By: Shantell Darden, Rebecca Fisher, Jordan Peterson, and Chelsea Guest

 What are they? ◦ When the body’s immune system responds negatively to certain foods  Common allergens include nuts, milk, fish, and wheat  Symptoms of Food Allergies? ◦ Mild Reactions include headaches, stomach pain and swelling ◦ Severe Reactions include difficulty breathing, increased heart rate, and decreased blood pressure  How Do You Know? ◦ Testing methods: Blood & Skin Tests  What to do about Food Allergies? ◦ Mild Cases: Benadryl/Creams ◦ Severe Cases: Epinephrine Injection (Epi-pen)/Hospital care

 Rhetorical Strategies ◦ Appeal to Reason  “One study discovered that when both parents are allergic, 67% of the children are also allergic”

 Focuses on the negatives of Peanut Butter being in school  Appealed to both sides  Audience ◦ Parents & Schools  Rhetorical Strategies: ◦ Connotation  “banned”  “prodded”  “smeared” ◦ Appeal to Emotion  “my child’s life or your kid’s lunch”  “We’re not talking about her getting the sniffles” ◦ Loaded Words  “who gag at peas”  “send shivers down the spines of school…”

 Thesis: ◦ “While network officials say they are not forcing schools to take any particular actions, the schools say that anything less than a total ban [of peanut butter] is unlikely to satisfy the critics”

 Rhetorical Strategies ◦ Loaded Words  Immunology, oversensitivity, culprit, misdiagnosed, hypoallergenic  “In extreme cases, misdiagnosed allergies have put children at risk for malnutrition” ◦ This a quote from a food specialist that show’s how effective and hurtful food allergies can be on young children.  “His diet become so, so restricted that nutrition had become a real concern”

 Thesis: ◦ An understanding of parenting issues related to food allergy is particularly relevant because of the increase in prevalence of pediatric food allergy in recent years.

 Rhetorical strategies ◦ Rhetorical Questions  “Why are food allergies on the rise?”  “What is on the horizon for management and prevention of food allergies?” ◦ Diction  Unbiased  Informative ◦ Appeals to reason  “the number of children with reported peanut allergy had doubled from 0.5% to 1.0%”  “positive skin tests to peanuts have increased threefold from 1.1% to 3.3%”

 Thesis: ◦ ◦ There is proof that food allergies are on the rise; there are many theories as to why this is happening and how to treat and prevent the symptoms.

 Because food allergies seem to be on the rise and because they affect both families and peers, schools and communities are making efforts to give attention to those with food allergies and give proper symptom and emergency information to others without them.

 Allergy Among U.S. Children: Trends in Prevalence and Hospitalizations Photograph. Nov Web. Oct Always Sick & Tired Photograph.  Alwayssick.com. May Web. Oct  "Food Allergies." Web. Oct  Food Allergy Awareness. Photograph. Web. Oct  Hartocollis, Anemona. "Nothing's Safe: Some Schools Ban Peanut Butter as Allergy Threat - New York Times." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 23 Sept Web. Oct  Living With A Food Allergy Photograph June Web. Oct Mankad, M.D., Vaishali S.  "Food Allergy Articles - FAAN." The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network. Oct.-Nov Web. Oct Parker, Tara.  "Telling Food Allergies From False Alarms." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 2 Feb Web. Oct  Peanut Free Zone Sign. Photograph. Web. Oct  What Are the Symptoms of Food Allergies? Photograph. Web. Oct