Lyme Disease Support Group

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

By Frederik Joelving

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -

Giving your baby cow's milk, nuts or other solid foods linked to allergies before six months does not appear to cause extra wheezing or eczema later on, according to a Dutch study.

For years, doctors have recommended that parents wait a few years before they give babies such foods, but newer research has failed to find evidence that doing so staves off allergies.

"There does not seem to be a need to avoid solid foods, or allergenic foods, in young children who are otherwise well," said Dr. Scott H. Sicherer, an expert in childhood allergies at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

"This is one of a number of studies that have been pretty much giving us the same message," added Sicherer, who was not involved in the new work.

In 2008, he helped write a report for the American Academy of Pediatrics that backtracked on the group's earlier recommendations to hold back on peanuts and other foods linked to asthma and other allergic diseases.

More than seven percent of adult Americans, and even more kids, have asthma, causing millions of visits to emergency rooms and doctors' offices every year.

The Dutch study, by Ilse Tromp of Erasmus University in Rotterdam and colleagues, tracked eczema and asthma symptoms among nearly 7,000 infants until the children were four years old.

At age two, 31 percent of the toddlers wheezed according to their parents, although this number dropped by half over the next year.

Eczema was present in 38 percent of two-year-olds, falling to 18 percent at age four.

Initially, it appeared that kids whose parents had given them nuts before they were six months old had more wheezing.

But after considering smoking among the mothers and other risk factors for asthma, there was no longer any sign that nuts were linked to allergic problems, the research team reported in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

"If your child is doing OK, you don't have to worry about giving them milk or eggs or whatever when they are young," said Sicherer.

But if the child shows signs of an allergic reaction -- such as breaking out in hives, vomiting, or have trouble breathing -- parents should talk to a doctor, he added.

The American Academy of Pediatrics currently recommends that mothers breastfeed their babies until they are four to six months old.

If for some reason they can't breastfeed and their child is at high risk for developing allergies, the group says using so-called "hypoallergenic" infant formula might be appropriate, although they cost more than the standard product.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/l69jl1 Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, online June 6, 2011.

Reuters Health

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/ fullstory_112948.html

Thursday, June 2, 2011

By Eric Schultz

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -

Eating baked goods that contain milk may help children get over milk allergies, a new study suggests.

Allergic children given cooked milk, baked into muffins, over the course of months or years saw their symptoms disappear faster than children who simply avoided milk products.

The researchers say their results have the potential to change how kids are treated for milk allergies -- which affect as many as three percent of young children, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.

Milk allergy is not the same as lactose intolerance, which is an inability to digest milk products.

Kids with allergies can react to the proteins in milk and cheese with symptoms ranging from mild itching to potentially deadly anaphylactic shock.

In the study, milk-allergic kids who were able to tolerate the muffins from the start were also much more likely to eventually grow out of their milk allergies - hinting at the possibility of a muffin test to distinguish transient allergies from more severe ones.

The study is "a step in the direction of...providing a more personalized approach for treating food allergies," co-author Dr. Anna Nowak-Wegrzyn, of the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York told Reuters Health.

"One approach is not right for all children with milk allergy," she said in an email. "The majority does not need to and should not strictly avoid milk."

In the study, researchers gave 88 milk-allergic children between 2 and 17 years old baked goods that included milk, and compared them to a group of 60 allergic children who followed the standard treatment, which is strict avoidance of milk products.

Just under half of children in the experimental group were able to consume dairy products such as skim milk or yogurt without having allergic reactions by the end of the study period.

That compared to less than a quarter of the group that avoided milk products, the authors report in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

The idea behind the muffin experiment is that heating milk changes the shape of the proteins in it, and lessens the chance that the immune system will react to them.

Among children who eventually outgrew their milk allergies, the ones who received the muffin therapy did so faster than the kids who avoided milk - suggesting that the exposure also helped to hasten the process.

