Death from a peanut allergy. Alexi was 15 years old. She died this week of anaphylaxis after eating a cookie that she did not know contained peanuts. (Photo via FB)
15-year old girl is killed by peanut butter cookie—internet says she got what she deserved
By Robyn Charron, Special to JenniferMargulis.net
On the afternoon of July 12th, 2018 Kellie Travers-Stafford created a Facebook post that encapsulated every allergy parent’s worst nightmare. Her teenage daughter, Alexi, died of anaphylaxis after eating a cookie from a package she assumed was safe because it so closely resembled cookies she’d had before.
That single cookie took her child’s life in an hour and a half.
To drive her warning home, Alexi’s mom posted two photos of Chips Ahoy packaging side-by-side.
While the top of the package is labeled with the phrase “peanut butter” in one version and the Reese’s logo in a second version, Mrs. Travers-Stafford explained that the top-side peanut labels are covered up once the package flap is opened.
Everything else about the safe and deadly packages is nearly identical.
Too late
Alexi’s mother wrote that her daughter received epinephrine from two autoinjectors, but it was too late to save her life.
“I want to spread awareness so that this horrible mistake doesn’t happen again,” she wrote.
To rephrase, Alexi’s mom wanted her story to serve as a warning to other allergy parents so that their own peanut allergy children aren’t killed.
The internet responds to this peanut allergy death
Within 48 hours the story had been shared 55,000 times across Facebook with over 14,000 comments on the original post, not all of them sympathetic.
People seem to think that stupidity linked with the peanut allergy is to blame for this child’s death, and many feel that weak genetics are being weeded out with such senseless tragedy.
“I guess these people want the cookie to rise up out of the damn package on its own, light up, spin around, and sound an alarm that says, PEANUT PEANUT,” wrote Cristina Mauro Hernandez.
“Survival of the fittest!” sang Nichole Curtiss.
Atemu LaValley chimed in with, “There’s a giant Reese’ logo. This is what’s known as ‘Darwinism.’”
“I’m sorry she passed,” consoled Nicole Gibson, “but she should have been taught to pay attention, not go by color.”
Candie Heathcock advised, “A f—- 15 year old who has a peanut allergy should be f—– reading the packaging. Y’all want sh— done for you. You aren’t babies who need bright colors to learn. READ DUMBA—- READ.”
Peanut allergy death not Nabisco’s fault?
On average, every twentieth comment on the mother’s post pointed out that her daughter’s death was not Nabisco’s fault, the child should have read the ingredients, or that the person commenting knows other allergic children who have the common sense not to have made this mistake. At worst, commenters had the audacity to let the parents know this was simply how nature takes its course.
It gets worse on the pages that shared the story. Writer and political commentator Mike Cernovich tweeted the post to his 400,000 followers, and shared it to his Facebook page as well.
In a series of tweets, he admitted that until that day, he didn’t know that the peanut allergy could kill someone, and thought the information would help save lives.
“Seriously, Look. Sorry you lost your teen but, and I know I’m going to be called an a—– but I’m just calling it how I see it, your kid was kind of an idiot,” said Jake Schmidt on the Cernovich post; 46 people liked the comment.
“Sad, but OK she was 15. Then I would call this natural selection,” said Rafeal Suarez.
“Well it says right there. Maybe your kid should read and look at things before eating them (that’s how you get poisoned),” wrote Chris Cyrus, followed by three emojis that are laughing so hard that tears are coming down their faces.
Many on Your Baby, Your Way’s own page—a gentle parenting page dedicated to educating mothers to make informed choices—were equally unsupportive.
“People will say I’m a b—- but shouldn’t she have read the ingredients? That was so careless on her end…” wrote Tanisha Jones.
For their part, Chips Ahoy has no regrets about the similarities in their packaging.
Overall, the consensus of the unsympathetic crowd is that given the hand they’ve been dealt, allergic children should know better and should be more adept at navigating the world.
Why are peanut allergies now killing our kids?
Interestingly, almost no one asked why peanuts are now killing our children.
We are living in the middle of a peanut allergy epidemic, with 1 in 41 American children at risk of death from peanut exposure.
