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Peanut Allergy Treatments Continue to Advance

Amazing how far peanut allergy oral immunotherapy and other severe food allergy treatments have come in the 13 years since Bo was first diagnosed with a severe peanut allergy and was enrolled in a groundbreaking treatment and study program at Arkansas Children's hospital as patient #2!

Bo has lived a normal life since completing his oral immunotherapy program at age 10 by successfully passing a food challenge. In fact, in the last year of the 5 year study he was eating 34 peanut butter M&Ms everyday to build and maintain his desensitization to peanuts.

Sounds cool to eat candy to cure a deadly peanut allergy but not an easy thing to do to eat that much every day for such a long period of time. But in the end all the time and effort were worth his life changing success!

 

FDA Approves First Drug for Treatment of Peanut Allergy for Children

Today the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Palforzia [Peanut (Arachis hypogaea) Allergen Powder-dnfp] to mitigate allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, that may occur with accidental exposure to peanuts. Treatment with Palforzia may be initiated in individuals ages 4 through 17 years with a confirmed diagnosis of peanut allergy and may be continued in individuals 4 years of age and older. Those who take Palforzia must continue to avoid peanuts in their diets.

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Bo was recently interviewed by Jennifer Gregory for an article titled "A Tough Nut to Crack: Peanut Allergies Are Expanding Exponentially, But So, Too, Are The Treatments".

Bo was recently interviewed by Jennifer Gregory for an article titled "A Tough Nut to Crack: Peanut Allergies Are Expanding Exponentially, But So, Too, Are The Treatments".

Use the link below to learn more about the growing options for peanut allergy desensitization and treatments and their successes.


USA TODAY Article Has Bo's Peanut Allergy Update

A new USA TODAY article entitled "New strategies help build immunity against food allergies" includes quotes from Bo's mom Betsy and provides an update on his peanut allergy desensitization treatment noting that "He's now consuming a daily dose of peanut flour equivalent to 15 peanuts. On May 4, he'll be 'converted' from peanut flour to real food containing peanuts."

The article covers the success of several emerging food allergy treatments including: oral immunotherapy, sublingual therapy, and food allergy herbal therapy-2 (known as FAHF-2). We want to personally thank USA TODAY Medical Reporter Rita Rubin for her tireless research that resulted in one of the most thorough and accurate articles about these emerging food allergy treatments that we have seen and yet it's still easy to read.

USA TODAY article "New strategies help build immunity against food allergies" by Medical Reporter Rita Rubin.

YouTube Video: Coping With Food Allergy

We received a request on behalf of Johnson and Johnson to make people aware that they have a Health Channel on YouTube and one of their videos is about parents of children with food allergies, and an allergy specialist discussing coping strategies. The video can be viewed using this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apje3PcawNA&feature=channel_page

As always, we want to thank our readers for all their prayers, great comments and e-mails.

Sincerely,

Bo's Parents
www.askaboutmypeanutallergy.com


Article on Divvies Allergy Safe Foods

I am a happy customer of Divvies, a food allergy friendly company that sells cookies, cupcakes, candy, popcorn and gift-packs that are free of peanuts, tree nuts, eggs and milk. I highly recommend their chocolate chip and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and circus sized gumballs! So it was neat to learn more about the Divvies company from the 12/6/07 New York Times article below, written by Katie Zezima.
Turning Kitchens Into Laboratories to Find Treats for the Allergy-Prone