My Child's Allergies Blog» My Child’s Allergies Blog

Is Consumption of Peanuts During Pregnancy Safe?

Lisa0502 — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 18:49:20 +0000

Did you know that The American Academy of Pediatrics advises women to avoid consuming peanuts during pregnancy and breastfeeding in order to reduce the risk of their children developing a life-threatening peanut allergy? What a joke! Did you actually believe that by consuming peanuts you are increasing the chances of your baby developing peanut allergies? There is no supporting evidence available, that means that the message was not communicated correctly. If you have no history of peanut allergies, then eating peanuts during pregnancy isn’t a harm but a good source of folate and protein. This message should be considered by individuals with a history of allergies in the family. You should not consume peanuts or peanut products during pregnancy or while breast feeding if you have a history of allergies. Whether you consume the peanuts or not, if allergies run in the family (especially eczema and asthma) your baby has a higher chance of developing peanut allergy. This message was communicated in response to accidental deaths of newborns of mothers who weren’t aware of their history of allergies in the family. During pregnancy and while breast feeding the best thing to do is to stick to the elimination diet to avoid consumption of harmful allergens. Once the baby is born you can take her to get tested and make decisions based on the results.

Children with Milk Allergy May be Able to Safely Drink Milk

Ana Monsanto — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:16:54 +0000

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Children’s conducted a study on 18 children with severe milk allergy and concluded that they are capable of consuming milk and dairy products after being exposed to the allergen. The study begun in 2008 and lasted 17 months. A group of children that had severe milk allergy were exposed to the allergen and continued the exposure till the immune system was able to accept it. Another proof that exposure to the allergen builds tolerance! Don’t run home now and attempt this with your allergic child. Keep in mind that this experiment was conducted under specialist’s supervision and exposure was scheduled and carefully administered. This is exactly how I built Dylan’s tolerance to most of his allergens (except shell fish and dogs), by exposing him to small amounts of the allergen till he was able to tolerate bigger amounts. The most important part of the treatment is to continue the exposure to the allergen, that way tolerance is maintained.

Milk

Robert Wood, M.D., senior investigator and director of Allergy & Immunology at Hopkins Children’s commented “We now have evidence from other studies that some children once successfully treated remain allergy-free even without daily exposure, while in others the allergies return once they stop regular daily exposure to milk. This may mean that some patients are truly cured of their allergy, while in others the immune system adapts to regular daily exposure to milk and may, in fact, need the exposure to continue to tolerate it.”

For more details on the study visit this link.

Source: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/

iEatOut Gluten and Allergen Free Application for iPhone/iTouch

Lisa0502 — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:19:10 +0000

The Apple application store has once again proven to not just dispense mind-numbing games, but to help the masses. Based on the award-winning “Let’s Eat Out!” book series, the iEatOut Gluten & Allergen Free™ iPhone™/iPod® touch has 86 menu options and also teaches about the food preparation techniques restaurants typically practice. Launched earlier this month the application contains information compiled during a six year research and is well endorsed by the celiac/coeliac food allergy association. This is an ideal solution for allergy sufferers who are on the go and have little time to search for restaurants that are allergy free.

With an easy to use menu bar and color coding columns enabling to select different types of restaurants, I was one click away from a safe food choice. The best part of the iEatOut Gluten & Allergen Free™ application is that it informs you of how foods are prepared and what questions to ask when ordering meals. Also you can configure the application to specific allergens. The 10 common food allergy options to choose from are: corn, dairy, eggs, fish, gluten, peanuts, shellfish, soy, tree nuts, and wheat.

iEatOut

Now you don’t have to worry about researching each restaurant individually online. This application will revolutionize your dining out experience and at the same time help you avoid those dangerous allergens.

For more information on the iEatOut Gluten & Allergen Free™ check out this link.

By Lisa Johnson on Monday, August 24th, 2009.