The findings "run contrary to what we thought several years ago" about how childhood milk allergies are treated, and will help "challenge older dogma," Dr. Wesley Burks, chief of pediatric allergy and immunology at Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina, told Reuters Health.

While he is excited by the results of the study, Burks notes that more research is necessary to determine how this therapy will work best in the clinical setting.

Nowak-Wegrzyn agreed, and cautioned that parents of milk-allergic kids should only try the muffin treatment under a doctor's supervision.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/iHEA9w The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, online May 23, 2011.

Reuters Health

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/ fullstory_112769.html

Friday, July 1, 2011

By Eric Schultz

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -

Despite pediatric guidelines endorsing "allergy-friendly" whey-based infant formulas, a new study finds the products don't ward off allergies in babies at high risk for sensitivities.

Babies with a family history of allergies to foods or environmental allergens who were fed Nestle's NAN Hypoallergenic whey product after they stopped breastfeeding were just as likely to develop allergies later as children who were fed milk or soy formulas, researchers report in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Epidemiology.

The "findings do not support the recommendation that (the whey formula) should be used after breast-feeding as a preventive strategy for infants at high risk of allergic diseases," wrote Adrian Lowe and colleagues at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, Australia.

Because previous research has found that proteins in traditional cow's milk formulas may make allergies more likely, many doctors recommend an alternative, known as partially hydrolyzed whey formula (pHWF).

Whey is a byproduct of cheese production.

The pHWF has smaller proteins that are believed to be less likely to cause an allergic response.

Introducing high-risk children to the smaller whey proteins will help them gradually be able to tolerate larger milk proteins, said Tiffani Hays, director of pediatric nutrition at Johns Hopkins Children's Center, who was not involved in the current study.

"The goal with the immune system is to build tolerance," explained Hays, who has worked as a consultant for Nestle Nutrition.

To test whether whey-based formula really does build protection from allergies, the Australian researchers randomly divided 620 high-risk infants into three groups that received pHWF, cow's milk formula, or soy milk formula after they stopped breastfeeding.

The infants in the study had been breastfed for an average of three and a half months before they were given formula and the researchers tracked the children for two years to see how many of them developed allergies.

During that time, the babies got periodic skin prick tests to gauge their responses to common allergens such as milk, egg, peanut, dust mite, grass and cat dander, and they were watched for signs of eczema or food reactions.

Just over half the babies in the study developed allergies, and they were equally likely to do so no matter which type of formula they had consumed.

The researchers also found that formula choice had no effect on the child's risk of asthma, another form of immune system oversensitivity related to allergy.

Earlier studies have found that pHWF (or similar products) can protect against allergies when they are introduced early and the baby is not exclusively breastfed.

The new results will not change current clinical recommendations, but highlight the need for further study, said Dr. Wesley Burks, chief of pediatric allergy and immunology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, who was not involved in the work.

Hays also noted that pHWF is not known to have any harmful side effects and "is available at every grocery store at the same cost (as traditional formula)."

While whey formula may benefit children who are not breastfed compared to cow's milk formula, it is not recommended as a substitute for breastfeeding, said Dr. Jose Saavedra, medical and scientific director at Nestle Nutrition.

Breastfeeding has important health and nutritional benefits for the baby that formula cannot provide, Saavedra said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/j2Xrt7 The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Epidemiology, online June 23, 2011.

Reuters Health

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/ fullstory_113902.html

Shellfish

While only eight foods (milk, egg, peanut, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, wheat, and soy) are estimated to account for 90% of all food-allergic reactions, a person can be allergic to virtually any food.

While this list is by no means exhaustive, allergic reactions have been reported to

corn, gelatin, meat (beef, chicken, mutton, and pork), seeds (sesame, sunflower, and poppy being the most common), and spices such as caraway, coriander, garlic, and mustard.

Allergic reactions to fresh fruits and vegetables such as apple, carrot, peach, plum, tomato, and banana, to name a few, are often diagnosed as Oral Allergy Syndrome.

