prevention of a potentially deadly, life-changing diagnosis. This is real world data of how a public health recommendation can change children’s health.”

Even though no one knows all the ins and outs of peanut allergies, medical science has decided on one thing about how allergies develop. A child's skin - especially if it's broken or inflamed - can let allergens in, and that prompts the immune system to regard them as threats. But, take those same allergens through the tummy, and your gut builds tolerance.

Same with Whoopie Pies. Eat enough of them, and your body will stop telling you no!

And it is now believed that since the immune system is still developing in infancy, introducing allergenic foods at that time can help the body say, "Say, this is all right!"

Dr. Bracho-Sanchez says to train the babies at four to six months. Give them a pea-sized smear of Skippy or a little bite of scrambled eggs and let them go to town.

Well, I mean, a four-month old is not old enough to go to town, but they'll get there!