Furor over food allergies

I mentioned earlier this week that my daughter's a faithful viewer of Disney Channel sit-coms, so the "That's So Raven" episode on food allergies that ran recently played in our living room, too. I watched a little of it, specifically the part in which Raven eats some mushrooms to which she is allergic and her cheeks swell up with all the bulk the makeup department can administer. It looked like the usual slapstick-silly Raven shtick to me, so I didn't think much about it until I read this letter to Disney from the mom of a food-allergic child. The writer was outraged by the lightheartedness with which the show treated a life-threatening problem, and afraid it would cause other kids to think making your food-allergic friend blow up like a balloon would be a funny thing to do. Today's question of the day also addresses food allergies, specifically: "Should schools ban peanuts if a student is allergic?"