Other Common Allergies

Medication

Anaphylactic reactions to medication typically occur within an hour after taking the drug but may occur several hours later.

It is estimated that up to 1 percent of the population may be at risk for allergic reactions to medications.

According to literature from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology,

"The chances of developing an allergic reaction may be increased if the drug is given frequently, or by skin application or injection rather than by mouth.

Inherited genetic tendencies of the immune system to develop allergies may also be important.

Contrary to popular myth, however, a family history of reaction to a specific drug does not mean that a patient has an increased chance of reacting to the same drug."

Recent research indicates that 90 percent of patients who have a history of allergic reactions to penicillin will be able tolerate the drug.

Patients who need penicillin may be able to undergo a physician-supervised desensitization procedure in an effort to change their immune system response to the antibiotic.

Those who are allergic to any antibiotic are more likely to react to other drugs than are patients who have no medication allergies.

If you experience symptoms of an allergic reaction after taking medication, speak to your doctor.

If symptoms are severe, or if they resemble those of anaphylaxis, get emergency medical help immediately.

For additional information about medication allergy, visit The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.

Latex

Latex allergy is most commonly diagnosed in individuals who are exposed to latex frequently, such as those employed in the health care or rubber industry fields and children with spina bifida and other congenital diseases requiring multiple surgeries.

An estimated 1 percent of the U.S. population has latex allergy, but the figure is much higher – between 10 percent and 17 percent – among those employed in health care occupations.

Some individuals with latex allergy will also develop reactions when eating foods that cross-react with latex,

such as bananas, kiwi, avocados, European chestnuts, and, less commonly, potatoes, tomatoes, and peaches, plums, cherries, and other pitted fruits.

For additional information about latex allergy, visit the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology or the American Latex Allergy Association.

Insect Sting

Honeybees, bumblebees, yellow jackets, hornets, wasps, and fire ants are the most common sources of insect stings in the United States.

The symptoms of anaphylactic reactions to insect stings usually occur within minutes of the sting.

Insect sting reactions can range from local and mild to life-threatening.

Local reactions can involve swelling of an area larger than the sting site (i.e., the entire arm can be swollen after a sting on the hand). This type of reaction may also include nausea and low-grade fever.

Insect stings account for about 50 deaths each year in the U.S.

In some instances, insect sting allergy can be cured with immunotherapy, a process in which the doctor gradually administers stronger and stronger doses of the venom over a period of time.

To minimize the risk of an insect sting, AVOID

avoid brightly colored clothing and scented cosmetics, perfumes, and so forth;

avoid walking barefoot;

use caution when cooking outdoors;

avoid areas where stinging insects congregate; and

keep insecticide handy when working outdoors.

Other Uncommon Allergies

Corn Allergy

Allergic reactions to corn are rare and a relatively small number of case reports can be found in medical literature. However, the reports do indicate that reactions to corn can be severe.

Reactions to corn can occur from both raw and cooked corn.

Individuals who are indeed allergic to corn may also react to corn and grass pollens.

Cornstarch may also need to be avoided.

Meat Allergy

Allergies to meats such as beef, chicken, mutton, or pork are also rare.

If an individual is diagnosed with an allergy to one type of meat, he or she may not need to avoid other types of meat.

Heating and cooking meat can reduce the allergenicity of product.

Some may wonder whether or not an individual who is allergic to milk should also avoid beef.

It is not generally advised for milk-allergic individuals to also avoid beef, and the majority of those allergic to milk can safely eat beef products.

However, one study with oral food challenges to these foods showed that almost 8% of the 62 milk-allergic children studied also reacted to beef.

The study also suggests that well-cooked beef is less likely to be problematic for those allergic to milk.

Similarly, those with egg allergy are generally not advised to also avoid poultry, and vice versa.

