Kids Food Allergies Blog

In today’s New York Times — there is an article about a scientist who is recruiting clinical trial patients for an experimental treatment for curing allergies and asthma.  I’m always interested in possible cures for allergies and asthma — but this is one trial I’m not rushing to sign up for.  How does it work?

A dressing crawling with pin-size hookworm larvae is applied to the arm for several days to make sure that the squirming freeloaders infiltrate the patient’s system.   Huh?  What does that have to do with allergies?  According to the scientist behind the study, Dr. Pritchard (immunologist-biologist at the University of Nottingham), an allergic reaction is triggered when the worms infiltrate the patient’s skin.  Pritchard asserts that “the worms have found a way of switching off the immune system in order to survive.  That’s why infected people have fewer allergic symptoms.”  Initial tests of his theory have been positive.

(T)he National Health Services ethics committee let him conduct a study in 2006 with 30 participants, 15 of whom received 10 hookworms each. Tests showed that after six weeks, the T-cells of the 15 worm recipients began to produce lower levels of chemicals associated with inflammatory response, indicating that their immune systems were more suppressed than those of the 15 placebo recipients. Despite playing host to small numbers of parasites, worm recipients reported little discomfort.   Trial participants raved about their allergy symptoms disappearing …Some allergy sufferers cannot wait (for a larger-scale version of the initial trial). The moderator of the Yahoo group, Jasper Lawrence, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, has started a clinic in Mexico, to offer the unproven therapy (a basic worm “inoculation” costs $3,900).

Even if this is the safest, most successful treatment on the planet — can you imagine telling an allergic child that you are going to put crawling worms all over their skin?  And doing it?  I have gone to great lengths to tell my child that having allergies is not her fault — nothing that she is being punished for.  This cure seems contrary to my teachings.  Seems like more of a CBS Survivor Challenge than a medical cure.   I’m not even sure that this trial applies to food allergies or to kids.  Even if it does and it goes mainstream — we’ll be running the other way.  And fast.  And with my luck, my kid’s allergic to worms too.

I am getting really stressed that my unborn baby is going to be even more allergic than my firstborn.  But getting myself all worked up may end up contributing to the problem.  According to a new study (hat tip ModernAllergyMom), stress may also increase my unborn baby’s risk for allergies and asthma later in life.

I found ModernAllergyMom’s story lending credence to this theory very interesting but slightly disheartening, given my situation. But I contrast her story with that of a friend whose children attend my daughter’s preschool . Her firstborn is her most allergic. Her middle child is less allergic than her first. And her youngest (who just turned two a few weeks ago) has tested completely allergy-free.

I just don’t know how this is going to turn out. But I guess I really shouldn’t stress about it.

Either I’ve gotten away with something pretty big … or the joke is about to be on me.

March has come and gone. Most families across the Washington region are celebrating the coming of spring. Trees are blooming across my neighborhood. The Cherry Blossoms are here, and boy are they beautiful. The weather getting is nicer, and it’s great to get outside again.

Did I miss something? What happened to spring allergy season? Last March was one of the roughest months I have ever had. Like many other food allergic children, my daughter also has seasonal allergies. What we learned last year is that, left untreated, those allergies can trigger breathing difficulties and even asthma. Last March, we missed the entire month of school with a seemingly endless cycle — swollen eyes, cough, croup, stridor, wheezing, lung infection, repeat. The pollen counts were so bad last year, that I was told she couldn’t play outside for pretty much all of March. I developed an obsession with checking pollen counts online, and dreaming of places we could move where we could play outside again. So this year, we armed ourselves with preventative medicine prescribed by our allergist (we love Zyrtec and Singulair) and by Dr. Mom (who prepared herself for the equivalent of a nuclear winter with toys and indoor activities/games to last all of March). But allergy season has been kind to us this year. We haven’t reached for her rescue inhaler once. Nor has she missed a day of school. But, I’m not getting rid of my secret stash just yet. Who knows what April will bring.