We don’t have all of the answers about how the peanut allergy epidemic began, but I’ll tell you one of the quickest ways to make an anaphylactic rat in a laboratory: injecting nut protein and aluminum under the skin. You tell me whose fault this is?
It’s not an exaggeration to say that hell hath no fury like the person whose snack has been inconvenienced by an allergy kid.
There is no disability in the world that is so socially acceptable to mock and disparage as food allergy. Peanut allergy children bear the brunt because of Americans’ love affair with peanut butter.
Peanut allergy kids are the wet blanket on the party.
They’re the reason homemade cookies aren’t allowed in class for birthdays.
The reason parents are forced to think beyond a peanut butter sandwich when sending their child’s lunch to school.
Hating on peanut allergy kids
To many Americans, peanut allergy kids are weak little Debbie Downers who would be killed off if it weren’t for EpiPens.
Perusing Twitter’s peanut allergy posts only for the last four days, I read:
Username samcrwll: “Imagine going through 9 months of pregnancy and hours of labor just for your child to have a peanut allergy.”
Username natalyolo: “My kid better not come out with some kind of peanut allergy sh—if that’s the case some sacrifices will be made and it’s not peanut better.”
Username dpugh99: “Allergies are an individual’s issue not the public’s. Smother the tw—in peanut butter and be done with it.”
Username yagirlerykah: “If our kid has a peanut allergy we’re giving it back.”
Username livsantarsiero: “I hope this isn’t offensive but have you ever just met someone that looked like they would have a peanut allergy?”
Username lDanngo: “If you are ever arguing with someone with a peanut allergy, just tell them ‘shut up before I throw a peanut at you.’”
Username AdisonBarnhart: “OMG nowadays you can’t pack PB&J for your kid’s school lunch because too many kids have peanut allergies. I. Would. Die.”
Username ruthiehodo_: “Natural selection is coming for those with peanut allergies.”
Username patsfandave32: “Why are people with peanut allergies ruining it for the rest of us?”
Our hearts are broken for Alexi’s family, and it is shocking to see such a large percentage of people on social media espousing ignorance for the whole world to read.
Symptoms of a severe peanut allergy may include difficulty breathing, throat tightening, vomiting, nausea, trouble speaking, dizziness, fainting, and more. Administer an Epi-pen and seek emergency medical treatment immediately. (Screenshot via UK’s Anaphylaxis Campaign)
Have compassion for those with disabilities
My message to parents who have a problem accommodating these kids is to grow up.
Count your blessings that your parenting decisions haven’t resulted in a deadly allergy.
Teach your children to have compassion for those with disabilities.
Start by leading with your own example.
We’re talking about life and death over junk food.
Which one is more important?
And if you’re in the majority of people who empathize with parents of allergic kids, please speak up when you see attacks on these children.
Many of us don’t hesitate to say it’s uncool when people use the R-word or talk down about children with autism, but we laugh nervously when an adult is trashing a kid with a deadly allergy.
What is funny about anaphylactic shock, exactly?
You can read more about severe allergic reactions in my son Rory here, and about the deaths of a 13-year-old named Natalie here, a 16-year-old named Simon here, and a 19-year-old named Chandler here.
About Robyn Charron: Prior to attending law school, Robyn Charron earned a bachelor of science in biology. She worked for two years in laboratories researching genetic disease. Her firstborn suffered a vaccine injury at two months old. After that, her conventional parenting went out the window. She embraced organic foods, supplements, essential oils, plant medicine, and healing. In her home town of Denver, Colorado, she advocates for parental rights to make medical decisions without government intervention.
Related posts:
Airborne Allergies Could Kill My Child
Severe Reaction to COVID-19 Vaccine: Hospitalized for 5 Days
Tylenol: The Pain Reliever Class Action Lawsuits Need to Target Most
Published: July 16, 2018
Last update: August 7, 2023
How do we get these comments to be seen as hate crimes?
You don’t. They’re not. They’re just really sh*tty. The reality is this is the state of our society. Civility is gone. That baby was thrown out with the bath water. When the concept of the soul was kicked out so too went the desire for self improvement in the general populous. It’s just the mob now.
Allergy 101: Don’t expect people to understand and know that there are even health professionals who don’t care.
I had a nurse call me names because I asked her to wear gloves.
