Specifically, the same equipment can be used to create a peanut containing granola bar as some peanut-free cookies.  But the question remains, was that equipment properly cleaned between manufacturing the granola bars and the peanut-free cookies?  For legal and liability reasons, manufacturers will conclude that the equipment may not have been properly cleaned and rightly so include this allergen warning on the label.  A few months ago a friend of mine’s daughter did take a cookie from another friend’s house.  The cookie did not outright contain peanuts, but this little girl did have a reaction from the cookie, which was manufactured on equipment shared with peanut-containing products. 

Although laws have been put into place for the United States, specifically The Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004 requires that by January 1, 2006 manufacturers identify clearly on their food labels if a food product has any ingredients that contain protein derived from any of the eight major allergy foods and food groups: Dairy, soy, eggs, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish.  But what of food manufactured outside the United States?  For instance another friend of mine called Mexico to learn if peanuts ever touched manufacturing equipment that was used to create candy sold here in the United States. Her findings where less than satisfactory--she received mixed messages and felt no confidence that the response was accurate. 

So no one argues that stress parents have from dealing with their child’s peanut allergy is easy or light, but parents can find a bit of solace in several ways.  First, read about other parent’s experiences and how they have successfully dealt with the peanut allergy in their own children.  Many parents interviewed between pages 73 and 147 in Flourishing with Food Allergies, have successfully dealt with the peanut allergy.

Secondly, don’t give in when selecting foods for your child--continue to select foods that are not manufactured in a facility where peanuts are used. Research what products have peanuts in them and under what names peanut-ingredients hide.  See pages 242 and 243 in Flourishing with Food Allergies for this detailed information.  Then take it a step further and email the manufacturers asking them to move their peanut containing products to a separate facility.  It may not happen right away, but eventually manufacturers will get the message and may reorganized their facilities in the hope of selling more products. 

Third, consider the advancement made on the peanut allergy front. Reuters recently reports, “In one study, teams at Duke University in North Carolina and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences gave fifteen children tiny, but increasing, doses of peanut powder and compared them with eight children who got a placebo. At the end of the year-long study, children given the treatment were on average able to tolerate fifteen peanuts before having an allergic reaction. ‘We started out literally at about a one-thousandth of a peanut and built that up over time,’ Dr. Wesley Burks of Duke, who helped lead the study, said in a telephone interview. ‘When you take the daily dose it changes your immune system in a certain way and it raises the threshold of how much food it takes to cause a reaction,’ he said.”[1]

Fourth consider other ways to protect your child.  For instance, learn your rights by law using a 504 plan or allergy action plan for school safety.  Consider contacting your child’s teacher to ask if you can give students a presentation on your child’s peanut allergy.  Take proactive steps when traveling on planes, trains or to other countries to determine the standards and guidelines that can best serve you and your child.  This topics are discussed in Chapters 46 through 51.

[1] Reuters, Maggie Fox and Cynthia Osterman, http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62056B20100301, March 1, 2010

I have two boys in school at this time: one is in kindergarten and the other is in first grade. Both boys have had allergies to dairy and egg pretty much since birth and we’ve avoided giving them any peanuts or tree nuts in a hope to fend off developing an allergy. (We will try those foods when they are older and hopefully outgrow the first two.) 

My younger son outgrew his dairy allergy in the beginning of his kindergarten year. His egg allergy appears to be mild enough to allow him to eat cooked eggs in baked goods. So over the past five months, after discussion and letter from his allergist, his teacher and I allowed him to participate in eating the party food prepared by other mothers. His classroom is peanut and tree nut free, so there was no risk of those allergens being included in the baked treats. Thankfully, he has been able to eat the foods and only vomited once after eating a cupcake.  I think he had a little stomach bug as well on that day, so afterward, his teacher and I decided it was probably the combination of the richness of the cupcake mixed with an already upset tummy to cause this problem.

But what if your child has full blown allergies? Well my older son remains allergic to dairy and egg and we avoid all peanut and tree nuts. Anyone who has baked a cookie or a cake knows that butter and eggs are almost always called for in these treats. I know from first hand experience that it can be difficult to make a cake rise without eggs and make a cookie stay together without eggs.  What about taste?  Butter is yummy and makes everything so tasty. 

Here’s what has worked for me:  Last year, when he was in kindergarten, I made a stash of cupcakes, frosted and put them in the freezer. Then when the teacher sent home the list of birthdates, I carefully marked each day on my calendar to remind myself to put a cupcake into his snack bag so that he did not feel left out.  Now that he is in first grade, I volunteered to be “room parent” because I have a little more freedom now that my younger son is in school too.  Room parents have the responsibilities of planning the parties.

The other room parent and I discuss and arrive at the party plan a couple of weeks beforehand.  I normally take over the communication of food items to the other parents, with special care to those who have food-allergic children.  If I am to make the cupcakes for the entire class, I will email the recipe to the parents of food allergic children and assure them that no peanuts or tree nuts come near the counter top, in fact we really don’t even have them in our house.  If a candy item is planned, I will ask the parent to communicate in email the ingredients and any allergen warnings. I often ask the allergy-parents to do the purchasing, since they are more aware of checking the labels. We always cc the teacher on the email so that she knows which children can have what. Even with a lot of planning and care, I learned the that sometimes I need to pick up the phone and call the other parents... 