Gelatin Allergy

Gelatin is a protein that is formed when skin or connective tissue is boiled. Although allergic reactions to gelatin are rare, they have been reported.

Many vaccines contain porcine gelatin as a stabilizer. Allergy to gelatin is a common cause of an allergic reaction to vaccines.

Individuals who have experienced symptoms of an allergic reaction after consuming gelatin should discuss this with their health care provider before getting vaccinated.

If a severe allergy to gelatin is known, vaccines that contain gelatin as a component should be avoided.

Seed Allergy

Allergic reactions to seeds can be severe.

Sesame, sunflower, and poppy seeds have been known to cause anaphylaxis.

While data on the estimated prevalence of seed allergy is not known, a recent study looking at the prevalence of peanut and tree nut allergy also evaluated the incidence of sesame allergy and concluded that 0.1% of the general population may have sesame allergy.

Seeds are often used in bakery and bread products, and extracts of some seeds have been found in hair care products.

Some seed oils are highly refined, a process that removes the proteins from the oil. However, not all seed oils are highly refined, therefore, individuals with a seed allergy should be careful when eating foods prepared with seed oils.

Spice Allergy

Allergies to spices such as coriander, garlic, and mustard are rare and are usually mild, however severe reactions to spices have been reported. Patients who are more at risk for developing an allergy to a spice are those who are sensitive to mugwort and birch allergens, as some spices cross-react with these pollens.

Food Intolerances

Food intolerances differ from a food allergy, as the immune system is not involved when a person is intolerant to a food.

Two common intolerances, lactose intolerance and Celiac disease are discussed here.

• Lactose Intolerance

Lactose intolerance occurs when an individual’s small intestine does not produce enough of the lactase enzyme. Therefore, affected individuals are not able to digest lactose, a type of sugar found in dairy products.

The symptoms of lactose intolerance typically occur within 30 minutes to 2 hours after ingesting dairy products. Large doses of dairy may cause increased symptoms.

• Celiac Disease

An adverse reaction to gluten is known as celiac disease or "celiac sprue".

This disease requires a lifelong restriction of gluten, which is found in wheat, rye, and barley, and perhaps oats.

These grains and their by-products must be strictly avoided by people with celiac disease.

Celiac disease causes damage to the lining of the small intestine, which prevents the proper absorption of nutrients in foods. This is turn can cause a person with Celiac disease to become malnourished.

Celiac disease can cause many symptoms, including

bloating and gas, diarrhea, constipation, headaches, itchy skin rash, and pale mouth sores, to name a few.

The symptoms may vary amongst affected individuals.

More information about Celiac disease is available through the Celiac Disease Foundation.

Avoidance Strategies

Strict avoidance of the allergy-causing food is the only way to prevent an allergic reaction. Read ingredient labels carefully.

While U.S. federal labeling laws require manufacturers to disclose on food labels the usage of the top eight allergens in a food product, other ingredients may be used and be labeled as “spices”, or “natural/artificial flavoring/coloring”.

If you have questions about the ingredients in a food, contact the manufacturer for clarification.

Ask questions about ingredients and preparation methods when eating foods prepared by others.

To help communicate your dietary needs to restaurant staff, FAAN has a chef card template available as a free download.

You may also wish to have your doctor complete a Food Allergy Ac

tion Plan so that you (and others) know when and how to treat an allergic reaction.

Last updated: Jun 8, 2011

http://www.foodallergy.org/page/other

Study found that even family and friends can be less than supportive

Friday, August 19, 2011

FRIDAY, Aug. 19 (HealthDay News) --

When Bela Mehta's toddler son was diagnosed with a severe peanut allergy, she carefully explained to her parents and in-laws that ingesting even the tiniest amount of peanut could cause a life-threatening reaction.

Yet when the grandparents came over to babysit, Mehta would come home to find that they'd brought over desserts that contained peanuts, or that they were continuing to make dishes containing peanuts using her blender.