Allergic Reaction to Caesar Dressing

Ana Monsanto — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:09:22 +0000

A beautiful day at the beach turned into my worst nightmare. Just when I thought that I had Dylan’s allergy under control the entire world came down this past Sunday. Almost every weekend I take Dylan to South Beach (South Pointe Park) – a family oriented part in South Beach. It has been a fun place to go especially by the park since it’s recently built and has an area with sprinkles for the kids. It was the most beautiful morning, with clear blue skies and a few waves to catch. Dylan was playing on the shore with my dad for over an hour, while I snuck out to catch some waves on my boogie board. Later I joined my parents and Dylan for some sand digging madness.

We dug out a hole and made a mini pool for Dylan to play in. We played for a while until Dylan got hungry. I brought some fruit and veggie puffs to snack on. I asked him to rinse his hands in the water since they were full of sand. He did as instructed and came running back for the veggie puffs. The veggie puffs were new and he had consumed similar chips and puffs before without having any reactions. Since he cleared most of his food allergies and his blood work confirmed so, I wasn’t as concerned on reading every ingredient on each item that he ate. After eating two or three veggie puffs he took out two from the bag and gave them to me. I found it odd for him to share, since he hardly shares unless you beg. I took the veggie puffs bag and started reading the ingredients. As I was reading the ingredients I noticed from the corner of my eye Dylan’s belly inflate. I touched it and found out that it was unusually stiff. Then all of the sudden it deflated and within less than 20 seconds his chin turned red from hives. I lifted up his shirt to check his belly and it was still stiff and notably covered with little bumps. My mom was sitting right next to me talking on her cell phone and completely unaware of what was going on. I asked her to hang up and call 911, but she wasn’t reacting. Knowing that I had less than a minute to react because of the severity of the reaction, I grabbed Dylan and ran towards the lifeguard house in hope that they might be quicker to contact the paramedics. I ran up the stairs of the lifeguard house and explained the situation. Immediately they contacted the paramedics and gave Dylan some oxygen. Within five minutes the rescue was at the beach parking lot. We monitored Dylan and thankfully he did not go into respiratory distress. His oxygen precipitation in the blood was a stable 96 percent. After 15 minutes Dylan started clearing up. The hives on his belly and chin disappeared, and the stomach wasn’t as hard to the touch. I was instructed to purchase antihistamines at Walgreens on the way home and follow up with his Allergist.

What a scare that was, I thought at that point that he was going to go into respiratory distress and that the rescue wouldn’t arrive to the beach on time to administer adrenaline and antihistamines. After the scare I got home and re-read the ingredients on the darn bag. There weren’t any listed that would have cause such harm. I flipped the bag to see the front and saw in small print “Caesar Flavored”. Caesar contains anchovies and that huge detail was not listed on the back of the bag. How thoughtless of me to put Dylan’s life at risk, if he would have eaten more the outcome would have been different. My biggest advice from this experience is to triple check every item that your child consumes, especially if it’s a new food. There are numerous deaths reported yearly that result from Anaphylactic shock. Don’t just rely on blood tests and antihistamines. Be always prepared for severe reactions and carry all medications everywhere your child goes.

Breathing Exercises for Managing Asthma

Ana Monsanto — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 01:23:48 +0000

Breathing exercises help build up chest muscles that weakened during asthma attacks. Do the breathing exercises help get rid of asthma? At some point they can, but in Dylan’s case it was a bit more complicated. The only thing he managed through the breathing exercises is to relax and diminish the severity of asthma attacks. What really worked in the long run was changing his diet and the HEPA air filter in his room. Asthmatic kids and adults usually use the upper chest to breathe. The breathing exercise helps build both upper and lower chest muscles. Once the muscles become strong enough it will facilitate breathing when the air passages are constricted. I noticed after practicing a few years ago when Dylan still had asthma attacks, the severity of the attacks diminished after two months of practice. It took a while to teach Dylan the technique. From experience I learned that the best time to start a routine was right before bed time. I would read a few books and then sit him in bed and begin the breathing exercises for a few minutes. The steps for proper breathing exercises can be learned from this video. I would love to hear some feedback if you tried this before.