Last month it was my son’s seventh birthday. So I made cupcakes for the class and emailed the recipe to those mothers whose child has food allergies. One mother said, “Great, my daughter can eat it.”  Another mother said, “No, it contains soy.” But there was no response from a third mother.  So the day of the party, the daughter of that third mother came up to me and said, “Can I have a cupcake?”  I said, “Well it has no peanut or egg, so it might be okay, but your mommy never wrote back to my email so perhaps you shouldn’t have it.” The teacher agreed through a nod of her head.  We tried to praise the little girl for being so grown up about asking.

I felt so terrible for that little girl. The other kids loved the cupcakes. One boy said it was the best cupcake he’d ever had in his whole life.  After the cupcakes were gone, the little girl came back over to me and said, “I bet those cupcakes were really good.”  Ugh!  I felt even worse.  While I wanted to be angry with her mother for not getting back to me, I realized that really doesn’t help the little girl.  So I tried to think about what I could do to prevent this from happening again.  I decided that I would call the mother in the future to make sure she got the email and decided one way or the other if her daughter could eat the cupcake. 

So now it will be Valentine’s Day in a few days and the big party at school is tomorrow.  As I promised myself, I followed up with that mother of the little girl carefully and this time she responded.  She agreed to allow her daughter to eat the dairy-egg-peanut-tree nut free cupcake I am making and I forwarded that email to the teacher.  I feel so much better about the whole thing. I still feel a bit bad for the girl because I know she has dealt with a lot of disappointment and will in the future, because her mother doesn’t put a priority on this issue, but at least in my own little way, I am making a tiny little difference in that girl’s day tomorrow. 

Making cupcakes, cookies and cakes isn’t hard. It might take a few practice attempts, but don’t despair, once you find one recipe that works, that’s all you need.  There are a lot of great recipe books out there and it is worth ordering one or two. Here are the basic rules I use:

• Never use any nut, peanut or nut extract period.
• For dairy-free items, I use the earth balance non-GMO buttery spread. It is all vegan and tastes great.
• Beware of other margerines--many contain cow's milk products. 
• For egg-free items, I will use one of the following substitutes to try to make stuff rise and stick together: 
  • 1T of applesauce for each egg (holds stuff together)
  • ¼ banana for each egg (holds stuff together and makes it moist, a little banany taste)
  • 2.5 tsp. baking powder + 3T oil +3T water mixed together (keeps stuff soft and rises)
• Beware of egg substitutes--many contain egg products, especially in the egg section. 
• Always read the ingredients carefully and the allergen warnings. There are detailed lists of ingredients that are derived (come from) the big allergens in my book in chapter 38 --too many items to list here, for instance casein is a dairy ingredient that must be avoided for those allergic to dairy because it is the protein part of the dairy--the worst part for those with allergies to dairy.

It is extra work, but work well worth the effort.  You will become a better cook, you will feel better about you child's situation and your child will really appreciate it. 

I’ve heard friends talking about the oozing red rash behind their child’s elbow or knee. Or they talk of the variety of creams they’ve tried. One of the mothers interviewed in my book was so adamant about finding the cause of the eczema or rash on her infant that kept him and her up at night for weeks from the probable burning and itching feelings that she asked herself and her doctor over and over until she found the solution herself. She found her son was allergic to dairy by removing it from her own diet and seeing his eczema “clear up by ninety percent,” in her words. Sometimes the discovery can take place by accident. In Robyn O’Brien’s book, The Unhealthy Truth, she discovered her son’s eczema cleared up when they went on vacation and he didn’t drink the many cups of milk that he normally consumed. Upon returning home and to his old habits, the eczema returned, as well as his cough and earaches. Eventually Robyn weaned him from milk, yogurt, cheese and other dairy products, which healed him.[1]

Over the years, I read a lot about itchy, red, bumpy rashes to try to understand why eczema and food allergies are created. I developed the following layperson’s understanding: Eczema is caused by the inability of the infant’s immature digestive system (or a child's or adult's digestive system) to digest certain proteins, such as the dairy proteins, which can be hard to break down. These hard-to-digest proteins travel through the digestive system and go into the blood stream undigested. The liver then tries to cleanse the blood stream of this undigested protein. This works for a while, but then the liver becomes overloaded and cannot clean the bloodstream sufficiently. As a result, the immune system comes to the rescue and builds antibodies to attack the foreign proteins. Once the immune system creates antibodies, the allergic reaction is in place. The immune system’s antibodies tell the body to attack that foreign substance as if it were a virus or disease, which can cause the body to go into overdrive, possibly resulting in anaphylactic shock, or less severe yet equally devastating delayed allergic responses that can contribute to asthma, ADHD or autism. In the meantime, this foreign substance still needs to be excreted from the infant’s body, so the skin is used for excretion rather then the digestive system. Thus the skin becomes the cleanser of the body and shows a rash as the foreign substance comes out.[2]

I am sure that other things can irritate the skin. Environmental factors such as pets, dust mites, pollen can all contribute and make eczema worse, not to mention that there are other unrelated rashes caused by things like poison ivy─my worst nightmare. But I think people often overlook the fact that much of eczema can be caused by the food allergies to dairy, eggs, wheat, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish. No matter how old you are or your child is, it can be a worthwhile experience to try to eliminate on of these foods for a week and see what happens. If nothing seems to change, try eliminating a different food for the next week. You may be pleasantly surprised at what problems you can solve without any medication or cost.

[1] Robyn O’Brien, The Unhealthy Truth, Broadway Books, NY, 2009, p 147-150.

[2] A. Anderson, Flourishing with Food Allergies, Papoose Publishing LLC, CT, 2008, p. 35.

Many of us try to make New Year’s resolutions. Consider this one if you are dealing with food allergies for your child: Stop feeling guilty. Stop assuming any blame for your child’s allergies. If you fed them the peanut butter cracker or the almond when they were “too young” stop thinking that you made some sort of mistake. There isn’t enough conclusive evidence in the world of food allergies to know for sure what the right thing is to do. Specifically, do you avoid peanuts or dairy while you are pregnant to avoid creating food allergies in your child? Or do you eat those foods with the hope that those foods will desensitize your baby to a possible food allergy?

In addition to not feeling guilty about what has happened in the past, consider an additional New Year’s resolution of accepting what is. I.e. accept the reality of your situation and recognize that it could be worse. Specifically, once you accept the food allergy in your child you can (1) learn all the names and ingredients that are made from that food allergen (e.g. casein is made from milk protein or arachis is made from peanut); then (2) take the next step and clean cupboards of all foods containing any ingredient to which your child is allergic. Toss out garbage foods that contain more than five or ten ingredients including corn syrup. To that point, did you hear that most corn syrup contains mercury─a heavy metal that can lead to various disorders such as ADHD and autism? 

According to Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, “Mercury was found in nearly 50% of tested samples of commercial high fructose corn syrup. Ben Lilliston of The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) reports that in a follow up study they detected mercury in ‘nearly one-third of 55 popular brand-name food and beverage products where HFCS is the first or second highest labeled ingredient─including products by Quaker, Hershey’s, Kraft and Smucker. In his report Lilliston claims that the average American consumes about 12 teaspoons per day of HFCS and some kids and teens can be consuming up to nearly 80% more than that. Many parents of children suffering from neurological disorders have found that the removal of high fructose corn syrup from their child’s diet has been beneficial. These alarming studies prove that perhaps the reason moves beyond the argument that fructose sugar is bad for your metabolism or that a corn allergy is present in all kids who benefit from removing high fructose corn syrup from their diets. Perhaps the real underlying problem for some is a metal toxicity issue. We all want what is best for our children, and the recent spike in cases of children suffering from multiple allergies, autism, ADHD, and chronic multifocal tic disorders really proves that there is something rotten in our food chain.”[i]

In short, for the New Year, if you are dealing with food allergies, autism, ADHD or asthma stop feeling guilty and start helping your child by clearing out your cupboards of foods that contain the thing he or she is allergic to, as well as high fructose corn syrup. If you think your child who has ADHD, autism or asthmatic doesn’t have food allergies, consider the information in the blog entry titled, Delayed Food Allergies: Autism, ADHD, Asthma.  In that blog entry there are references to resources that explain how and which foods tend to aggravate these disorders making symptoms worse.  Remember, it takes about three weeks to clear out the body of these foods.  In some cases, the food allergies can be mitigated to the point where the disorders are not apparent.  That is truly something to celebrate in the New Year!

[i]Caryn Talty, Editor of Healthy-family.org, “Dangerous Levels of Mercury found in Products Made with High Fructose Corn Syrup,” http://healthy-family.org/caryn/1186/dangerous-levels-of-mercury-found-in-brand-name-products-made-with-high-fructose-corn-syrup, January 2009.

As expected, there is a lot of work for the host to prepare a gathering--food preparation often a large part. When food allergies enter the picture, then a level of stress can surround the event for both the parents and the host. If not addressed, this stress can erupt into anger, friction or even family fights. Don’t let the event be ruined for you--there are things you can do so that your family can attend and do so safely. Attending these events is important for the social development of your child, as well as his or her happiness and emotional health, not to mention yours and your spouse's.

