Alleriges can make money/attitudes

An article on how fighting food allergies is turning into big business. 
 "A restaurant that goes from allergy unfriendly to allergy friendly can make an additional $50,000 per year," he says. That's based on his calculations of additional business and subtracting out additional costs for special supplies and staff training."

The article goes on to discuss why people with allergies have special needs.  It does mention that often they avoid eating out because it's hard to be sure even with places that claim to be allergy safe.  I wish they would use a better example than this though:

 "If a server is carrying a plate for my son, who has dairy allergies, and a plate for someone else with shredded cheese on it, and some falls onto my son's plate, there's no menu that can solve for that," he says. He says that restaurants that are truly allergy-friendly train the staff to avoid cross-contamination, sometimes even using color-coded plates."
I can just hear someone saying, well don't let your kid eat the cheese that fell on his plate and it'll be fine!  It's not always that simple though-people have different levels of sensitivity (a plate that wasn't washed thoroughly can still contain traces of an offending food which might be a problem for extremely allergic individuals), sometimes substitutions can be made, or foods could be safe ingredient-wise but be prepared on a surface or with utensils that touched a food you're allergic to.  Not to mention attitudes toward allergies can be a barrier to a safe eating experience-if your server thinks that allergies are just a weakness and not a real physical problem they aren't likely to take the necesary precautions.  (This attitude is still alive and well, many people do think this way.  Look at the stereotype of the nerd who very often has allergies to further prove his nerd status.  I've even seen it mentioned on a blog where the author said allergies were thought of as a sign of weakness in their family.  Or look at this study that shows that kids with allergies are often bullied and the bullies are often ADULTS!) 

We're pretty lucky since it seems our allergic child is only affected skin-wise, and hopefully will never have a life-threatening reaction. But many children can have serious reactions or die from their allergies, so it is important for as many precautions as possible to be taken.