On a non-political note, Sunday’s Washington Post has a big article on food allergies by Annys Shin, “Food Allergies Trigger Multibillion-Dollar Specialty Market,” that hits close to home.  We have a food allergic child.  Some excerpts from the piece:

The ripple effect goes beyond the grocery aisle. In April, Deep Dive Media of Los Angeles, which runs health information Web sites, paid an undisclosed sum to buy PeanutAllergy.com, a site started by an affected parent. …

The National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, a New York trade group, estimates that 300 of its 2,800 members offer more than 7,000 no-allergenic products, compared with five years ago, when about 50 members did, spokesman Ron Tanner said….

Internet start-ups are also seeking to satisfy that demand. Heather and Brian Selwa started online store Peanut Free Planet two years ago in Cicero, Ind. Competitors Patrick Felkner and Steve Rubinstein launched Allerneeds.com, another peanut-free retailer, in Anaheim, Calif., four months ago.

For more information on food allergies and kids, please check out our blog, Kids Food Allergies Blog.

Allow us to plug Mrs. Extreme’s Kids Food Allergies Blog — which deals with public and policy issues surrounding food allergic children based on our experiences with our young daughter — for this provocative post today. Here’s what our far better half writes:

I have never been, and probably will never be, a big Rush Limbaugh fan.

So you can imagine my skepticism in opening this link to his comments today on peanut allergies — fearing what he would say and how his followers would respond.

I was surprised and heartened by his response. According to Limbaugh, this issue is real and can be deadly if not dealt with in time. He highlights one of my deepest fears as a food allergy parent: mean kids using food to bully and harm others.

Contrast Limbaugh’s position on peanut allergies with this article from a steadfastly liberal magazine, Harper’s: “Everyone’s Gone Nuts: The exaggerated threat of food allergies.” Never have I read an article that got the whole food allergy issue so totally and completely wrong.

I usually love Harpers — and cringe at Limbaugh. Here is a case where the exact opposite happened. Seems ironic that the usually libertarian right wants to help us to protect food allergic kids, and the left thinks that this type of protection is excessive and unnecessary. In this case — the left got it wrong, and the right got it right.

So, from this reliable Limbaugh foe: mega dittos to Limbaugh for being so right on this very important issue.