"I said, 'If it was labeled poison, or cyanide, would you still bring it here?" said Mehta, a mother of two who lives in Chicago. "That's how dangerous it is to him."

Despite having a close-knit, involved and loving family, Mehta has struggled to make sure relatives understand just how seriously they need to take her son's food allergy. Her experiences are far from uncommon, according to a new study.

British researchers found that families with children who have nut allergies often feel like others suspect they're just being neurotic, while some children described being taunted or feeling excluded during social events.

In the study, published online Aug. 16 in the journal Chronic Illness, researchers interviewed 26 families dealing with nut allergies, including parents, children and teens.

"What they described is really a very difficult set of experiences," said senior study author Mary Dixon-Woods, a professor of medical sociology at University of Leicester.

"In virtually all cases, the child has had a very extreme reaction to nuts. Parents described it as being very frightening. It often involved a dash to the emergency room to get treatment. They didn't know what was going wrong, and the child often had symptoms like swelling and difficulty breathing."

Nearly 6 million U.S. children -- or about one in 12 kids -- are allergic to at least one food, with peanuts, milk and shellfish topping the list of most common allergens, according to research published in Pediatrics in July.

Among kids with food allergies, 25 percent were allergic to peanuts and 13 percent were allergic to tree nuts.

Peanuts can cause a severe, potentially life-threatening reaction known as anaphylaxis -- wheezing and trouble breathing, vomiting, swelling, persistent coughing that would indicate airway swelling, and a dangerous drop in blood pressure.

Though researchers are studying immunotherapy -- including desensitizing children to an allergen by gradually giving them increasing amounts of it -- that's mainly limited to clinical trials and not all children are candidates.

For now, the primary treatment for peanut allergies is avoidance. Parents are told to have EpiPens, which contain epinephrine (adrenalin), on hand at all times.

To protect their kids, many parents read labels and are vigilant about keeping peanuts out of their home. But creating a "safe environment" is more difficult outside of the home -- in schools, restaurants, on airplanes, or when their children are in the care of others.

Some parents described incidents in which family and friends had deliberately given their child nuts to test if the allergy was real.

There should be no question about that, said Dr. Ruchi Gupta, an associate professor of pediatrics at Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago who studies food allergies.

"Peanut allergies are very life-threatening," Ruchi said. "Kids with a peanut allergy can have shortness of breath. Their throat closes. Their blood pressure drops and if not treated immediately, it can lead to death."

Some families cope by never going to restaurants, cooking all food from scratch and avoiding parties and other events where nuts could be served, according to the research.

Families also reported feeling stigmatized and socially excluded, while children reported teasing. Other kids would say, 'I've got nuts and I'm gonna come touch you'," according to the study.

But not all parents said they faced such social difficulties. Julie Gillie, whose 16-year-old son has a peanut allergy, has often asked people to not serve peanuts or to put away peanuts at social gatherings.

"I don't think I've had an experience with people not understanding. If they've got peanuts out, I'll say, 'I'm not being rude, but my son is allergic to peanuts, and I've never had a problem with it," said Gillie, who lives outside London. "Obviously, people don't want anyone to do poorly."

After her son was diagnosed, even Mehta's husband, a cardiologist, struggled to accept that her son really couldn't eat so many of the foods that were a staple of their Indian diet, she said.

Mehta's son was eventually also diagnosed with allergies to tree nuts, all grains --including wheat, barley and millet -- sesame, several fruits, lentils, beans and soy.

For lifelong vegetarians, the food restrictions have been difficult, Mehta said.

Eventually, she brought her husband, parents and in-laws to an allergist's appointment and let the physician explain just how serious the food allergies were.

"I know the grandparents love our kids, there is no question about it," Mehta said. "I've found that the more involved they are in the allergy discussion, the more on the same wavelength we are."