Another nurse said nobody is allergic to chicken and I will prove it…then proceed to try to shove chicken in my mouth.
Chicken causes anaphylactic shock for me.
The second that chicken touched my face, I put my hands under the dish and sent it flying into her face.
She could have killed me!
A nurse!
Now I make sure I tell admitting physicians and attending nurse’s thst I will sue and if I die, I have children who will sue. No excuses.
It may sound grumpy on my part, but if you come at me with poison, you really should expect me to defend myself.
Next rule: Read packages very carefully and when in doubt, do without.
Next rule: If someone has a bad reaction, whether by someone else’s fault or their own mistake, keep your high hatted hate filled snarky comments to yourself.
On social media, there is no excuse for berating grieving parents over a mistake.
My heart goes out to this girl’s family.
If the child had been a little older and made a mistake driving, people would say it’s tragic.
Well, no matter how you look at it, no matter how it happened, losing a child is tragic.
If you can’t say nuffin nice, don’t say anything at all.
Try explaining to an old school nurse that the root of your allergy is iodine…. Been there good luck to you. Hope you have many safe meals.
Seriously! These people are just hateful and awful. That poor little girl’s family……I just cannot imagine reading these kinds of comments about my own child’s death! It’s ignorance and it’s wrong.
A “HATE CRIME”?!?!?! REALLY!?!?!?!?! Grow a fucking pair! Please explain in your best words (citing law of course) how a Facebook comment indication that someone made a stupid decision and paid the ultimate price for it is, firstly, a CRIME to begin with, and secondly, a HATE crime at that!!! People hurting your feelings isn’t criminal activity.
In this advanced civilization we enjoy in the United States, we don’t expect a child to forfeit their life for making a mistake. Discriminating against people with disabilities is a crime. severe, leading to death, allergies are considered disabilities.
And what is your problem that was very unnecessary you need to grow up
And hurting peoples feeling is a crime grab a law book its a form of harassment
What is also somewhat evil about the packaging on this product is the opening peels back–thus disguising the HUGE Reese’s label.
Having a food allergy I was curious about the packaging. I went to the store and purchased a box of these cookies. Now I dislike these style of packages, but for other reasons. Now it’s very hard for me to argue this is poorly labeled. Not including the top and side logo there are 7 references to peanut butter with the logo 10. There are 11 depictions of peanut butter cups with the logo 17!
Thats 27 potential warning signs. If I saw a package with 27 shrimp even if half of them were covered I wouldn’t eat it.
Thank you Robin and Jennifer for this piece. Alexi was my niece. She was intelligent, kind, compassionate, and so very vulnerable. Clearly, she made a fatal mistake. Kellie chose to share Alexi’s story publicly knowing not all responses would be positive. Her goal was to raise awareness in hopes this might save someone else from this mistake. Our family is in agony. Frankly, the negative comments aren’t just hurtful, they aren’t helpful. But if it helps one person be more mindful, it’s worth it.
Oh Melissa. I can’t tell you how sorry I am. My heart aches for your whole family. Thank you all for your bravery in spreading the word about the seriousness of these kinds of severe food allergies. Alexi’s death is devastating. Please know that so many people are holding your family in their hearts right now. As shocking and sad as it is that some people would react to the death of a teenager with hateful words and blame, those people are in the minority, thankfully. Please know that Kellie’s words are helping to spread awareness.
As an allergy mom, I want to express my deepest sympathies to your family. Thank you for speaking out–my daughter is now a teen too and as they enter the teen years they want more independence. I’ve spoken to my daughter about this story and exhorted her to continually read labels thoroughly every time. Still, it’s not fair that any child should have to die from a cookie!!!!! I believe Nabisco should be held accountable, those packages were very, very, very similar.
Give me a break! The packages are colored according to general product line. The package was CLEARLY labeled as a peanut product. It’s not Nabisco’s fault someone ended up being careless, & died from an abnormality.
Again- NOT the point of the post! Please try to show some compassion and sympathy for the situation at hand. A child lost her life. I hope you’re fortunate enough that you’re child won’t make a ‘careless’ mistake that could take their life. This post was intended to bring awareness to other families that live with life threatening allergies. Clearly this is not you.
