The Western World, and the US in particular, needs to take a long hard look at why allergies are so prevalent there compared to the East. I am from India, and w

The Western World, and the US in particular, needs to take a long hard look at why allergies are so prevalent there compared to the East. I am from India, and while allergies are not unheard of, they are also pretty rare. I went through 15 years of schooling without anyone in my class ever having anything like an anaphylactic shock. Compare that to the hysteria about peanuts in my kid's school in the US. To be clear I am not blaming the school. If there are kids with deadly allergies towards everyday foods, yes, there will need to be strong precautionary measures, but it's insane that we consider this high prevalence of allergies as normal here in the US, despite strong evidence from other countries that this doesn't need to be the case. With our son (born and raised in the US), we basically exposed him to common allergens from Day 1. We'd rub them against his lips or place a very small amount on his tongue, and so on. Occasionally put a small bit of peanut paste in his formula, a bit of shrimp once he was a bit older, and so on. He's 7 now, and has so far exhibited no common allargies.