Allergies, Asthma and Autism: How Did Our Children Get So Sick?

Robyn O'Brien, Founder of AllergyKids

Photo: Courtesy of Robyn O'Brien

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Since when did it get so hard to be a mom? Ten years ago, we didn't worry about sending a peanut butter and jelly sandwich into school with our children; we didn't medicate our eight-year olds to get them through the school day; and the movie Rain Man was all we knew of autism.

Today it is estimated that 50% of Hispanic and African-American children will develop diabetes, that 1 in 90 boys has autism, and that 1 in 4 children has asthma. Pediatrics just reported that from 2002-2005, there was a 103% increase in diabetes medication for children, a 47% increase in asthma medication, a 41% increase in ADHD medication and a 15% increase in high cholesterol medicine.

How did our children get so sick?

As a proud, American mother of four children, I was stunned to learn that there are chemicals that have been added to the U.S. food supply over the last ten years that have either been banned or labeled in countries like Australia, Europe, the UK, Japan....even Russia -- because of the health risks they present. I was stunned to learn that no human studies have ever been conducted on the long-term safety of these chemical additives, so our children have literally been engaged in a live human trial for the last ten years without our informed consent!

• Did you know that food additives and dyes have been linked to asthma and ADHD?
• Did you know that insecticides have been engineered into our food supply? Yikes!
• Did you know that there is a synthetic growth hormone introduced into milk in 1994? Yuck!
• Did you know that Kraft doesn't include Yellow #5 in the mac 'n cheese boxes they sell overseas?

Did you know that allergies are one of the first indicators that a child's immune system is compromised? Some might even say that children with allergies are our "canaries in the coalmine," warning us of how dangerous our food supply has become.

If we stop to listen to these little "canaries," we can learn a lot! And we can go a long way in protecting the health of our little ones!

If you need a little inspiration or a bit of background information on what's going on with our food, log onto www.allergykids.com, search our Resources page, and learn a little (or a lot!) about simple steps that you can take to protect the health of your family. We've been featured in the New York Times, on Good Morning America, on CBS News with Katie Couric and in other news media talking about the toxins in our food supply and the impact that they are having on the health of our children (and all of us!).

And feel free to ask me a question. We've built out a great team of experts, including pediatricians, scientists, neurologists and researchers from around the world to help you take care of your family!

Check out www.allergykids.com and then circle back and let's get to work, as there is so much that you can do to take control of what may seem like an out of control situation!

Robyn O'Brien is the founder of Boulder, Colorado-based AllergyKids, an organization dedicated to protecting the 1 in 3 American children with autism, allergies, ADHD and asthma. Called "food's Erin Brockovich" by the New York Times, O'Brien was born and raised in a conservative Texas family on supply side economics, the Wall Street Journal, Ding Dongs and Doritos. She earned a Fulbright Fellowsip, an MBA on a full scholarship and served as an equity analyst on a multibillion dollar fund prior to moving to Boulder with her husband and four children.

Robyn is the author of The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick and What We Can Do About it (Random House, May 2009. Additional articles by Robyn can be found on her blog, FOOD POLITICS, at www.allergykids.com.

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