Apparently you missed the point… I was replying to someone saying “Nabisco should be held accountable!”
Um, no they shouldn’t. They clearly labeled the package.
Get off your high horse.
Did you miss the fact that the way the package opens, the outside peels back and covers the “clear” labeling? Furthermore, most cookie brands use different colors their peanut-free or gluten-free packaging. In either case, a child who OBVIOUSLY DIDN’T KNOW that a similarly-colored peanut-containing package exists for Chips Ahoy died a completely preventable death.
Apparently, you also missed that the parents of the child in question have commented here, and are obviously reading the comments.
Congratulations. You’ve added to their agony.
Probably what the puppy kicking troll wanted. Shame on him!
Our society is full of brutes who gloat over sick and dying kids. Troll is a good word, because they don’t act like humans.
Guess what? We all get sick, lose our strength, and die.
Someday these monsters will be at death’s door…and die alone. No one will be sorry to see them go. Then they will give an account for the way they have treated those THEY saw as unfit. Perhaps the Ultimate Judge will see them as less fit than those they mocked.
I am sorry for this child’s deadly mistake. I know this will come off as negative.. But it is not meant to be. I also know that no matter what anyone says, you will not understand what I am about to say. As parents ( mine and yours) it is our responsibility to teach our children about life. And if they have allergies, then it is our job to teach them to read every ingredient in that product before eating it. The labels I saw clearly state “peanut butter” and reese’s”. Yes if you pull the package back, then you can’t see it. But again, those with allergies, should still ask to see the package, before eating it. I have a friend whose child is allergic to many things. He learned from an early age to read everything before eating it. And anytime he was at my house and I offered him something. He asked to see the package. So yes this child made a mistake. But the blame does not fall on the manufacture. It was a mistake that was made by a child.
Again I am sorry that the child passed away from an allergy. But you can’t hold a company responsible for this.
From a parent with a child that has food allergies.
Aunt Melissa here again (Alexi’s Aunt). Kellie and Mike were so diligent about teaching Alexi to read labels, ask at restaurants, refuse unknown products, etc. The issue here is that Alexi had eaten cookies from the red package many times before. She considered the red package safe. She considered it familiar. She did not know the red package might also mean it contains peanut butter. Moreover, I am sick of the suggestion her parents are holding the cookie company “responsible.” READ THEIR POST. They have said she made a fatal mistake. They (we) are simply trying to spread awareness to prevent someone else from making the same mistake.
My heart goes out to your family. I have celiac disease, as do y children. We read labels and we are careful. And sometimes we make a dumb mistake. The repercussions are real – but thankfully – they are not death. But I understand exactly how your niece could have slipped up that one time. My grandson has an Epi-pen for a different nut allergy, so your story is very real to me. He is age 6 – to think of just one little mistake… My heart goes out to your family. I grew up when these allergies did not exist. I blame the overuse of vaccines for overstimulating the immune response. Damn vaccines.
Melissa, I am so very sorry for your entire family and everyone who knew and loved Alexi. I am a peanut allergy mom, and my own mistakes have almost cost my child his life 5 times between the ages of 3 and 7. It is far too easy to make those mistakes. I know it is socially exclusionary to force your kid to only eat home food all waking hours of the day.
I am appalled at the hatred people have toward allergy kids. And it’s not just insensitive parents who are unfamiliar with it. Even within the food allergy community, there is a spectrum. There are parents who have not experienced anaphylaxis on one end, and parents who have on the other. And many of the parents who have not experienced it carry this “well, it would never happen to us because we are diligent parents” attitude. I give them some time, because they will be knocked down a few pegs when it does happen, and it will. Hopefully their child doesn’t pay the ultimate price. Nobody deserves what happened to Alexi.
My point of this piece was not to call out hateful people by name. I want America to wake up about the peanut allergy because they are walking around with blinders on– including the majority other allergy parents. Whether they wake up from this piece, or just reading the jarring headline, or only reading the half-hateful thread on Mike Cernovich’s Facebook page, I don’t care.
I just want them to wake up to the fact that 1 in 41 kids is at risk from dying from peanut exposure.
Alexi’s story has awoken hundreds of thousands of Americans this week, and they are going to start wondering why this is happening to our children.
