I’m happy to report that we are back from a very enjoyable weekend in NYC. We had a pleasant stay at the Residence Inn Times Square. It was very convenient because we had a mini kitchen with a full sized refrigerator, microwave, toaster, plates, utensils etc. There was no cooktop, which we knew in advance. So we kept prepared taco meat in our cooler (along with veggies and cheese) and warmed in the microwave for a quick dinner.

They have a breakfast buffet which is normally not the best for food allergic children, but they did have rice milk and even offered to open a new carton for us! They also bake their sausage and after reviewing the ingredient label, (gluten and dairy free) we let my son try some.

We had all of his food with us anyway (Van’s waffles and safe cereal) but it was nice for him to be able to have something from the buffet. He was actually excited to see his rice milk there. Simple pleasures!

After our medical appointment, we decided to try Better Burger which was recommended to us by Allergic Girl (aka Sloane Miller) who writes the Please Don’t Pass the Nuts Blog.

The menu is simple which is what we wanted. My son had a plain hamburger and french fries, with a fresh squeezed lemonade. I explained to the woman taking our order about his food allergies, and there were no rolled eyes. When I asked about the baked french fries, she brought me the ingredient label to read.

The fries were from a company called Lutosa. The ingredients are: organic potatoes, organic sunflower oil, organic dextrose.

They even asked us before putting salt on them! Delived fresh to our table! Little guy was very happy.

One less meal I’ll have to bring on our next trip!

This may be of interest to those of you with children who have nut or peanut allergy. A recent study showed that when there was a precautionary label it was more likely that the product contained peanut or nut. This study was done in Belgium where hazelnut is more commonly used. They found hazelnut in the majority of chocolates with a precautionary label and that 25% of the chocolates with a precautionary label contained peanut.

Peanut and Nut Traces in Cookies and Chocolate

Compared to cookies, chocolates are more likely to contain undeclared allergens, while, in both food categories, hazelnut traces were detected at higher frequencies than peanut.

The presence of a precautionary label was found to be related to a higher frequency of positive test results.

The majority of chocolates carrying a precautionary label tested positive for hazelnut, whereas peanut traces were not be detected in 75% of the cookies carrying a precautionary label.

If your child has multiple food allergies, you probably have toted your own food into restaurants on a number of occasions. Whether it’s a safe roll, rice milk or a safe treat, there are often very few restaurants that can accomodate those with special dietary needs.

This article is about an autism mom who was forced to leave a Chuck-E-Cheese restaurant becuase she brought in special food for her son who was on a gf cf diet and also avoided several other food allergens. She says her childrens special food was taken away at the door, and the outing was for an autism camp!

“They actually confiscated the food as soon as we walked in the door,” said Perez.

Perez says she spoke to the manager, but was told Chuck E. Cheese has a strict policy not allowing any outside food into the restaurant, except some birthday cakes.

“She wouldn’t budge, I pleaded with her,” she said.

When Perez and the manager were unable to reach an agreement, the Bloomington police department was called and Perez was forced to leave

We brought food into a local Chuck E Cheese but it was when my son was only 18 months old. Perhaps it was allowed as it was baby food. As I recall,the menu was mainly pizza so I wonder what options they could offer someone on a special diet.

Anyone else had a good or bad experience at Chuck E Cheese?

“We present a case that challenges this thinking by demonstrating that peanut allergy may recur during regular ingestion of significant doses of peanut protein. The case suggests that current practice cannot guarantee freedom from recurrent peanut allergy, and it is important that patients and their families are aware of this. “

Recurrent Peanut Allergy May Not Be Prevented by Continued Peanut Ingestion.

After we published the article I Wish I Was the Parent Who Was Warned we received a flood of email questions about living with peanut allergy. We took them to the expert, Dr Michael Young, author of The Peanut Allergy Answer Book, and are grateful to share his expertise with you.

Interpreting Test Scores

-Does a higher score mean a worse reaction?

-Do the “classes” on the test scores mean anything?

-Are there any scores that indicate the potential for anaphylaxis?

Dr. Michael Young: Skin testing and RAST testing DO NOT predict the severity of clinical reactions. In fact there is presently no available test that predicts severity. As discussed above, clinical reactions vary from exposure to exposure. The severity of reactions can depend of the amount and route of exposure, the food matrix, the clinical status of the patient and concurrent illness and medication use.

The “classes” and adjectives used by the laboratories are not based on any clinical studies of reactions, and are completely arbitrary. I do not use them and tell doctors and patients to ignore them because they are very misleading.

A patient with a very low RAST score is just as likely to have anaphylaxis as someone else with a higher RAST score. In fact, I spoke with the laboratory director of a well known commercial lab and he is removing these adjectives from the printouts of test results.

The remaining article also covers the following:

Outgrowing Peanut Allergy

Peanut Oil and Labeling

Airborne Reactions

Air Travel

Severity and Reactions

Read the entire article HERE.

Michael C. Young, M.D. author of The Peanut Allergy Answer Book, is the Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Assistant in Medicine at the Division of Allergy & Immunology at Children’s Hospital Boston.

Do boys do the atopic march while girls dawdle?

“Sufficiently complete data were available for 403 children. Eczema within the first 2 years of life was clearly associated with an increased risk of childhood asthma in boys (adjusted odds ratio, 2.45; 95% CI, 1.31-4.46) but not in girls (odds ratio, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.43-1.77; P for interaction = .031) even with adjustment for the effects of early allergic sensitization and wheeze. If these relationships are causal, an intervention to prevent eczema in boys might reduce the incidence of childhood asthma by as much as 28%. “

Teens with peanut allergy or any food allergy are statistically most vulnerable to severe anaphylaxis from foods. Known to take risks, they may need our support and coaching more than ever.

Allergic reactions to peanuts, tree nuts, and seeds aboard commercial airliners

This is an interesting study of allergic reactions while on airplanes. Forty one of the 471 people interviewed had allergic reaction while inflight and some had more than one. Sadly, only 12 of those reported their reactions to the flight crew. As you might assume, most of the reactions were due to peanut.

” Six individuals went to an emergency department after landing, including 1 after a flight diversion. Airline personnel were notified of only 3 of these severe reactions. Comparison of information given to 3 different investigators by airline customer service representatives showed that inconsistencies regarding important information occurred, such as whether the airline regularly serves peanuts.”

Here is a link to an abstract on predicting who will outgrow peanut allergy. The conclusion is that the children who outgrow this allergy seem to have lower scores to begin with and/or their scores drop in the first few years of life.

Early clinical predictors of remission of peanut allergy in children.

“Mean SPT wheal diameters of nonremitters increased (r = 0.31, P < .001), whereas those of remitters decreased (r = -0.26, P = .002) between 1 and 4 years of age. Twenty-one percent of young children with peanut allergy became clinically tolerant by age 5 years. "

If you’re interesed in reading more about peanut allergies and related reseach, try this website.

Food allergies and other manifestations of allergic disease appear more likely when the introduction of food or cow’s milk is delayed.

The article and abstract link below discuss a recent study where delayed introduction of foods actually seems to increase ones risk of developing a food allergy. This study examined the timing of the introduction of cow’s milk into the diet and when it was delayed beyond 9 months or more, there was a significant increase in eczema. They also examined delayed introduction of foods and had similar findings.

“Tests showed that delaying the introduction of cow’s milk products beyond 9 months significantly increased the risk of eczema, a chronic skin condition characterized by dry

Delayed introduction of other food products for more than 7 months also markedly increased the risk of eczema as well as the risk of atopic dermatitis and recurrent wheeze.”

Postponing cow’s milk may not prevent allergy

Here’s the abstract: