Bo's Peanut Allergy Study Update
March 26, 2009
Bo has now been participating in a peanut allergy desensitization treatment study at Arkansas Children's Hospital for the past two years. The amount of peanut flour that Bo is now eating every day, without an allergic reaction, is equivalent to the protein found in 10 1/2 peanuts.
Peanut Desensitization Treatment Phase II
We are so excited because our treatment travel schedule is about to improve dramatically. After next weeks visit, we don't go back to Little Rock for 30 days. These 30 days represent the highest daily dosage of peanut flour used in the peanut allergy desensitization treatment study. At the end of the 30 days, we return to Little Rock so Bo can undergo a food challenge requiring him to eat increasing amounts of real peanuts throughout the day while on an IV under Doctor supervision. If he passes that all day challenge, he enters the phase of the treatment study that relies on the kids eating actual peanuts or peanut butter every day, instead of peanut flour, to maintain their peanut allergy desensitization. During this treatment phase of eating actual peanuts every day, we only have to return to Arkansas Children's Hospital once every 4 months, instead of every other week. That will be like getting a raise to the family budget and a lot of personal time back by eliminating 4 travel days every month!
Returning to a Sense of Normalcy
In the past month we have felt confident enough in Bo's peanut allergy treatment that we have begun to reintroduce some activities that had become too risky after we realized Bo had a severe peanut allergy a few years ago. Examples of normalcy that Bo's successful peanut desensitization treatment has afforded us include the following recent activities:
- After 50+ stays, Bo has now eaten breakfast twice at the Little Rock hotel restaurant
- Bo has eaten Krispy Kreme doughnuts recently from several different locations
- Bo was allowed to participate in an overnight camping trip with his scout pack and dad aboard the U.S.S. Alabama battleship in Mobile (Exploring this historic war ship was very cool and we all gained an even deeper appreciation of the sacrifices made by all of the outstanding U.S. service men and women of our military, to ensure our freedom. May God bless them, their families and the U.S.A.!)
After the recent media reports of the success of peanut allergy desensitization treatments like Bo's in the last few weeks, we received a lot of e-mails, comments and media inquiries. It made us realize that some people are not noticing the new navigation links at the top of our site to other sections of our blog, such as, FAQ, Peanut Safe Foods, Food Allergy Letters, Food Allergy Products and Archives of our past blog posts (organized by date and topic). HINT!
As always, we want to thank our readers for all the great comments and e-mails.
Sincerely,
Bo's Parents
www.askaboutmypeanutallergy.com
I am so inspired by your blog updates! My little guy (well, not qute so little anymore!) is 8 years old and I have been watching these types of treatments intently. Thank you for keeping us informed!
Posted by: Christina Henry | April 07, 2009 at 11:54 AM
Hi there, great blog. I am 33 years old with a peanut allergy, and your story gives me faith that some day I will also be allergy free. Thank you so much for all that that your family has done. Bo, you are very brave and you are doing a lot of good for a lot of people.
Posted by: Dave | April 04, 2009 at 08:18 PM
Hi there! It sounds as if you are handling al this quite well.
I am a 41 year old with severe allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, soy and shellfish. As you describe in an earlier post, I always avoided peanuts and nuts and only discovered my severe allergy to peanuts at seven when some was forced into my mouth. While it is great that if the treatment works and you can relax a bit, I suggest you keep listening to that inner voice which says "Don't eat that."
Friends call this my spider sense and it really works for me. My allergist thinks that some of us can smell small amounts of things we are allergic too and that this helps protect us - if we pay attention. Keep paying attention, even if things seem okay, just in case. This has helped warn me of new allergies (e.g. shellfish) before I had a major problem.
Posted by: Ann McDowall | March 27, 2009 at 11:19 PM