Unexpected, offending, allergen-laden foods can be the most difficult to handle. Here is a situation that caused one of the parents interviewed in my book a great deal of frustration. "Karen and her husband often have conflicting views on how to protect her son from an accidental ingestion of peanuts…Another example of contention is during the holiday season while at her mother-in-law’s house one relative brought a plate of peanut butter cookies. Karen asked everyone not to eat them because the crumbs could fall to the floor and Max could ingest them. Rather than agreeing, her mother-in-law said, 'We’ll just put them in the kitchen and eat them in there.' Karen was angry. Peanut could still fall to the floor in the kitchen, plus peanut traces would be on the fingers and lips of anyone who ate them and then might touch or kiss Max. She says, 'I felt unsupported by my husband as well because when I told him what his mother said, he didn’t confront her.'"

I think there are two main things you can do to ease the stress and plan for a relaxed and safer event.  One of the things I have learned to do with my husband is to talk about the upcoming event as soon as I can. For instance, this past Thanksgiving we had plans to travel to my husband’s brother’s house. His wife is quite aware of food allergies as her mother had celiac disease (intolerance to gluten) for a few years before her death. So, it is easy for me to communicate with her about the menu. She advised me what she was planning and I advised her what I think the boys would eat. We also decided what foods I would bring to allow safe and familiar foods for our boys. Together, we planned the meal over email about a week before the big day.  

As soon as some of these details were worked out between my sister-in-law and me, I summarized them to my husband. I also advised him that I told her it was unnecessary for her to make all foods dairy-free, egg-free as she has offered to try to do in the past. Our boys are old enough (five and six) now to know they cannot just take whatever they want. I wanted my husband to be prepared when he saw the variety of foods on Thanksgiving Day. I also discussed the upcoming holiday with our sons and made sure to ask them what they really wanted to make their Thanksgiving Day special. In this case they wanted a homemade apple pie with some vanilla soy ice cream. So I advised my sister-in-law that I would also make and bring those for everyone to share.

Previously, I tried to avoid tension by waiting until that morning or the day before to discuss the event with my husband. This tended to not leave enough time for any concerns that he may have had and so I would find myself feeling annoyed that he had any concerns at all. Over the years, I have found that his concerns are reasonable and actually helpful. But again, to address these concerns in a relaxed way, i.e. to avoid stress and any conflict between us, there must be plenty of time between the initial discussion and the event, specifically at least a week. This leaves enough time to communicate again with the host or make a trip to the grocery store as needed, or even order something safe off of the Internet if I felt too busy to make it myself, like there are some dairy-free cookies I know I can get that are yummy and fun for the boys to open since each is individually wrapped.  They are a little expensive, but sometimes it is worth it to avoid problems.

Another recommendation that I have when discussing upcoming events with either your spouse or your family member is to proactively address the specific concerns that you believe they have and you have. For example, I remember how important it was for me to feel that our boys did not feel different at birthday parties. Despite the fact that they had their own cupcakes, I wanted to give them those with ease, perhaps even laughter and lightheartedness at the party. I remember the tension I could feel emanating from my husband at a particular birthday party when we found that peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cheese and crackers were being served. It was important for me that his tension didn’t affect the children’s enjoyment of the party. Since I know my husband’s mannerisms so well perhaps caused me to over react to his feelings--perhaps they were not noticeable to others, I do not know. At any rate, all went fairly smoothly, but I took something away from it.

Specifically I learned that I needed to discuss with him that I didn’t want to feel tension nor did I want the boys to feel tension during the event. So well before the next event, I would say something along the lines of, “I know how concerned you are about the boys coming into contact with allergy foods at parties. I am too. (Trying to show agreement.) But I also feel equally strong that it is important for the boys to not feel our tension at these gatherings.” Then I’d be sure to listen to him. If he had specific concerns that I could address, I would do so, and get back to him as soon as I could.

I think this strategy can work for relatives as well. For instance, I have found that many people in the grandparent generation are so unfamiliar with the relatively new onslaught of serious food allergies in our children, that they often find it unbelievable. Their beliefs then translate into actions, words, tones of voices, facial expressions, etc. that may cause us to feel that they think we are over reacting, are silly or are downright crazy. If possible, a parent might try to say something along these lines to the grandparent host of an upcoming event, “I know that you feel Johnny’s allergy might not be all that bad. But the doctor assures us that we should be very careful. My spouse and I would really appreciate it if you could not serve peanuts (or seafood or tree nuts, etc.) at your home that one day. We are really looking forward to the event. We just want to have a good time and not have to worry about Johnny. Is there anything I can do to help with organizing this?”

For instance, you could specifically offer to contact the host’s guests to request that they not bring foods that contain the allergy-ingredient. This might take the social burden and time burden off of the host. If you can get a list of phone numbers or email addresses, it may only take a short time to write a brief email explaining the allergy and how you’d appreciate it if people could help you in this way. I can’t imagine that anyone would want to knowingly harm a child, so I am sure that most people will be happy to comply. But, not addressing this beforehand and waiting for the guest to arrive with dishes in hand, creates complications and hurt feelings with which no one wants to deal. Imagine Aunt Abby walks in with fifty dollars worth of shrimp cocktail only to find out that it will be put into the backroom. Or imagine Great Uncle Bob who spends hours making his famous peanut butter cookies the day before only to learn little Johnny is severely allergic.

