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Two new peanut allergy treatments are on the verge of approval

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Re: Two new peanut allergy treatments are on the verge of approval

#11

Post by Clanan »

nostromo wrote: post #4
Clanan wrote: post #2

As the parent of a child with a severe, life-threatening peanut allergy, these treatments could be a Godsend. It's hard to describe the life change that occurs when a normal food like peanuts suddenly becomes a disguised killer that could take my child away at any moment. The speed with which it strikes is stunning; according to our allergist, we have only minutes to administer EpiPens to avoid the runaway anaphylact…

While I appreciate your concern and caution, I feel like the medical community has worked the public into a bit of hysteria over peanut allergies. So few people die from peanut allergies each year it's hard to actually get good numbers on the phenomenon. And yet I have several friends who report having someone deathly allergic to peanuts in their family. It seems incongruent.

It's certainly a confusing subject, especially now that more attention is being paid to it. We've had our share of acquaintances comment that their kids are also allergic because one time they ate something with a peanut and had an itch later that day. In our case there's immediate throat/tongue swelling so it's an obvious one.

In all seriousness, the best bet for concerned people is to see the doc and get tested. Our kid's reaction to the prick test was ~10x the normal "allergy" reaction - the doc immediately stopped the test and gave him medicine. (As mentioned elsewhere, kids do grow out of the allergy so it's important to retest!)

According to our allergist, the problem with peanut allergies in particular is that the reaction can vary dramatically for the same person. Ingesting it one time may cause nothing but hives, whereas another will result in throat constriction within minutes. Cue the news stories where people with seemingly minor allergies are suddenly in the hospital. For example, recently a girl in CA with a known allergy took a bite of a peanut butter brownie and then spit it out. Her parent, who was a doctor, waited 20 min to administer the EpiPen. She died.

(Disclaimer: not a doctor, probably didn't remember everything right, etc.)

Re: Two new peanut allergy treatments are on the verge of approval

#13

Post by stevetodd »

raverbashing wrote: post #12

And the best prevention is giving small kids peanut based foods But since some genius thought the best course of action was not exposing kids to it, we have the present situation (especially in the US)

According to my pediatrician, research shows that exposing children to peanuts earlier decreases the likelihood of a child developing a peanut allergy.

Re: Two new peanut allergy treatments are on the verge of approval

#14

Post by pacaro »

nostromo wrote: post #4
Clanan wrote: post #2

As the parent of a child with a severe, life-threatening peanut allergy, these treatments could be a Godsend. It's hard to describe the life change that occurs when a normal food like peanuts suddenly becomes a disguised killer that could take my child away at any moment. The speed with which it strikes is stunning; according to our allergist, we have only minutes to administer EpiPens to avoid the runaway anaphylact…

While I appreciate your concern and caution, I feel like the medical community has worked the public into a bit of hysteria over peanut allergies. So few people die from peanut allergies each year it's hard to actually get good numbers on the phenomenon. And yet I have several friends who report having someone deathly allergic to peanuts in their family. It seems incongruent.

I understand your position. But (there's always a "but") I have a friend whose kid is severely allergic, their daycare didn't take it particularly seriously(!), for reasons similar to yours. So of course one day there is a PBJ near the kid, he has a crazy reaction, the staff call the parents "we're afraid to use the epipen" at which point the mom hangs up and calls 911 herself, invoke FMLA and has to hightail to the ER

Re: Two new peanut allergy treatments are on the verge of approval

#15

Post by bjt »

My niece underwent a similar treatment the past few years, but just using trace amounts of actual peanuts and then building up to larger quantities. As far as I know, there was no commercially-produced patch or capsule involved. My sister in law blogged about it here: http://girlvspeanut.blogspot.com/

Re: Two new peanut allergy treatments are on the verge of approval

#19

Post by chris_st »

RijilV wrote: post #9

Last year I learned that 20% of adults who were diagnosed with a peanut allergy outgrow it after childhood. It is worth getting tested again if you grew up with a peanut allergy. I had signed up for a trial of one of these drugs. Having grown up in the 80s with a severe peanut allergy that required the use of the epipen more than a few times I was keen for anything that could help, even just something that would less…

On the other (anecdata) hand, my wife has been severely allergic to peanuts for decades, and still is... she can tell if someone is eating peanuts nearby.

Re: Two new peanut allergy treatments are on the verge of approval

#20

Post by ljf »

skbohra123 wrote: post #16

Never heard about peanut allergy here in India, looks like a first world problem.

Quite likely - some of the more recent thinking is that it is linked to a loss of gut bacteria - which makes sense for our case as our boy had antibiotics young, and first reacted to nuts at 4 months.
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