Sometimes I think the whole food allergy thing is part voo-doo because we don't know where it came from or even exactly how to handle it. There are so many different ideas on how to "treat" them. For example, this article was recently published that reports on an experimental study where they fed a person with a food allergy small amounts of the food the person is allergic to. This is the OPPOSITE approach that is normally taken--which is to completely avoid the allergen.
Because food allergies can be so confusing and so damn scary, I signed my family up to participate in the Children's Memorial Food Allergy study. The four-year, $5.5 million research initiative will look at the impact of environmental and genetic factors on children who suffer with food allergies.
It took about half a day to get to the hospital and have the kids, myself and my husband tested. We all had to get blood drawn and get skin prick tests ... that part sucked, but overall it wasn't bad. (And in fact, the tests alerted us to the fact that Little Guy had grown out of his wheat allergy ... hallelujah!) We recently got a letter updating us on the study and asking us to talk to family and friends and see if they might participate. It seems they especially need families who don't have food allergies to serve as the control group. So, if you are interested in helping the medical community figure out this whole food allergy thang, check out this site.
If you participate, we can compare our medical test scores ... cool!
1 comment:
hey there--
archmaster here! great blog. love it. living in new zealand now as you may know from the V...
quickly wanted to mention that we used to feed our little charlie soy milk and other soy products but upon arriving in new zealand heard about some research being done on soy--and its dangers (yeah i know, another food "danger" story). but if you're interested go to: http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/Story/0,,1828158,00.html
hope you're all doing ok after the unfortunate bears collapse!
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