Nutty New Developments
Quick Tip
If your child has a food allergy, make a card listing the allergies and give it to friends and family members who plan to cook or provide food for gatherings your child will attend. Also, teach your child to say, “This looks really good! I’d like to try some, but I am allergic to ___ and need to know whether there are ___ or any ingredients made from ___ in it.”
Is your child allergic to peanuts? Here’s good news: Researchers have been hard at work finding potential new treatments for food allergies.
One in every 17 children younger than age three and about 2.2 million school-aged children in the United States are food allergic. Peanut and tree nut allergies account for 80 percent of fatal or near-fatal allergic reactions and are rarely outgrown. That’s why the medical community is excited about potential new treatments for food allergies.
New treatments involve placing small amounts of food allergen under the tongue (sublingual immunotherapy or SLIT) or the daily ingestion of specified amounts of food allergen (oral immunotherapy or OIT). In a recent study from Duke University Medical Center , eight children with peanut allergy received OIT, gradually building up to eating 300mg of peanut protein daily. The results of the study suggest that peanut OIT might be a safe, effective way to decrease the risk of severe reactions resulting from accidental peanut ingestion.
“The findings of studies examining oral immunotherapy, both OIT and SLIT, and reports of other potential treatments for food allergy are very exciting. We will likely have treatments for food allergies in the next five to 10 years,” said Dan Atkins, MD, allergist/immunologist at The Children’s Hospital. “In the meantime, I encourage parents to be prepared by knowing how to avoid the offending foods, planning for what to do in the event of accidental exposure, carrying the right medications, asking about the ingredients in foods and teaching their child which questions to ask.”
Learn more about allergy care at The Children’s Hospital
