How many of you are, or were, parents of food allergic kids?

[ilovetivo]

Martha is deciding on her next big idea. Please Vote (at the bottom of the page) for the allergy magazine!!!
http://blogs1.marthastewart.com/mart...epage_Homepage

Keep voting everyday! Yesterday, the pet lovers publication pulled slightly ahead of the food allergy one (38% to 37%), so if you are interested keep voting and get friends & family to vote too.

You can vote as many times as you'd like (once per day) over the next week. On Thursday, February 7, they'll close the poll, and Martha will later announce the big winner!

Idea: Alexis, Deputy Home Editor
Special publication catering to those with food allergies and sensitivities that would include recipes
Big Idea: To publish a special magazine that offers delicious allergy-friendly recipes, making life for people with food allergies and sensitivities easier and more delicious. Millions of people, including myself, can't eat nuts, dairy, wheat or gluten, and I’d like to empower people to make great recipes even if they can't use all the standard ingredients.

[ilovetivo]

Re: Martha - will be announced on Tuesday's show, 2/12

Re: the ridiculous bill - here's what I found out and then the Senator's response. Still doesn't make sense. Funding has nothing to do with epi's in the school. She has other bills she wants passed and needs support for. Contact other senators and tell them about this. Ask them to withhold support until she takes this bill out of rules and gets rid of it. You can find out who your IL senators and reps are and their contact info here: http://www.elections.il.gov/DistrictLocator/


I called the State Senator Althoff's office. The woman I spoke with was very nice and will be emailing me a statement from the Senator. I'll post it here as soon as it comes in. I assume the statement will be public and released elsewhere. I told her I'd forward it to all those I notified.

According to the woman, the Senator is an advocate for education funding reform. She will not be "calling" the bill at any point. (Not sure what that means, but I think it means bringing it up again.)

She struck all of the mandated items from that bill because she doesn't think there should be a mandate on things that need funding to be enacted, when there's no info/provisions on where that funding should/will come from to support it.

How allowing kids to carry epi's needs funding, is beyond me.

They have received enough calls now that the woman felt they should put out a statement. I told her there will be tons more calls coming in nationally (I sent the info to FAAN and FAI, as I'm sure others did too). I informed her that the Senator may have wanted to consider the implications of her actions ahead of time, and written a statement back then. When you threaten a food allergic child's safety, their parents will act quickly and strongly.


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Begin forwarded message:
From: "Senator Althoff" <[email protected]>
Date: February 6, 2008 11: 15: 42 AM CST
To: <ilovetivo>
Subject: Your inquiry to Senator Pamela J. Althoff regarding SB1155

Dear Julie:
Thank you for your inquiry regarding SB1155. This legislation was filed during the 94th General Assembly, and was done in relation to discussions about education funding reform and the General Assembly’s continual passage of unfunded mandates with no regard for their ultimate cost to school district who, as I’m sure you are aware, are already dealing with major funding limitations. SB1155 includes every unfunded mandate the General Assembly has passed over the past three year which we felt would stimulate discussion about education funding. Rest assured I have no intention of changing the epinephrine auto injector requirement. We just included all mandates trying not to create a sidebar conversation about which mandates were “good” and which were “excess expenditures”. I give you and all members of the association my word I will not move this legislation forward without addressing your concerns, and if you talk to any member of the General Assembly, they will tell you my word is a solid promise. I apologize for causing you concern, however, I am delighted by the responses for it affords me the opportunity to once again address the need to reform education funding and reduce the states over reliance on property taxes to educate our children.
Please feel free to contact me again regarding this issue and it you’d like, we can send you periodic updates so you can verify the lack of movement on this legislation. Again I thank you for your input and time.
Best regards,
Senator Pamela J. Althoff

[DrSally]

I cannot believe this, WTH!! I just filled out a survey for parent's with kids with food allergies. I think the investigators were based in Chicago. One of the questions was whether you are in favor of letting kids carry their own epipens in school. I didn't even know this was a issue since I don't have school age children.

[ilovetivo]

Please help physicians at Children's Memorial Hospital (in Chicago) learn more about food allergy and its impacts! Click on the link below to take our 15 minute survey for parents of children with food allergy.

Food Allergy Survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?s...UzfzPDmw_3d_3d <http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=JZkxlFQRpE4MSKUzfzPDmw_3d_3d>

**If you are unable to click on the link, please copy & paste it into your web browser.

[M&Mmom]

New member just found this discussion.

DD (3 y/o) allergic to all dairy(hives), egg(tested+), and peanut(tested +)

DS (9 1/2 months) tested negative to all except possible positive to peanut, however he has been on Alimentum since 1 month because he couldn't digest BM. We'll see.

