Food Allergy Carnival

Looking for some great information from those active and involved in food allergy on the web? Check out the latest addition of the Food Allergy Blog Carnival. From recipes to advice to tips and ideas, you'll find it all at the latest carnival!

Food Allergy Assumptions

Anaphylaxis Australian says, "assumptions or inactions often lead to avoidable reactions". This is in response to a discussion about dining with food allergy. While those of us who live this every day know that we should never make assumptions about what is in the food we serve to our food allergic loved one,there are several points that bear repeating:

Check all labels every time.
Always carry emergency medication.
Never assume that a food is safe.
Specifically talk to wait staff and/or the chef about food allergy when dining out. Consider a chef card. Leave if "it doesn't feel right".
Know that anything could contain a hidden ingredient- peanut butter in chili, dairy in non-dairy whipped topping. Do your research.

Here's the article that sparked this list. Do you have anything to add?

Blood Test For Risk of Food Allergy

A simple blood test is able to predict whether newborns are at risk for developing allergies later in life. Researchers at the University of Adelaide in Australia have determined that a specific protein separates those infants who are susceptible to developing allergies from those who are not.

It's all in the protein kinase C zeta, dah...ling...

This holds great benefit for those families who already have one or more members dealing with food allergy. Creating an allergy action plan for at risk babies is much easier than playing catch-up after trial and error testing finally points to allergy in a child. This test takes out much of the guesswork.

There is a great deal of food allergy research in Australia as 40%, yes four zero, of Australian children suffer from some type of allergic disease.

Check out the full story.

Food Allergy Research Centers

I mentioned CoFAR in my previous post discussing the possible relationship between milk and egg allergy to peanut allergy. CoFAR (Consortium of Food Allergy Research) is a network of food allergy centers that includes Duke University, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, National Jewish Research & Medical Center, and University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

This consortium was established in July 2005 by the National Institute of Health to conduct multi-center clinical studies and basic research towards further understanding of food allergies.

Each site can be contacted directly for those interested in participating in a food allergy study or assisting in some other way.

Egg and Milk Allergy Lead to Peanut Allergy?

A recent study involving 500 infants seems to show a link between early milk and egg allergy to later development of peanut allergy.

The Consortium of Food Allergy Research (CoFAR), a major food allergy research program supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) conducted the study and plans to follow the infants to age 5.

In light of this finding, researchers recommend parents of milk and egg allergic children speak to their doctor, or consult an allergist before introducing peanut in the diet.

Check out the full report. Interesting, huh?

AllergySense Helps Train Professionals in Food Allergies

Put expired EpiPens® and Twinject® to good use this month. Throughout the month of May, AllergySense will send expired pens to allergists' offices for training purposes.

Of course, I always recommend training yourself and family members by using an expired pen in an orange.

However, if you have several old pens lying around,mail them in a padded envelope to AllergySense for distribution. You'll even be entered to win great prizes.

Hurry, offer ends May 31, 2010.

Helpful Food Allergy Links

I recently came across this list of 50 Useful Links for Gluten-Free Living and it reminded me of all the knowledge and expertise we have available on the web today. Things sure have changed over the past 10 years. Today, people dealing with celiac and food allergies have a full education at their fingertips. Add to that the wide range of allergy friendly foods and products, and consumers today find themselves with many options.

I thought I'd go back to some of my old favorites for food allergy education. Check these out:

Linda Coss's Food Allergy Cookbooks are still my favorites for great recipes.

My favorite food allergy newsletters are from Allergic Child, Allergy Moms, Kids With Food Allergies, Go Dairy Free and FAAN.

Get informed through the many online resources available today.