It is the first day of school.  A class of thirty fourth grade students piles into the
lunchroom starving for lunch.  Some students wait in the hot lunch line for the tasty
cafeteria lunch of the day while others have brought their lunch.  There is a new girl to
the school that sits timidly with a group of her classmates.

One of her classmates ruffles through her lunch bag to find her peanut butter and jelly
sandwich.  She starts to eat the sandwich and the new girl smells the peanut butter.  The
new girl begins to feel sick and goes into a state of shock.  The teacher runs over and
realizes that the new student is experiencing an extreme allergic reaction.

Sound farfetched?  This is a true story.  The teacher explains to the other students that the
new student has a severe nut allergy.  A nut allergy can be caused vary in intensity from
one individual to another.  This student had a severe nut allergy that surfaces by just the
smell of nuts or in this case peanut butter.

A nut allergy is not something to deal with lightly.  The teacher had to immediately give
the student an epinephrine shot to quell the allergic reaction to the nut allergy.  The
intensity of a nut allergy can range from small skin reactions to full blown shock. 

A severe nut allergy can cause the throat to constrict and the individual can?t breathe.  It
is as if their whole body swells in reaction to the nut allergy.  Since a nut allergy can be
fatal it is important to follow safety precautions if you know that you have a nut allergy.

Safety precautions include not ingesting anything that has nuts in it.  This is an obvious
safety precaution for a nut allergy.  However, it can be tricky when nuts are hidden in
different foods.  It is important to read the ingredients to check whether the food contains
any nuts of nut related elements.  Many food packagers will place warnings on their
labels stating whether the food item contains nuts or nut by products.

If you suffer from a severe not allergy or even if it is mild, it is a good idea to carry
epinephrine shot around with you at all times.  Epinephrine shots are used when someone
has a severe allergic reaction.  They can literally save someone?s life by opening their
airways.

The new student in the lunchroom recovers.  However, from now on the rest of her
classmates know how to deal with her nut allergy.

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