I agree with OC, a good immune system. They say the current food allergy issues and immune issues relate to under exposure to the food and kids not playing outside in the dirt.

Yes, 'they' do say that and I find it really annoying. No dirtier house than mine :D, so it irritates that people think I 'gave' my son his allergies and illnesses. :mad:

I do think there is something in the theory of over cleanliness causing allergies (definitely just a theory in my case, lol) but something else is going on. I have 3 daughters, eldest and youngest are fit as fleas, healthy as hunters. The middle one has suffered from eczema since birth and has lately been diagnosed as suffering with psoriatic arthritis. All 3 grew up in the same house eating the same food and inhaling the same germs.

My mother suffered from eczema and crippling arthritis but had no allergies. I suffered with terrible eczema the whole time I was married. It vanished when my marriage ended and never came back......I have non specific anaphylaxis (gross ideopathic oedema). So as far as I am concerned, these things are a genetic flaw in my family and my unfortunate middle daughter is the only one who has inherited the flaw.

OC

Like all "rules" I don't think they apply to everyone.

I'm allergic to nuts, but they make my nose run, I'm never going to die from it.

I have worked for 50 years as a scientist in a medical laboratory, and when I started work, Rh disease was a not uncommon cause of death in the newborn. In fact I worked in the same hospital as, and met, Sir Bill Lilley who pioneered blood transfusions of these babies while still in the womb. Now Rh disease is virtually unknown.
But now when I come across families with only one or two children, I wonder what their blood groups were and how many children were lost that we will never know about.

So true.

I always think that young deaths were usually due to malnutrition, especially when the family was poor, but you are so right, it could have been due to something they had no idea existed.

My husband was an "Rh baby", and 70 years on he still has the scars from his blood transfusions.