There are many difficult tasks in the job of being a parent. Getting up at two o’clock in the morning for months on end is one of them. Caring and worrying over a child sick with a fever, cough or pneumonia is another. Even speaking up for the sake of your child when it feels uncomfortable and unnatural is a difficult task. Know that you are not alone in the stress that you feel. Then, try to put a smile on your face and proactively talk to your spouse and relatives or friends well in advance (i.e. one or two weeks ahead of time) about the situation to address your concerns, their concerns and solutions. You can even pretend you are “at work” if that’s what it takes to remain nice and calm. It will make the event much better for your child, you, your spouse, the host and the other guests.

It appears that the first main reason is that the discussion of hypotheses, studies and non-traditional forms of medicine outside the officially-already-accepted-and-published set of information was not agreeable to some. A hypothesis is defined as "a proposed explanation for an observable phenomenon."  Here are a few from Flourishing:

• There have been no studies that prove probiotics will help cure food allergies, but there was a study that showed probiotics can help prevent food allergies when taken by infants and pregnant women.
• There have been no studies that prove reducing stress in a child’s life and improving their immune systems may help them outgrow their food allergies, but there is information in the book about how this may help. 
• There are no studies that prove delayed IgG food allergies are linked to ADHD, autism and asthma, but there are a lot of stories from various physicians and parents who have found success in reducing symptoms and behavior related to these problems, even world class athletes will swear by it.

My response to this criticism is that if a person or their organization will only accept the already-accepted-officially-proven studies, then that person or organization may be limiting themselves and the possible ways to help those dealing with food allergies and the probable related disorders of ADHD, autism and asthma.  I can understand that from a liability perspective many professionals are legally obliged not to deviate from the standard. But, I wanted to explore new ideas, theories and studies in my book. I feel it helps people think out-of-the-box, learn, grow and have some hope that in the future there may be cures or treatments for food allergies above and beyond life-long food avoidance.

It appears that the second main reason for criticism of the book is the frustration that many parents felt while trying to figure out “what was wrong” with their child. Why was their child having a cough that would never stop? Why was their child crying all night from eczema that wouldn’t subside? Why was a child being offered intestinal biopsies, brain scans or many medications, when the problem or cause of the problem was food allergy?  Parents who I interviewed were frustrated and even angry at times, about how their child was diagnosed, how they were treated and the misinformation that they were given such as an “adult” epi-pen prescription when an epi-pen junior prescription was in order.

My response to this criticism is that I set out to write a book to help parents feel they were not alone and that they could handle food allergies successfully in their child.  I randomly selected parents to interview and turned no one away who offered an interview. As the interviews were done, I began to notice a trend─most parents were indeed frustrated with the facts that the physician wasn’t able to diagnose the problems as caused by food allergies in a relatively quick way (some took over a year) and during that period of time a lot of medications were prescribed that would often have undesirable side effects. It was not my intention to make doctors “look bad” by any means.  But, I believe that until more research is done and physicians have more official-proven-accepted studies on which to base their beliefs and thus diagnoses, then we have a problem that results in frustrated parents and sick children, not to mention a lot of wasted cost for unnecessary tests and medications that ultimately affect everyone’s health insurance premiums.

For instance, Dr. Fausnight, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Allergy and Immunology, Penn State Children's Hospital wrote, “I have just finished the book. I found it very easy to read and it had a pleasant, warm, friendly approach to a scary problem. The personal stories are helpful because readers can find parts with which they identify. However, I did find parts of it a bit frustrating...I would have liked a story about a family that had an encounter with a compassionate allopathic physician, board certified in allergy and immunology, who helped them understand food allergy, navigate the school system, where to vacation…”  I think she clearly states the goal that all parents with food-allergic children would like.  Although there are many doctors who have these skills, especially those trained in allergy and immunology as is Dr. Fausnight, we need to work together to tip the scales in the direction of having more rather than fewer, especially in the non-specialized more general areas of medicine.

As a community of parents we need to ask the hard questions of our pediatricians to ascertain the correct diagnosis of our children’s symptoms. In doing so, we may need to question them a bit further than we might normally if we don’t understand why our child is having a symptom─sometimes that can take courage. Perhaps we don’t just want a medication to cover up or heal the rash, but rather we want to know the cause of the eczema, cough or asthma for example. In this way, by asking questions, being persistent and getting to the bottom of our children’s issues, together with the physicians we can help the children get better by healing their little immune systems so they can hopefully outgrow their food allergies. In the bigger picture, by raising physician awareness as well as our own, we will hopefully trigger more funding for research on food allergies which will in turn provide more answers, safer testing procedures and perhaps even a cure.

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback. I am most appreciative.

