What causes allergies?

There has been a lot of talk in the media lately about the cause of allergies. We all know that there are many theories about what causes an allergy to food or another substance, however some of these theories can be a little bit far fetched. Today I am going to outline some of the theories I have heard! Feel free to add on to this list in the comments.

1. If you feed your child the allergen, they won't be allergic

We have all heard this one. That the reason you or your child has an allergy is because you didnt feed them enough of it when they were younger/when you were pregnant.

From a personal experience side, I know for a fact my mum ate my allergens while she was pregnant with me, and tried to feed them to me before I was diagnosed with allergies. Well, lets cut straight to the point; IT DIDN'T WORK! Even when I was a baby, I would throw up after every meal, because I was allergic!

I'm not sure about everyone else's experiences, but from what I have read in terms of other parents, this theory seems a little bit far fetched.


2. Eat more dirt

I cannot understand this particular comment to be perfectly truthful!

Dirt doesn't have any particular qualities that make us healthier, otherwise I'm sure it would be the next superfood!

I do understand that by letting your children play in the dirt, you can strengthen their immune systems, but the truth is that allergies can be developed before kids are even old enough to go outside and play!

I heard this theory when I was younger and thought it was a bit odd!

3. Your house is too clean

This one kind of relates to theory number two in terms of strengthening the immune system. I still think it's not quite on track!

I know that as new parents, everyone is told to keep everything super clean in order to keep the baby healthy, but if you have multiple children, you learn that they can handle it if you don't dust the house every day!

This theory really doesn't lend itself to being truthful when there are multiple children in a family with allergies!

I know that the cleanliness story came up as my parents were told they had to be scrupulous with their hygiene as I was their first child. But by the time my sister came along, they realized they didn't have to wash their hands every few minutes just to pick me up, and she still has allergies.

If children don't know or understand allergies, then they may come up with their own crazy theories! Here are a few I heard when I was younger.

4. You have allergies? You must be an ALIEN!

I heard this one as a child and it threw me off guard a little bit!

The other child's theory was that my 'home planet' didn't have chocolate or nuts, so when I came to earth it was foreign which explained why I was allergic!

So I know I'm not an alien, but this one made me laugh when I remembered it the other day!

5. Your parents must not love you enough.

There are no words to describe how I felt when I heard this! It was a rainy day in primary school and we had to eat inside. The teacher (to her credit) explained that before we played boardgames, everyone had to wash their hands because of my allergies.

One particular boy turned around to where I was finishing my lunch and told me "You know why you have allergies? Your parents don't love you enough so they decided you couldn't eat all this stuff"

Now as an adult, I can look back on this and know that this kid was not only uneducated about allergies, but was just being plain mean! As a child, I knew it wasnt true, as my parents were investing a lot of time and money into finding a cure for my eczema and allergies but this comment really hurt!

We all know there are a  lot of theories out there, but no definitive answer. Sometimes it can be frustrating and we can try to blame a lot of different factors, but we just have to adapt and learn to live with it!

You are all doing the best you can so do not beat yourself up over the people who try and 'educate' you on why your child or yourself has allergies!

Have a great day everyone :D