I am pleased that the book has received much praise and that there has been a relatively small amount of criticism.  Even so, I’d like to address the criticism.  I believe it falls into two areas. 

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.

I received the following story from a mother of an adult daughter who is now grown, healthy and happy. The daughter had severe allergies as a child and was alone in her struggle. Despite the lack of support and being the only child with allergies in their community, this mother successfully raised a daughter who is now twenty-three years old and who has outgrown all of her allergies.  

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!

How can food allergies affect children who have the disorders of autism, ADHD and asthma?

There are (at least) two types of antibodies that can be created by a child's body: IgE and IgG. The IgE antibody normally produces an immediate-food-allergy reaction. The IgG antibody normally produces a delayed-food-allergy reaction.

Immediate-food-allergy reactions can produce hives and anaphylaxis (swelling of the lips, tongue and throat along with trouble breathing).  Reactions normally occur within a few minutes of eating the offending food, but can take up to 24-hours to occur. 

Delayed-food-allergy reactions normally take at least a few hours or days to occur.  The symptoms of this type of reaction can be more difficult to spot.  Specifically, delayed-food-allergy reactions can be responsible for the behavioral disorders of autism and ADHD as well as reactions of asthma. 

Consider Dr. Kenneth Bock's thoughts in his book, Healing the New Childhood Epidemics where he states, "A very significant advantage of blood testing, as opposed to skin testing, is that it reveals the presence of IgG reactions.  IgG reactions typically don't show up during skin testing, because they often don't begin to occur until a few hours, or even a few days, after contact with the food.  In contrast, IgE reactions generally occur almost immediately, enabling doctors to spot them during the short duration of the skin testing procedure.  IgG reactions are very common, and very troublesome.  They are extremely common among kids with 4-A disorders [Autism, ADHD, Asthma and Allergies].  They tend to create less severe symptoms than IgE reactions, but their symptoms still can be very destructive, particularly when IgG reactions to several foods occur at once, causing combined, cumulative damage, or when they combine with IgE reactions."[1]

While hives and eczema can be symptoms of immediate-reaction food allergy, it is behavioral issues that are a symptom of delayed-reaction food allergy. As Dr. Josef Burton explains in Flourishing with Food Allergies, “Reactions can be both visible and invisible. We can see rashes and hives, but there are reactions that are not as easy to identify such as grumpiness and irritability. If a child’s tongue or lips can swell, why can’t his brain swell too? Offending foods probably make our internal organs swell at times that can make it difficult or nearly impossible for a child to do the things we expect, such as sit and study or act the way we expect him to act.”[2]

When an undigested protein particle gets through the intestine walls it goes into the blood stream and the immune system is called upon to “handle it.”  Depending upon the child, his or her body breaks down this protein particle the best it can.  But during this breakdown process there can be side effects from the chemicals produced by the child’s own body.  For instance, Dr. Scot Lewey writes on autism, “Many parents report a casein-free (dairy protein) and gluten-free diet increases eye contact, attention, and mood while decreasing aggressive or oppositional behavior, tantrums, and poor attention. Theories for improvement of casein-free diet include improved brain function due to removal of cow’s milk protein by-products that have opiate-like effects. Casomorphin is protein fragment or peptide sequence derived from casein that is considered to have an opiate like effect. There are several casomorphins produced by digestion of casein from cow’s milk. People who stop eating wheat and dairy containing foods commonly report withdrawal symptoms.”[3]

People who crave certain foods are actually feeding a negative circle of addiction to something that is harmful for their particular bodies.  Specifically, “[A]ddictive cravings and withdrawal symptoms are said to exist in many food allergy patients when they stop eating the offending foods. ‘It has been suggested that this may be because some protein fragments formed when food is broken down are similar to endorphins, which the body produces naturally to counteract pain and produce euphoria. Then the allergy sufferer’s body becomes adapted to that level of endorphin activity and so craves the allergen in order to maintain the endorphin levels.’[4]”

Common delayed-reaction allergy foods include:

• ADHD/ADD: Dairy, wheat, oranges, eggs, chocolate, artificial colorings, artificial flavorings, food preservatives and natural chemicals found in apricots, berries and tomatoes. 
• Autism: Dairy, wheat, gluten, caffeine, chocolate, artificial colorings, artificial flavorings, soy and corn.
• Asthma: Dairy, wheat, egg, yeast, preservatives, colorings and coffee. 

The above list is taken from Dr. Kenneth Bock’s book.[5]  He details nutritional supplements to boost the immune system and cleanse the body from heavy metals that can lodge in brain tissues and disrupt normal functioning. Supplementing properly can result in improving and often eliminating the symptoms and behaviour associated with ADHD and autism, which Dr. Bock places on the same spectrum. Additional research, studies, interviews and examples of improving symptoms of asthma, ADHD and autism can be found in Flourishing with Food Allergies, in chapters dedicated to those topics.

To test your child for delayed-reactions, you must do a blood test. (The skin prick test can only find immediate allergic reactions.) Blood tests can locate both the IgG (delayed) and IgE (immediate) antibodies.  You’ll need to locate an allergist who understands this and can order and evaluate the results.  

[1] 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.

[2] Anderson, A., “Flourishing with Food Allergies,” July 2008, Papoose Publishing LLC.

[3] Lewey, Dr. Scot, “Autism linked to cow’s milk protein when GI symptoms present: More thoughts on the brain gut connection,” January 3, 2007, <http://thefooddoc.blogspot.com/search?q=Casomorphin+is+protein+fragment+>, (11/9/07).

[4] Thurnell-Read, Jane, “Allergy Equals Addiction, ”<http://www.shareware123.com/articles/part9/allergy_equals_addiction.htm>, (11/10/07).

[5] 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.