Food Allergic? Be Our Guest.

Congratulations to Disney for being given the FAAN (Food Allergy and Anyphalaxis Network)Corporate Leadership Award. Disney was honored for "its commitment to food allergy awareness, education and management."

Tom Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts accepted the award saying, "Our parks in the U.S. alone accommodated well over 400,000 special dietary requests from guests last year."

Fantastic! No wonder Disney feels like "the most magical place on earth". They really try to make everyone feel special; like an honored guest.

I hope to see other resorts, parks and restaurants rise to the challenge as well. Everyone should be able to eat safely every where.

Campbells Soup and several individuals were also honored at the Hollywood gala.

A huge thank you to all the winners. your efforts are much appreciated.

This week-end I made Libby Ilson's Double Chocolate Brownie Bites. They won the 2010 FAANtastic Divvies Cookie Contest.

Now I know why. They are so yummy and so chocolatey. My family declared them, "the best ever". Ever what, I'm not sure, but they are fantastic!

I made one addition to the recipe. I added almonds, since we've been able to recently include these into my child's diet.

So, the next time you're craving a little chocolate (oh, that's right now you say?) pull out this recipe and make a batch. They're great hot- right out of the oven, and when they're warm, then at room temperature and awesome the next day and even right out of the freezer.

I tried them all different ways and you can't go wrong.

Enjoy!

Winner of Food Allergy Book Giveaway

Thank you for your inspirational stories of  food allergies and love in response to Allergic Girl's book giveaway. Each tale was unique and heartwarming. I entered the number of comments into random.org...

And the winner is...drum roll...Andie D.:

"It's always hard to figure out what to buy my 3year old son with eosinophilic esophagitis. He has multiple food allergies and though he can eat dairy free chocolate, he hates it! So I bought a watermelon today...all for him! He was so excited! Nothing like sweet boy kisses!"

Congratulations Andie! Please shoot me an e-mail (foodallergyassistant@gmail.com) with your mailing address so I can get you your free copy of Allergic Girl.

Thanks to all for your participation!

Allergic Girl comes out March 1, 2011.

Helpful Food Allergy Resource

Do you know about Wellsphere? This online community connects regular people, enthusiasts, and professionals around health topics. There is a very active food allergy group on the site. Check out the site and contribute if you feel so inclined.

Today is the last day to enter in the free book give-away. Come on, share your story and try for your chance to win a book. Winner will be announced Monday.

New Information About Eczema and Food Allergies

I had a sick feeling in my stomach when I read the discussion on food allergies presented at the 69th annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology last week. Dr. Jon Hanfin discussed the link between eczema and food allergy. He said that people with atopic dermatitis, or eczema, make larger amounts of IgE than any other groups of patients.

IgE is what is tested when we do blood tests for food allergies. In other words, people with eczema are, of course, going to have high IgE levels, indicating they may, or may not, have a food allergy.

Dr. Hanfin went on to say that children with eczema may only have a sensitization to a food, but they are being treated as though it is a food allergy. This leads us back to the recent thought that "only a food challenge can confirm a food allergy".

The sick feeling in my stomach worsened as I read on to the part about "withholding foods may actually be causing more allergies". So, a parent takes her baby with eczema to the doctor. Allergy tests are conducted and show the baby to be allergic to a bunch of foods. The doctor says to avoid all of these foods or the baby could have a severe allergic reaction. The parent(s) re-arrange their lives to avoid the foods and later find out that this avoidance may have caused food allergies.

I know this is all new information, but this has been our lives for over 10 years. We've been fortunate to recently discover that some of the foods my child has avoided (like almonds, shrimp, baked milk and baked egg) do not cause a reaction. I'm grateful for that, but now I wonder if any of the foods we avoided were necessary to avoid.

These "new discoveries" can't come fast enough for me. I want this figured out!

Listen to a podcast about the session and read the discussion of the presentation. What do you think?

Food Allergy Book Giveaway

Sloane Miller, aka Allergic Girl, has been the stand-out voice for adults with food allergies. Her new book, Allergic Girl: Adventures in Living Well with Food Allergies, is coming out March 1. To celebrate, she is offering one lucky Food Allergy Assistant reader a free copy.

