How to Interpret this one: Parents think they have Food Allergies too

Yesterday, I read, “Parents of Kids with Food Allergies Believe they are Allergic Too” on Pollen.com and found the article intriguing. When a group of almost 2,500 parents of food allergic children (mothers and fathers) were studied, 14.5% of mothers and 12.7% of the fathers thought they have food allergies. Interestingly, of those self-reporting a food allergy, only 28% turned out to actually have food allergies (such as peanut, sesame, etc). But wait, I know what you are thinking, “get tested folks”. I went there too. It is so easy and affordable to make a judgement call versus going to the physician. You’re living with out certain foods anyway right? Why bother.
One point of the study, “Patterns of allergen sensitization and self reported allergic disease in the parents of food allergic children”,  was to look at sensitization in adults. The conclusion was that yes, parents of kids with food allergies appear to have a higher rate of allergies. No surprise, but what came to my mind is the question of, are we so focused on our children that we are not paying attention to our own diagnosis?
Skin testing and food challenges are time consuming and costly. I get that. Food challenges are my least favorite thing to do in the planet right along side driving on a desolate desert road. Two things I would like to avoid, but sometimes find necessary.  A few years ago, I kept clearing my throat like an old man in the morning. A friend told me I had asthma. I shook my head and said, naw, not me. It’s my hay fever I reasoned without a second thought. So then she made me promise I would drink a cup a coffee the next time I kept clearing my throat.
Soon, I was driving to California on a snowy day and stopped for gas as the snow fell to the ground. I started that old man throat clearing. I remembered my promised and I bought a cup of gas station coffee. I am a coffee snob and that was painful right there, but a promise is a promise. Sure enough, the coughing stopped and I made a doctor’s appointment. My doctor explained that caffeine has a positive effect on asthma and yes, indeed, I had asthma. Cold is one of my asthma triggers.
The moral of the story is that as parents of chronically ill children, we often forget our health and well being. I wondered about how much stress those parents who thought they had allergies had placed on themselves or their families. I hope we all take a few minutes to pause and to remember to take care of ourselves. Our families need us to to healthy, happy and hopefully wise.