Back to School with Food Allergies (Part 1) - What does the science tell us? on 7/29/2013 8:33 AM Category: Food Allergies; Managing Allergies This is the first post in an annual series regarding students going back to school with food allergies. For families or patients living with food allergies, going back to school can be a stressful time. Especially for those kids going to school for the first time, there can be a great deal of concern over preventing accidental ingestions and reactions. My goal as a physician and allergist is to help create an environment for my patients to live their lives in a healthy and prosperous manner. For children, that means helping them be kids without being defined as “the kid with food allergies”. Growing up is hard enough without feeling different than everyone else. Over the next few weeks I will be writing about different aspects about this issue and what you can do to protect yourself or your children. This week I want to focus on the science available that can help dictate our course of action. - Reactions occur at school and can be severe with certain conditions. However, their overall occurrence is still rare and there are no exact data on how often reactions occur in school. There is a growing trend of families choosing to home-school their food allergic children, but there is no data showing that this course of action reduces the risk of reaction. - The highest risk for any food-induced reaction stems from direct ingestion of the food. Severe reactions from contact or inhalation exposure to the allergen seem to be extremely low. In a study from Johns Hopkins, researchers failed to detect measurable quantities of peanut in air filters around the necks of volunteers who danced on peanut shells scattered on the floor of a poorly ventilated room. In the same study they found that peanut allergen was easily cleaned from hands and tabletops with common cleaning agents and did not appear to be widely distributed in preschools and schools. Contact with the allergen may lead to localized hives that will not result in a full body reaction in the overwhelming majority of food allergic individuals. Wiping down the skin area where there was contact with allergen often resolves the reaction. In summary, the greatest risk for a reaction at school or child care in a food-allergic child is from direct ingestion of the allergen and not from other routes of exposure. In the next blog post in this series I will focus on tips to help families practically manage their child’s food allergy in school. As always, you can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter for daily pollen counts, office information, patient education and more. If you enjoyed this post please “Like” us on Facebook and “Share” the article. Dr. Ananth Thyagarajan (Dr. T.)
Posted on: Fri, 02 Aug 2013 13:56:59 +0000
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