Here's what you need to do to be eligible to win:
In the comments below, share your positive food allergy love story. It can be:

Any loving act you did for a food allergic family member or yourself,
Your best date with food allergies,
Your food allergic dream date,
A date you planned for a loved one,
Or what your dreams are for your food allergic child when they date.

Get the Valentine's Day theme? Just sharing the love.

I'll get this party started with my food allergy love story...

People have said, "I don't know how you do what you do". They are referring to the dozens of rolls, breads, cookies and cakes I make from scratch. They are talking about all the planning that goes into every trip we take so we can make sure there will be safe food away from home. They mean how do you manage all of the doctor appointments, meeting with school officials, and writing to legislators about food allergy issues?


You know what I say? "I do all of this because this is my child and this is what a loving parent does for their child. I hope I am being a good role model to my kids as I guide them along the path to be responsible, caring adults. I also hope I am sharing my knowledge with others so we have appropriate guidelines in place in our schools, restaurants, food manufacturing plants and our laws to protect everyone- food allergic or not. I will continue to do all of this until the phrase "food allergy" is no longer needed.

Check out the book trailer and comment below sometime this week for a chance to win. Winner will be announced next Monday, Feb. 21, 2011

Good luck!

Cold Allergy Better Than Food Allergy?

Did you see the segment on the Today Show Tuesday morning about the 9-year-old who has a cold allergy? The family talked to Matt Lauer about how the little girl can't tolerate temperatures over 70 degrees-that includes food and drink. She breaks out in hives, and experiences other symptoms, which could include anaphylactic shock.

She is unable to eat ice cream or go swimming. Her bath water has to be as warm as she can stand it and she needs heated towels and heated clothes to cover up immediately.

The family says that they must consider their daughter's allergy every day and carry epinephrine

Her mother said, "I actually prefer this to a nut allergy. I feel this much more manageable."

"Yes, Matt Lauer said, "otherwise you'd have to figure out everywhere there's nuts in the diet."

Funny, while watching this, I was thinking just the opposite- that I'd rather deal with food allergy than a cold allergy.

I guess it's all in what you're used to. Allergies with the risk of anaphylaxis, no matter what triggers them, all need to be treated the same- avoidance with emergency medications close by.

You can check out the segment, add the 400 plus comments here. For further information on cold urticaria, the Mayo Clinic offers both basic and in-depth information on this condition.

Food Allergy Test Using Saliva

A study written in the International Archives of Allergy and Immunology peaked my interest recently. Researchers set out to test the concentration of a specific saliva mast cell to see if it helped determine whether or not a food allergy was present. Using patients already suspected of food allergy, participants were instructed to chew the offending food until they developed symptoms.

What researchers discovered was that concentrations of this mast cell peaked after about four minutes following the onset of symptoms. The conclusion of the study is that the measurement of this specific mast cell in saliva may be helpful in diagnosing food allergy.

My interest in this is that we may have another way to diagnose food allergy. Blood and skin tests have proved to be less than ideal for reliability and I've outlined before the difficulties of relying on food challenges. We are in dire need of better testing alternatives.

While this study had a small sample size, I remain hopeful that it is another key to help unlock the mystery of food allergy.

Food Allergy Labelling Too Costly?

Have you been following the new food allergy labeling requirements in Canada? Apparently there is still one sticking point. The beer industry wants to be exempt. They say it would be too expensive for them to put these labels on their products.

I say, "Tough- you do it because it's the right thing to do".

The law does not even require full disclosure of the beverage ingredients. Beer makers would simply need to list any food allergens- wheat being the most common.

Canadian lawmakers, stand firm. The beer industry should not get to create policy. Policymakers do that.

Read more here.

Food Allergy Update: Almonds Are In

With a child allergic to dairy, egg, peanuts, tree nuts and shellfish, we've worried over the years about protein and calcium sources. It's tough to get those things while avoiding so much. Last week, my child tried a sliver of almond.

No reaction, even though a blood test showed an allergy to almond.

The next day, half an almond.

No reaction.

Fast forward a week and a bunch of almonds later. Either my child was never allergic to almonds, or the allergy was very recently outgrown. Whatever the case, I'm glad to be able to add this nutrient-packed food to his diet.

Sesame seed, almonds, baked milk (powdered) and baked egg all successful over the past few months.

On to cheese this week.

We're making progress. Very exciting, quite stressful.