A possible cure for milk allergies? Meet Brett....

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Comment by Sue on August 31, 2009 at 8:19pm

Hi Sarah. Actually there are some other newer studies going on. The most well known are the ones above, but the newest are with the allergen baked into foods. I know these are being done with milk. They are giving kids food with milk cooked to different degrees - different temperatures and different lengths of time to see what they can tolerate (the path is muffin, pizza, rice pudding then unheated milk). If a child can eat the muffin and not the pizza they will then eat the muffin for a certain period of time at home and then be tested again with the pizza and continue on. The purpose is to see if kids get to a point where they can tolerate milk in a baked form and how this effects their ability to outgrow the allergy. Mount Sinai in NYC is currently doing two studies with this. From what I have heard the first study has shown promising results. But like Janeen said we are very far from seeing a cure or even a real treatment plan (other than avoidance). I do get "excited" though to hear about these studies and it makes me hopeful that so much energy is being put into food allergies.

Comment by Janeen on August 31, 2009 at 6:54pm

Right now the only studies that I know of are the type that Brett is doing and those are mostly with milk or peanut. These studies give the children very small doses of the allergen until they have a reaction, then they go back to the dose before the reaction occured and stick with that for a period of time and see if they can desensitize the children.
The most famous one is at Duke and being conducted by Dr. Wesley Burks and you can find out more about it here. Unfortunately, these are only studies at this time and although some kids are showing positive results they are not the "cures" the media is portraying them to be. Although I do hope they are some day.
No shot as of yet either. Only shots are for environmental allergies and those do work for most people, but not all.

Comment by Sarah on August 30, 2009 at 3:22pm

"A cure for food allergies is my one of my greates wishes."

You would think that there could be a medication you could take daily, or a shot or something, that would prevent our bodies from reacting poorly to certain foods in our system. Kinda like a flu shot or something - get a little dose of the allergen until your body stops reacting. I'm sure that there are all sorts of studies being done on a type of vaccination, but I don't know a lot about allergies and their reactions, so I'd love to hear any sort of studies if you know!

Comment by Janeen on August 29, 2009 at 8:07am

So sorry about the school. I at least got to meet the NEW teacher a week before school. Yes, the school stress starts a whole year before they go. Good luck during this next year and if you need a shoulder I'm here for you.

This video is great and I cried through the whole thing. Brett reminds me of my son. I'll be interested in following this and seeing how he does. Yes, the studies give me hope and I'm thankful for parents and children who do them:)

Comment by Sue on August 28, 2009 at 8:56pm

I liked this video. I'll be following his study. Did I tell you Kayla's public school said I won't be able to meet with her teacher until 2 days before school starts? And that was AFTER telling me in first grade they have a WORKING snack. Um...yeah...NOT! My headaches are starting now for next year. These studies make me hopeful.