Please give your sister a huge hug from me. I will hold her in my heart forever.
That’s an amazing response, Melissa.
People can be worse than cruel.
To hope to help others avoid such a painful experience and endure such nonsense is beautiful and courageous.
Hugs of the heart across the web.
Melissa I am very, very sorry for you and your families loss. I hope that this turns into a lesson to others to never assume. Having a food allergy I was curious and took a look at the package. It would be very hard for me to say that it’s poorly labeled. It’s not like where I’ve found salad dressing that say contains no fish, only to read the label and the third ingredient is anchovies. That to me is a bad label. This package has reeses labels on the top and sides. The package says peanut butter 10 times and there are 17 peanut butter cup depictions. And that’s not including the bottom ingredient list. The top will not obscure all of these. It was a tragic mistake. And again I am deeply sorry for your loss. I hope that others will learn from your families story.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for writing this post! As the parent of who I believe to be vaccine injured children (autism, asthma, eczema, and anaphalactic food allergies), I applaud you for calling out the people, by name, that had such horrific comments to make. Thank you for making others aware of the symptoms and the danger of life threatening food allergies.
Dear Cindy, thank you for stopping by, reading this post, and taking the time to comment. We are seeing so many children so severely injured by over-vaccination. I am so sorry that yours is one of them. When will it stop?
Do you have any insight to what would cause a peanut allergy in a child delivered at home, no drugs, exclusively breastfed, no vaccines?
So very SAD that a child has lost their life, that a parent has lost their child. A domino effect for sure. This amazing young girl never got a chance to grow up, have a career, fall in love, get married, have children. All of those dreams blew up like a bomb. So for you insensitive animals out there, I hope this never happens to shatter your tiny little world. If you don’t have anything positive to say SHUT THE HELL UP. There is always going to be garbage on this planet. Go and educate yourselves before passing unwanted opinions. Go out and do some good in this world. Get some EMPATHY.
This poor baby died from a cookie! a cookie. We all should be protesting en masse–we’re are losing our young people due to cookies! due to Chinese take out. The insanity of it all is beyond comprehension.
Every negative bullying commentor should be charged…or fined! Yes I think we need it now. We’re at that point.
Very sad for the family and to me at a glance they look the same identical packaging anyone can do that.
I am so saddened by what ignorant folks have said. The truth is.. food manufacturers and personal care product manufacturers change the ingredients in thei products all the time. My daughter TN/Coconut, husband Milk and I Coconut/ Walnuts/Soy all have FA. I read every label each time I make a purchase. I c as not tell you how many times I pick up something we hav ed had before, only to find ingredients have changed.. nm the fact you have to be a scholar to decifer the words listed in ingredients. FOOD /Personal CARE ALLERGYS ARE REAL! FA IS A GROWING EPIDEMIC! JUST AS QUICK AS THE OPIOD EPIDEMIC.. BUT BC THE FDA IS IN COHOOTS.. THE US GOVERNMENT WILL NEVER TREAT FA/ AS A EPIDEMIC!
I have read the ingredients carefully on a product, decided to buy 3, then found out at home that 1 package that looked just like the others from the same company had slightly different ingredients.
It’s tricky at best, buying pre-made foods today.
I love 3 or 4 ingredient foods. Allergens are more easily spotted.
Sorry for your loss.
Hugs ?
I read somewhere once that the of peanut oil as a carrier oil for vaccines is the root cause of ao many peanut allergies in people today…
Thank you for writing such a thoughtful post. I saw the Facebook update the other day and shared it on my own wall to help spread even more awareness. My 15-year-old son has tree nut and peanut allergies, so I certainly could relate. My wife and I shared Alexi’s story with him so that he can be even more vigilant in the future.
So even though some completely heartless, stupid, narrow-minded “humans” left some completely disgusting comments on that post, just know that Alexi’s story has helped at least one child. And I know it’s helping thousands more.
I spoke to my 8 year old son about Alexi too, and he teared up when he realized what this mistake cost her. He actually said, “Mommy, you could have just told me about the packages without telling me she died.” But he needs to know that other people make mistakes (not just his own mother) and that we are so, so vulnerable. Thank you for reading and sharing, Andrew.
