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...families like the Fradins, however, knowing the why of food allergies is less important than knowing whether their children will be affected - and how. (Noah has a brother who has no food allergies.) Because allergic reactions to food can vary, even within the same person, allergists often shrug when it comes to advising parents about forecasting anything about their child's next reaction. "We really have no test that can tell us who is apt to have a severe, life-threatening reaction and who is more like the vast majority who will never have that kind of reaction," says...
Even the act of diagnosing allergies has become a source of confusion. Increasing reliance in recent years on a blood-based test instead of the classic skin-prick screening means that not just allergists but also pediatricians can find out if children are carrying IgE antibodies for certain foods. But some positive tests may be false alarms that lead families to spend a lot of energy avoiding common foods that their kids can actually tolerate...
Given the uncertainty in the medical world, it's easy to understand the frenzy outside the doctor's office. Too often parents of newly diagnosed children aren't given enough information about when and even how to inject the lifesaving epinephrine. "Our allergist said, 'Here you go. Here's a prescription and see you in a year,' " says Dena Friedel, an Ohio mom whose daughter was diagnosed with a peanut allergy when she was 2. When her daughter had a reaction several months later, Friedel didn't know when to use the syringe and called 911 instead. The EMT told...
...shutting down when aggravated. Contact - in kissing, for example - through mucous membranes can also heighten the chances of an attack. For the most part, touching a food allergen is not a problem unless you then rub your eyes or stick your fingers into your mouth - both of which young children are fond of doing. Even so, parents' worries about the mere possibility of inhaling peanut dust prompted airlines to stop serving the popular flight snack. There has been no such treatment for passengers with milk or egg allergies, which are more common but also more likely to be outgrown. Moreover...
Still, very few people with a peanut allergy die from it. In fact, a 2003 study led by Dr. Scott Sicherer, a Mount Sinai pediatrician, showed that 90% of peanut-allergic children who got peanut butter on their skin developed nothing more than a red rash; none developed a systemic reaction in which their airways swelled up. The same went for smelling peanuts. Thirty peanut-allergic children were asked to sniff peanut butter and a placebo paste for 10 minutes each, and none developed a reaction to the peanut butter. Only one child had difficulty breathing - and that was after...