SOURCES:

Mary Dixon-Woods, Ph.D, professor, medical sociology, University of Leicester, England; Bela Mehta, mother, Chicago;

Julie Gillie, mother, London; Ruchi Gupta, M.D, associate professor, pediatrics, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, and attending physician, Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago; Aug. 16, 2011, Chronic Illness, online

Copyright (c) 2011 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/ fullstory_115574.html

Monday, September 5, 2011

By Genevra Pittman

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -

In a new study of two-year-olds in Boston, black kids were twice as likely as white kids to have an immune response to foods such as peanuts, milk, and eggs, and almost four times as likely to have a "sensitization" to three or more foods.

While food sensitization doesn't necessarily pose any danger on its own, kids who are sensitized to certain foods are more likely to develop full-blown allergies to them in the future.

"We know that sensitization is not the same thing as food allergy, but what they're reporting does seem to be consistent with what has been seen in other populations," said Christine Joseph, an allergy and asthma researcher from the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit who was not involved in the new study.

Other recent studies have hinted at higher rates of food sensitizations or allergies in blacks, she told Reuters Health.

Researchers also looked at the kids' DNA and found that the more African ancestry it showed, the more likely a child was to have any type of food sensitization, especially to peanuts.

But it's still unclear why that's the case, they said. It could be that differences in genes make some kids more likely than others to get allergies, or it may have to do with their environment and what they're exposed to early in life.

The study included about 1,100 kids, all born at Boston Medical Center. Between two and three years after birth, researchers led by Dr. Rajesh Kumar of Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago brought them in to test their immune responses to eight different types of foods that typically cause allergies:

eggs, milk, peanuts, soy, shrimp, walnuts, wheat and cod.

Most kids in the study were from urban areas and many were from low-income families. About six in ten of them were identified as black by their moms.

In all, just over one-third of kids had an immune response to at least one of the foods, the researchers reported in Pediatrics.

About 38 percent of black kids had a food sensitization, compared to 22 percent of white kids. When the researchers took into account factors like whether or not kids were breastfed and if moms smoked while they were pregnant, the black two-year-olds were more than twice as likely to have a food sensitization.

They were also almost four times as likely to have a detectable immune-system response to three or more of the potential allergens.

Hispanic kids tended to have more food sensitizations than white kids, but statistics showed that finding could have been due to chance.

Food sensitizations were also more common in kids whose ancestors were mostly from Africa, compared to those of European descent, according to genetic tests.

There were some differences between kids whose moms reported their race as black and those who had more gene markers suggesting African descent. For example, African ancestry was linked to a greater chance of having a high immune response to peanuts, whereas black race was not.

That tells researchers that genetics may play a role in how likely kids are to have food sensitizations or allergies. Or, something about different ancestral environments may be playing a role, Kumar said --

for example, people from Africa are known to have lower vitamin D levels early in life. Vitamin D has been linked to some aspects of immune function.

On another level, cultural factors such as what type of foods kids are exposed to when they're young, or where they grow up, might trigger allergies, especially if there is already an underlying race-related genetic susceptibility, Joseph said.

More research is needed to better determine what's behind these differences in risk, both by race and ancestry, they agreed.

For now, Kumar said, "we need to be aware that food allergy is a problem within urban populations."

Pediatricians, he told Reuters Health, "should equally think of food allergy in their African American patients as they do in their white patients."

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/ny7YDj Pediatrics, online September 5, 2011.

Reuters Health

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/ fullstory_116148.html

But too few U.S. doctors use them, researcher says

By Robert Preidt

Monday, November 7, 2011

SATURDAY, Nov. 5 (HealthDay News) --

Too few American doctors use oral food challenges to diagnose food allergies even though this type of test is considered the gold standard, according to a new study.

In an oral food challenge, a patient consumes foods to see if it causes an allergic reaction. This is done under close medical supervision.

Researchers surveyed about 40,000 children and identified 3,339 cases of food allergy.