We’re not losing our young people due to cookies. We’re losing them due to vaccines. In this article it states that injecting peanut oil and aluminum under the skin of a rat makes it anaphylactic. Since vaccines have had peanut oil and aluminum in them, seems only natural to create this peanut allergy. OK people, make the connection. And understand vaccines are not safe.
So sorry for the loss of a beautiful young girl. Kids in their teens don’t think. However, adults that make hurtful, inhumane comments should!
It’s a shame how people are in this world they have no sympathy for other families what if it was their child this happened to they’d be singing a different tune
Sorry this happened
Educate yourselves you cruel respondent idiots. Peanut oil is an ingredient in many vaccines. When you inject and get the flawed vaxassination industry paradigm of “vaccine effectiveness” that is because your body makes antibodies to remove the antigens. Antigens are things your body desperately works to remove via antibodies.
The antigen response is MASSIVE AND RANDOM when given vaccines – and if your body recognizes that peanut oil as a substance that shouldn’t be there and makes antibodies to remove that – then YOU HAVE JUST HAD A DRUG INDUCED PEANUT ALLERGY HAPPEN.
Perhaps the most common way of getting food allergies would be NSAIDS. When your intestinal lining is damaged by these, partially digested food substances can enter the blood stream where they are recognized as not belonging there. Your antibodies and macrophages remove the food – but when you next eat the real food (even if digested well) your body fights it, and voila – you have a milk or wheat or whatever allergy.
This is a tragedy and my heart goes out to the family. We had a young girl in our community die a few years ago because she ate the wrong lasagne from her fridge. Both were homemade by her mother, one especially for her because of her dairy allergy, and one for everyone else. They had been made for her birthday and she was getting herself some leftovers. Her mistake in serving herself from the wrong dish was fatal. It is an awful loss for her family and friends, but it is noone’s fault. It was a mistake. It is not the cookie company’s fault Alexi didn’t think to check rather than assume, nor is it her fault that she had a young teenage brain that assumed. Both of these young girls were beautiful bright young women whose promising futures have been taken, but that doesn’t mean we have to blame someone or make someone responsible for it. I think it is wonderful that both of these families have shared their stories to help educate others and bring awareness to help prevent others from suffering from the same mistakes.
That poor family! My heart goes out to them for the loss of that beautiful child. This is totally the food companies, FDA, our government and businesses fault. Peanuts, wheat flour, gluten, milk & cheese are in so many processed food, oftentimes hidden as ‘ spice’ or ‘flavorings’! We not only need better ingredient labeling, but also for all these related businesses and government agencies to cooperate and stop using cheap ingredients as fillers so often in foods. I and my daughter recently developed extreme sensitivity to milk and milk products. We are not allergic, but we will get very painful symptoms from ingesting any dairy. It was so shocking to me, to realize how often milk products are included in store bought, prepared foods that normally do not contain milk if you prepared them at home from a traditional recipe. The thing is that one can develop allergies at any time, even if one never had any before. These cruel people who are making these heartless, dreadful comments should pray that they do not develop allergies!
A reader asked us to post this comment (which we have slightly edited) anonymously: Hi, I read your very informative article. I have a son who is now 21 and has had a severe peanut allergy his whole life. I do not blame the 15-year-old; however, one thing that you do not mention was to call 911. Every parent of a peanut-allergic child knows that the standard protocol for a reaction is first to administer an epi-pen, and second to call 911 immediately, meaning within minutes of the event. In fact, if the child was at a friend’s house and did not have her epi-pens with her, calling 911 should have been the first thing to do. (And of course, she should ALWAYS have had her epi-pens with her.) Please, if you have a chance to do so, post this very important fact about calling 911 … Perhaps the life of another allergy child can be saved. It is certainly a tragedy. The posted comments are simultaneously disgusting but regrettably not all that surprising, given the state of online discourse today.
My condolences to the Margulis family. Sorry for your loss.
Our society is cruel to kids with allergies. And the disabled in general.
A small mistake does not deserve the death penalty.
Sorry. Travers-Stafford family. I made the error of thinking the family had set up this website.
My bad.