Recently, Dr. David Schultz, a licensed clinical psychologist and lecturer at Yale University's School of Medicine, provided me with an interesting piece that in part addresses the hygiene hypothesis as it relates to antibiotics. The writing taken from “The Vaccination Dilemma” is by Dr. Philip Incao while the book is a compilation by Christine Murphy of various perspectives on childhood vaccinations. Dr. Incao writes, “Research has revealed a list of factors…that correlate with decreased risk of asthma and allergies, including the avoidance of vaccinations and antibiotics [such as] having little or no antibiotics especially before the age of two.” He continues, “If the hygiene hypothesis proves to be correct, it will have a revolutionary impact on the medical practice…There is an ecology of human illness. If we attempt to eliminate a single element of an ecological system, we disturb the balance of the whole in ways that can lead to unforeseen consequences. To these unforeseen consequences belong the dramatic increases in asthma, allergies, diabetes, autism and learning dysfunctions occurring in children today.”[1]

Up to this point, it appeared to me that the hygiene hypothesis focused mainly on the child’s external environment. But directly affecting the world of bacteria within the child’s body makes more sense to me. When that world is disturbed, repeatedly, with little or no effort to reconstitute or repopulate the beneficial bacteria, through the use of probiotics, like acidophilus in yogurt, for instance, then that world can become unbalanced and new problems can emerge.

I recall a passage from Dr. Kenneth Bock’s book, “Healing the New Childhood Epidemics,” which states, “There are two different kinds of helper T-cells: Th-1 and Th-2. The Th-1 cells…attack pathogens directly, or send messages to encourage other immune cells to attack. The Th-2 cells also attack pathogens but in a different way…by encouraging other immune cells to produce antibodies...then attack foreign substances, including bacteria, viruses and also allergens…Because these Th-1 and Th-2 cells work together, it’s important that they stay in balance. But this doesn’t always happen…there is a skewing of this balance, with an increase of Th-2 antibody production and a decrease of the activity of the Th-1 cells…The skewing of immunity to the Th-2 dominance makes it harder for people to fight off the viral, bacterial and fungal infections that lie within their cells. It makes them prone to many common illnesses. The excess activity of the Th-2 cells also triggers and overactive immune response with can result in allergy and autoimmunity…Overactive Th-2 immunity results in too many attacks on the substances that don’t need to be attacked, including pollen and common foods such as milk and wheat. The final result is allergy. Allergy triggers inflammation as the body fights to free itself from presumed invaders. When the inflammation strikes the airways, asthma can occur.”[2]

In other words, the T-cells can become out of balance where one kind is weak and the other is overactive. The weak one can’t fight off illness, like it should, while the overactive one overreacts causing unnecessary inflammation and allergic reactions. This described our son so well: He would get sick, we’d give him antibiotics which would “enable” the T-cell to remain weak rather than rising-to-the-challenge to fight off the illness. By continually giving him the antibiotics his T-cells would remain out of balance and the T-cell responsible for inflammation/allergies would never be reigned-in, put-in-check or calmed down.

Another problem with antibiotics is that leaky-gut can occur when the intestine walls become holey from an overgrowth of bad yeast or candida which can be caused by antibiotics killing off all bacteria (good and bad). When this happens, food particles that normally would be contained in the intestine leak out into the blood stream. The body is called upon to fight or deal with these food proteins. Immune systems come to the rescue but can cause immediate-IgE-food-allergies. Or in other bodies delayed-IgG-food-allergies are created leading to symptoms of the disorders of autism, ADHD or asthma.

Interestingly, our son was started on antibiotics just about the time I tried (unsuccessfully) to introduce cow’s milk formula, to which he developed an allergy. The downward spiral in health continued for the next five years where he often fell into various infections after a regular cold. His ability to fight illness became worse and worse. I remember being in the toy store on the cold winter day of his fifth birthday asking him to pick out a favorite toy. We had just returned from the doctor for the painful-to-listen-to non-stop cough he had developed. All he could choke out was, “Get the castle book” and we quickly went home. I felt so terrible.

Mostly because of what I learned from researching Flourishing and interviewing the parents and doctors, we were finally able to pull out of this cycle. I summoned up the courage to call a recommended naturopath doctor, a kind of medicine with which I had no personal experience and felt somewhat skeptical. This new doctor gave our son supplements to detoxify his body from mucus and reduce respiratory inflammation as well as improve the strength of his immune system. We started this in March. During April his congestion drained like never before. I literally ran around the park one spring day with a box of tissues chasing after him to blow his nose every few minutes--and I was quite happy about it. By May his mucus cleared, a chronic cough finally completely subsided and his breathing at night was tremendously quiet. Previously, I used to be able to “check on him” at the bottom of the stairs--I could hear him breathing and snorkeling from there. It was so stressful to hear this every night for my husband and me. But then, in May, I remember the night when I walked into his doorway and couldn’t hear him. I became worried and took steps closer to his bed and heard him breathing so peacefully. It is still a joy to listen to him at night and remains our favorite recurring topic of conversation between my husband and me.