However, only 61.5 percent of the cases were formally diagnosed by a doctor and only about 15 percent of those children underwent an oral food challenge.

Children with severe symptoms such as anaphylaxis (life-threatening allergic reaction), wheezing, breathing difficulties and low blood pressure were most likely to be diagnosed by a doctor and most likely to undergo an oral food challenge.

The findings that many children with food allergy are not diagnosed by a doctor and not given a food challenge suggest that food allergy may be underdiagnosed in the United States, the researchers concluded.

The study was scheduled to be presented at this week's annual meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology in Boston.

"Oral food challenge provides a definitive diagnosis which is critical to providing proper disease management and prevents unnecessary avoidance of certain foods," Dr. Ruchi Gupta of Children's Memorial Hospital, in Chicago, said in an ACAAI news release.

"Physicians may not be conducting the test due to the length of time it takes, three to six hours, and the low reimbursement for a food challenge."

Because this study was presented at a medical meeting, the data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

In suspected cases of food allergy, patients should be referred to an allergist, according to the ACAAI.

SOURCE: American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, news release, Nov. 5, 2011

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/ fullstory_118389.html

Copyright (c) 2011 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Suggestions to keep them safer

By Diana Kohnle

Thursday, November 24, 2011

(HealthDay News) -- Depending on your child's sensitivity, a food allergy can range from very mild to life-threatening.

The American Dietetic Association offers these suggestions to help protect kids who have food allergies:

•Always check food labels for potential allergens.

•Make sure you inform all family members, teachers and caregivers about the severity of food allergies and symptoms to watch for.

•Make sure your child is fully informed, so he or she can be proactive in preventing an allergic reaction.

•Work with a registered dietitian to develop a healthy eating plan that excludes allergens.

Copyright (c) 2011 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/ fullstory_119072.html

Asthma patients, those who react to food or environmental allergens should plan ahead: experts

By Robert Preidt

Thursday, November 24, 2011

THURSDAY, Nov. 24 (HealthDay News) --

The holiday season can be a challenge for people with allergies and asthma, but there are a number of things they can do to protect themselves, allergists say.

Food allergies are an issue because many traditional holiday foods contain such allergens as wheat, soy, dairy and nuts, the experts pointed out in a news release from the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI).

For example, self-basting turkeys can include soy, wheat and dairy.

A natural turkey is the safest choice since it contains nothing but turkey and water.

Another recommendation: Use wheat-free bread for the stuffing.

To make allergen-free mashed potatoes, use chicken broth and margarine instead of milk and butter.

It's also a good idea to forgo slivered almonds as a topping on the green bean casserole, the ACAAI suggests.

Pumpkin allergies are rare but can cause problems.

It's a good idea to have alternative desserts or to suggest that guests with serious food allergies bring their own desserts.

Visiting or staying at other people's homes can expose allergy and asthma sufferers to a number of environmental triggers.

For example, fancy guest soaps may contain fragrances that can cause allergic contact dermatitis. So you should use regular soap or bring your own.

If your hosts have pets, asking them to confine the critters in the basement won't do much good. Pet dander gets everywhere and is nearly impossible to eliminate.

Your best bet is to use allergy treatments such as antihistamines, nasal sprays and decongestants or appropriate asthma medications, the ACAAI advises.

If you're hosting someone with allergies or asthma, thoroughly dust the extra bedroom and wash bedding in hot water to eliminate dust mites.

If you're a guest, consider bringing your own pillow or allergen-proof pillow cover.

"A number of holiday-related triggers can make people sneeze, wheeze or, in the case of food allergies, have a more serious reaction," said Dr. Myron Zitt, past president of the ACAAI, in the news release.

"But by planning ahead, the day can go smoothly for people with allergies or asthma."

SOURCE: American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, news release, Nov. 3, 2011

Copyright (c) 2011 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/ fullstory_119073.html

lots of good tips above!! bettyg, leader