How far would you go in order to prove a point?
One teenage girl—who was inconvenienced after her older sister moved back in with their parents—decided to take a huge risk in order to prove something about her four-year-old nephew.
Although nothing catastrophic happened as a result, she wound up being punished and asked the “Am I the A**hole” (AITA) subReddit:
“AITA for proving that my nephew does not have food allergies?”
The Original Poster (OP) described the situation.
“Everyone is mad at me and I’m going to be honest and say I don’t understand why.”
“I’m 17 F[emale], my older sister is 22. Nephew is 4. Around 2 weeks ago my sister and nephew moved back in with my parents and I because she lost her apartment.”
“I have no issue with that, but my sister claims that my nephew has all of these different allergies. She claimed he was allergic to onions, garlic, bell pepper and all spicy peppers, and a lot of other stuff.”
“My sister has always been a notoriously picky eater, and a lot of the things she claimed he was allergic to were things that she didn’t like to eat.”
“I didn’t believe he had these allergies, and it pissed me off that my mom started cooking differently and the food hasn’t been as good since she came back home (like no garlic???) I wanted to prove she was lying.”
“She went out Sunday to run some errands and left me with little dude to watch. I thought it would be fun to make little pizzas for lunch. We made little pizzas with roasted garlic, spinach and bell pepper.”
“Just like I thought, he ate them no problem and loved the food. I took pictures while we made the food.”
“When all of my family got around for dinner, I showed my mom what my nephew and I did for lunch, and told everyone he enjoyed his garlicy pizza.”
“My sister got extremely mad and started yelling and screaming at me at the dinner table, she accused me of trying to poison her child. I told her that I was just proving what a liar she was and told her she was a sh*tty mom for not feeding her kid food she didn’t like and telling people he’s allergic so he can’t try them.”
“My mom ended up sending me to my room. I’m being punished because I did something ‘dangerous,’ but in reality I knew my sister was lying.”
“I need to know if I’m an a**hole for exposing her for this and I just can’t see it. AITA?”
Anonymous strangers on the internet were asked if and where guilt belongs by declaring:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
- NAH – No A**holes Here
Redditors declared YTA and admonished the 17-year-old for a dangerous stunt that could have ended badly.
“YTA. Never mess with someone’s food.”
“Especially a baby. What if she had been telling the truth!? You could’ve killed your nephew.” – edengonedark
“Agree with you, but would like to add that just because nothing happened doesn’t mean the allergies are made up.”
“He might only feel sick afterwards or get rashes. Not every food allergy kills you immediately. OP hasn’t proved anything.” – saycheesepleease
“Yes so much this. The first time my son had an egg reaction it took a while to show up, to the point where we weren’t even sure if it was the eggs.”
“Now it depends on how much he has and how it’s cooked, and which part of the egg it is. He’s actually fine with well-baked egg in cakes (no reaction), but can’t have anything pan fried and definitely not raw.”
“He accidentally had royal icing and even then it took about half an hour for him to start itching and breaking out in welts.”
“YTA OP, don’t mess with things you know absolutely nothing about.” – noodlebox91
Redditors were unconvinced the OP successfully proved her point.
“We don’t even know she was right. This proves nothing, just because nephew didn’t have an immediate anaphylactic reaction doesn’t mean he doesn’t have an allergy.” – kitties_say_meow
“OP, You didn’t prove he wasn’t allergic just that he didn’t get an immediate reaction you could see.”
“Not all allergies present with immediate hives (or hives at all). Some have delayed responses, GI responses etc.”
“Have you considered that your sister was/is a ‘picky eater’ because she also has allergies?”
“For personal context, I have allergies that cause me to feel sick, lethargic, and have joint pain but they don’t give me hives. I’ve had them all my life and I received a lot of picky eater comments as a kid when surprise when I said something made me feel sick, it made me feel sick.”
“But I wasn’t visibly sick enough for some people to believe me.”
“Just because you can’t see the pain / reaction going on with someone doesn’t mean there isn’t one.”
“You acted as though you had a medical degree based on an assumption about your sister and why she wasn’t allowing the child to have certain things.”
“This is coming off like this isn’t so much about trying to help your nephew eat new things, but being pissed your mom is cooking differently and it’s impact on you.” – redfishie
“Actually they proved something: They can not be trusted. After all they willingly fed potentially dangerous food to a child, just to prove a point.”
“I would be unable to have a slither of trust in them afterwards.” – Urgash54
“YTA. Absolutely. People like you have sent other people to the hospital on your quest to be right.”
“If you don’t like the way your mom is cooking now, you could try cooking your own food, to your own taste. You already proved that you can do it to be petty, now you can just keep doing it.” – MarsNirgal
“Seriously, the only reason OP thinks she has any ground to stand on is because she was right. Well whoopdy-do for you.”
“But you potentially risked a child’s life to prove it. Yes, it sucks when people (possibly, as others have said growing out of allergies can happen) lie about food allergies.”
“But it’s WAY worse when people don’t believe them and try to ‘test’ them. Because lying causes annoyance and inconvenience. ‘Testing’ can cause death.”
“If you were wrong, OP, we wouldn’t be seeing this post. Because there’d be no question you were the a**hole. Instead, we’d be seeing horrible headlines ‘Photographic evidence proves aunt killed nephew while trying to disprove allergies.'”
“You’re damn lucky it turned out the way it did.” – Willowed-Wisp
“Hijacking for visibility – education about food intolerance. OP, look up salicylate sensitivity.”
“There may be a very legitimate reason beyond ‘dislike’ that your sister avoids these foods, and it CAN be hereditary. YTA for playing devil’s advocate. That was a very dangerous way to prove a point.” – Aussiealterego
When the OP insisted she knew her nephew didn’t have food allergies because he didn’t have “one of the shot things”, a healthcare professional weighed in with their expert opinion.
“Healthcare person here. No. Epipens are not the only marker to show allergies.”
“Some get delayed reaction times, some are not life threatening but some are still incredibly difficult to deal with. Shame on you. You cannot put someone at risk like that just because you think you’re right. You’re 17.”
“Not only are you not an adult but you’re not a professional. Stop your irresponsible thinking. That’s an a**hole move. And stop fighting your judgment.” – mahalnamahal
Overall, Redditors disapproved of the OP for making a potentially life-threatening point.
Thankfully, her nephew survived his aunt’s experiment.