This new naturopath doctor also explained to me that in addition to clearing mucus and decreasing inflammation using natural supplements and tonics he would work to strengthen our son’s immune system. Having read the passage above from Dr. Bock’s book about T-cells this made sense to me, i.e. reduce inflammation while improving immune response. It is my hope that by rebalancing his immune system his ability to fight illness will be corrected and his overreaction to the allergy-foods will eventually diminish and go away. After five months on the treatment we had a skin prick test. His allergies to dairy and egg remained, but were much less than the previous year. His dairy went from the size of a quarter to a dime. The egg went from the size of a dime to an eraser top. Another benefit that is intangible but immense is that his mood improved, within a few weeks. I don’t need to tell mothers how much easier life is when your child comes up for the bath on the first call rather than turning it into an “issue.”

Over the past eight months under the supervision of both of my son’s doctors (naturopathic and allopathic) he has been on antibiotics only once for strep throat. He has had many colds/viruses and even a mild ear ache and few fevers, but has recovered from them on his own. At first, my husband and I were fearful, then amazed, as we watched him conquer these invisible wars. It is our hope that his body rebalances. If his T-cells balance out perhaps he will outgrow his allergy faster. We will use antibiotics when an infection is serious, but will try quite hard to avoid them up to that point.

In closing, my thoughts about antibiotics are as follows. I believe antibiotics are important in the effort to help the body recover from serious illness. But the over-use of antibiotics can deplete the child’s (or anyone’s) natural and good bacteria supply in their gut and also disrupt the body’s T-cell balance causing problems in naturally fighting illness. While the bacterial supply can be remedied by supplementing with probiotics, there is a longer term negative effect by way of “leaky gut” which probably causes the more permanent food allergies. Further, how do you strengthen the T-cell that has become weak due to over use of antibiotics? Letting it work it out by fighting the illness itself seems to be the only way. It is like tough love--letting your loved one struggle because in the end that’s the best thing for them.

We are now quite careful to use antibiotics only when it is necessary such as for a high fever, strep throat, pneumonia, or other serious life-threatening and/or permanently damaging illness. 

[1] Murphy, Christine, Editor, “The Vaccination Dilemma”, Lantern Books, 2000.

[2] Bock, M.D., Kenneth, Stauth, Cameron, “Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma and Allergies. The Groundbreaking Program for the 4-A Disorders,” Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House, New York, NY, 2008.

Now finally, his skin prick test for dairy, at age five, came back negative. We were then referred to a larger office of allergists where they conduct "challenge tests." But before the doctor to whom we were referred would do a dairy challenge test, she insisted on a blood test. She said that only if both the skin prick and the blood test come back negative is there a solid chance that the child has fully outgrown the allergy. So two weeks later we had the blood test done and another week passed until we learned that the results were negative, which was good news.

We scheduled our “challenge test” and my son had to miss a day of school. It lasted three long hours, but my son passed the test and was able to consume six ounces of organic 2% cow’s milk in increasing amounts over the first two of the three hours. After the test, I was exhausted--emotionally. I had tried not to get too excited, for fear of disappointment, but when I found out he was okay, the thrill I had dreamed of was lacking for me. I think I had prepared myself for failure, so was somewhat hardened which left the happiness factor out in the cold to a certain extent. It took about a week before I shared the good news with my friends and some others. Yes, this reaction is weird, but that’s what happened. Now about a month later, I feel relief, and I guess happiness, but I think I am still quite guarded, probably from a continued fear of disappointment.

Enough about me, upon seeing my older son get off the school bus, I wondered, "What do I tell my six-and-one-half year old still allergic to dairy?" Well, I told him that he should be happy for his little brother. He responded, “Oh!” and his eyes lit up a bit. Very sweet. Then I said, “and because your little brother has outgrown his allergy to cow’s milk it could mean that you are next because you and he are so much alike.” It is wrong to set up this hope? I don’t know, but hope is something you can live on for a long time. So I will indulge in it as much as I can. Coincidentally, a couple of weeks before all of the success of my younger son, his older brother said for the first time, “I wish I didn’t have food allergies,” one night just before going to sleep. I assured him he would outgrow them someday. Then sometime over the next week, during dinner, something inspired me to tell my boys that food allergies really aren’t that bad because there are a lot worse things that can happen to a person, then I proceeded to list them off. Not sure this was the right thing to do, but it did stop any further “whining” about our situation.

I can only attribute my younger son’s success in outgrowing his allergy to strict avoidance. My husband and I are extremely careful about not giving him any foods that contain dairy, even in trace amounts. Other than that, we try to reduce stress in our lives as much as possible and give our kids their time to be quiet and play as they wish--which supports the toxic load theory. Sometimes this means not signing them up for another session of soccer or t-ball so they can relax on Saturday mornings rather than rushing out for yet another activity. Also, I faithfully give my son a dairy-free multi vitamin and dairy-free probiotic supplement every morning.

What about other food allergies? What are the average rates for outgrowing those?

80% or “most” of children will outgrow these allergies by the time they are 16 and as early as age 3:

• Dairy (cow’s milk products)
• Egg
• Soy
• Wheat

As many as 20% of children will outgrow their allergy to:

• Peanut

About 10% will outgrow their allergy to:

• Tree nuts (almonds, brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts (filberts), macadamia nuts, pecans, pine nuts (pignolias), pistachio nuts and walnuts. Note: Peanuts are part of the legume family and are not considered a tree nut.)