FYI - we are taking DD to an acupuncturist for her allergies. The treatment is called NAET and there is lots of info about it if you google it. Don't know yet if it will work but supposedly it helps cure allergies. Also the MD thinks DD will outgrow milk and egg allergies but 2nd round of testing showed they had worsened so then we started acupuncture.

[ilovetivo]

Hi Deb - Welcome!!

You might want to check out www.kidswithfoodallergies.org

good luck w/ the allergies.

Are you seeing a ped allergist? I'm not a dr, but from my experience they only truly say someone is allergic by taking into account the skin & blood tests and history. So maybe they're not allergic to the items they only test + to (i'm assuming it's only 1 test your talking about).

Also, there is no "cure" for food allergies. Be wary of the accupuncture and naet for curing the FA's. There's no clinical data, that i know of, that shows any positive effects of them on food allergies. Other allergies/insensitivites maybe, but not true food allergies. If you use them, please only challenge the foods with an allergist present.

Food allergy numbers (blood test - rast) tend to rise before they fall (peak around age 3-4 i think). The size of the number doesn't indicate how serious an allergy is, only the likelihood of a reaction (any reaction, large or small). My other threads talk more abt this.

Again I'm not a dr. Just a mom w/ a lot of FA experience and research and wishing you the best.

[M&Mmom]

Thanks ilovetivo!

When I say tested positive I mean both the skin and blood test at the allergist. At 1 month DD had serious tummy problems and I decided to go off dairy. Pedi said that wouldn't help and to come back in a week when she was still miserable and they would do some tests. DD was a totally new child in 24 hours after I eliminated all dairy from my diet. Everything was fine (except my limited diet) until 9 months when I gave her yogurt and she broke out in hives. I don't remember why they didn't test her then but basically they said just avoid dairy. At 15 months we went to the pedi allergist and she tested positive to milk protein, egg (which she had eaten without reaction) and peanut (which she had not ever been exposed to) with both the skin and blood test. They said avoid these things and come back in a year. It's very difficult to avoid milk when around other kids but we do our best. At about 28 months we retested at the allergists and the numbers had increased and she also tested positive to corn but they said that we could continue to give her corn as she eats it all the time with no reaction. Now she is 36 months and we are still avoiding all dairy, egg and peanut.

More importantly, though, her reactions have been getting worse to the dairy. Now when I eat a piece of cheese and touch her she'll get a hive. It used to be she would only get the hives where the dairy touched but now it is starting to spread so she got hives all over her arm when dairy was placed on one spot by her wrist. This worries me to no end as we are starting preschool and I know other kids will be touching her after eating. The teachers can't be everywhere and even though they are aware they can't prevent everything. Even I can't prevent all contaminations. She hasn't had any breathing issues yet, thank goodness, but we do have the EpiPen's just in case. So I thought the acupuncture wouldn't hurt and may work. I will never ever give her peanut and will only challenge dairy and egg in a controlled environment next time we go to the allergist but I want to give it the best chance possible. KWIM?

DS was tested at ~6 months because DD has an egg allergy and they wanted to give him a flu shot and that is grown on egg white. He had a positive skin test to peanut and a negative blood test to peanut. Everything else the skin test was negative and they didn't blood test. They said just avoid peanut as the results were inconclusive (like I'm going to give an infant peanut butter anyway!). So far he has had no adverse reactions to anything but he has not yet had any dairy (on Alimentum hypoallergenic formula). He has eaten DD's soy yogurt without problems. We'll see.

Uh oh, DS woke up! Thanks again and I appreciate the advice and link!

[o_mom]

Bumping

[ett]

DS2 is 15 1/2 months and just tested positive on the skin test for eggs and dust mites. He's had bad eczema since 6 months old but skin and blood tests at 7 months tested negative for both eggs and dust mites and all the other top allergens.

[bubbaray]

Wow, this thread is old -- when I posted, we didn't know about DD#2's allergies.

DD#2 had an anaphylactic reaction to fish (salmon) at 11.5m. First time she had salmon. 1 firetruck, 2 ambulances (including an infant transport team), one ambulance ride to the hospital -- 1 diagnosis of fish anaphylaxis. 4 EpiPens. Scratch and RAST tested positive also to eggs (white & yolk), peanuts and very very mildly to almonds. Unlikely she will ever outgrow the fish anaphylaxis and we probably won't ever challenge on it, her reaction was so fast (30 seconds) and so severe (hives on hand/arm she touched the fish, hives on face & neck, swollen neck, face, lips and tongue). If her RAST values for egg come down next January, we challenge for that then. Peanuts we might around age 5.