People are cruel and unusual if it was my kid that died and someone wanna be disrespectful about it they can meet me outside cuz i dont play games people need to have some respect she was a child not a grown ass adult aint no kid tryna read no damn package and all these ignorant ass people that wanna talk stupid ass shit your retarded ass kids probably cant even fucking read at all anyways im sorry for that mother that list her baby and Nabisco should at least help with the funeral
WHY THE FUCK THESE ANTI-VAX PEOPLE ALIVE. MEASLES SHOUDA GOT THEM BY NOW WTF
As I read the highly offensive and entirely unacceptable comments about this girl losing her life because she accidentally ingested a cookie with peanut butter, i am appalled by the lack of compassion and empathy all of you are displaying. So many people have some sort of challenge in their lives, and although these challenges do not have all fatal consequences, wouldn’t our time be much better spent figuring out what can be done to help everyone with this allergy to make it easier to recognize and distinguish foods thAt have any peanut substances in them…. maybe some sort of symbol that is internationally known, or a color that is exclusive to food labels that makes it easier to be aware of the contents of the food. Comments that are saying that people with food allergies are defective, and survival of the fittest…. are u really that ignorant?
Adrain Peterson, Jerome Bettis, drew brees, Serena Williams, Ray Romano, drew barrymore, and so many other people who are leading highly successful lives while managing a food allergy and every single one of them ate something they were allergic to by mistake. They easily could have passed away too, but they were lucky to survive their ordeals….. should their parents have gotten rid of them because they are “defective” as one of the comments eluded to?
Maybe eppi pens should also be easier to obtain. Maybe there is something we can do to make a positive difference to make sure that the next time this occurs we can help to save the persons life instead of bashing them online.
To those who are guilty of having no conscience whatsoever, I am shocked by your comments. I’m didn’t know how many perfect people live on our planet. She accidentally ate a cookie with peanut butter. It’s not like she was doing frogs, drinking , or doing something illegal.
To the family of this girl, my condolences…. maybe there’s something we can do to make it easier to recognize the ingredients…. I know this doesn’t bring her back, but a constructive dialogue to make sure this doesn’t happen to someone else is something I think that we can do.
Anyone can make an insulting comment …. who gains from this?
Food allergies are no joke but at the same time, when you’re kids are old enough to read labels then they should be doing that before eating and also, if you know your child has a severe allergy why would you buy food that has that allergy in it? And I’m pretty sure everyone in the world knows that Reese’s is made with peanuts.
It was sad to read this post, and sadder to read some of the comments. As a person who deals with food allergies myself, I wish more people would understand. I think what a lot of people don’t take time to comprehend is that this post doesn’t detail just exactly the situation this girl died in. It could have been because of peer pressure, a desire to fit in, a shame about feeling weird for checking packages. I know from personal experience that it’s very hard to say, “I am allergic to such and such.” It was a mistake yes, and all people make mistakes from time to time, it’s human nature, especially when people are teenagers and they make an impulse decisions. It’s sad that something as innocent as wanting to eat a cookie could hurt somebody so much, and on top of that everybody else doesn’t seem to understand and doesn’t want to understand. I’ll admit, the idea of those people getting payed out for what they said isn’t entirely uninviting, though I believe it would be better to just ignore them. However, I would urge people to think about what they say before they say it, as not everybody will resist physically harming to another person or their property for their actions (think of the recent black riots). Overall, I give my condolences to the family of this girl, and I hope their story does spread awareness. There’s a whole underground world of problems the media passes over, it’s time somebody brought them into the light.
Ignorant People
I wish people would understand;
This pain is real;
It’s not some manufactured fear;
That’s not the deal;
I was born with this struggle;
But they think;
That it’s not of any real importance;
That just stinks;
They’re undereducated with their heads;
All in the clouds;
They can’t see past their problems, don’t;
Know what it’s about;
They treat it like it’s too inferior;
Which makes me;
Feel inferior as well, unimportant;
But they can’t see;
When will they learn, or even try;
To understand?
Break old habits for the sake of a life;
But they can’t;
So I guess it’s up to me to be a light;
Didn’t wish;
To force knowledge into their heads, but;
It’s come to this;
Safety is more important than comfort;
It’s time they knew;
Just what kind of problems they can cause;
With what they do;