As for fish and shellfish, most research says the allergy is normally life-long. But perhaps some reactions can be outgrown. For instance, my father had reactions of severe nausea and vomiting after eating scallops and shrimp as a teenager and in his early twenties.  He recalls, "The first instance was in New York. I was about sixteen years old when I went to lunch with one of my friends. Then I went back to work. Once at work I vomited so badly I had to go home.  Another time was when was in college when I was about twenty years old. I ate at the college restaurant and vomited again.  In both cases the other people had the same food and were fine, so I concluded that the food wasn't bad--it was my reaction to it. So I swore scallops and shrimp off."  The good news is that in his mid-twenties, my mother convinced him to try eating these scallops one night.  He tried and he was fine!  Over the past forty-five years, he has been able to eat scallops and shrimp without a problem.

The above statistics were taken from articles located at:

http://www.aanma.org/2009/02/when-will-i-outgrow-food-allergies/ 
http://allergies.about.com/od/fa1/f/outgrowmilk.htm 
http://www.aaaai.org/patients/publicedmat/tips/foodallergy.stm

I am posting this story because it provides us with an immense amount of hope. This story shows not only how kids get stronger and can recover from food allergies, but also that we have a lot more support in today’s environment than this mother did twenty-odd years ago. She did it, we can too. It is important for us to maintain a sense of hope and confidence that our kids will be alright and to give that sense of hope and confidence to our children.

“Twenty-three years ago, my daughter was born full term, but weighed only five and one-half pounds. My pregnancy was miserable, then in her childhood she was allergic to so many things including latex, trees, ragweed, grass, wheat, milk, eggs, cocoa, and more. She was even allergic to the plastic in the bottles so I breastfed her to avoid having her break out in hives all over her face. Similarly, she was allergic to the material in the disposable diapers so I used cloth diapers.

For ten years, I took her to the doctor’s four times a week for allergy shots to desensitize her to her allergies--both environmental and food allergens. For years, I watched everything she ate. There were no Epi-Pens back then, so I had bottles of medication that I kept in the refrigerator. If she had a reaction, I had to determine what she was reacting to, mix the appropriate medications and inject it into her myself. The whole experience of her allergies petrified me so that I didn’t want to have any more children.

School was very difficult because we knew of no other child who had food allergies. To deal with it, she only ate food from home, never school lunches. But I found the teachers were completely unaware and basically clueless about food allergies. One time, I went into the classroom and found a piece of chocolate cake on her desk for her to eat. I was so angry I threw it. Then I had my daughter moved to a special education classroom so that her diet could be monitored properly by a teacher assigned only to her. No one understood the seriousness of my daughter’s allergies--there were children who were lactose intolerant but milk just make them feel sick, it wasn’t life-threatening.

I am not sure why she had so many allergies, but I have my theories. Specifically, her father is a Vietnam veteran and was spayed with agent orange. He developed skin cancer when she was a baby. My daughter showed signs of being a late developer and was a little slow in school. But with a lot of help, she graduated from high school early--in the middle of her junior year.

Now she has no allergies! She is only a bit sensitive to the sun and had some fertility problems. She is married and lives on a farm in the Smokey Mountains with her husband and her adopted eighteen-month old daughter. Best part, she can eat whatever she wants!

At the last blood test, the blood-taking nurse said to my five year old, “So you don’t feel so good after eating certain foods, huh?”  Then she laughed heartily.  I was dumbfounded.  I think my five year old was too.  I sat on the chair holding him on my lap and we said nothing.  We just looked at her back as she had turned around after laughing to enter a few items into her computer.  How could a nurse or anyone be so insensitive as to ask a question like that when she knows he has food allergies and then laugh out loud?  What was she laughing at?  Our misfortune?  If she wasn’t about to take three little vials of blood from my “baby” I might have just confronted her on why she was laughing. 

Aside from the lack of personal tact, there are other frustrations that I have with food allergy testing.  Specifically, skin prick tests can show false positives, meaning it may show that you are allergic to x when in fact you are not.  Further, the blood tests can show false negatives, meaning it may show you are not allergic to y when in fact you are.  Then there is the ultimate “challenge” test where you child eats or drinks the food in a substantial quantity, which you have studiously avoided for the past few years. 

When my older son went in for his dairy challenge test, his blood test had been negative but the skin prick was positive.  The doctor said he was, “90% sure he would not react during the challenge test to the dairy.”  But, he did react and had to receive epinephrine in the doctor’s office.  Our current allergist advised us that she would only do a challenge test if both the skin prick and blood tests come back negative.  This seems to make more sense to me so we are on our path to this test now. 

While a definitive, non-risky test is something we all would like, I’d like to learn if there is any consensus from mothers, fathers or people who undergone the tests themselves, like teenagers, on what tests work best.  Please comment on what tests or combination of tests and results seem to have been most accurate in your experience.