Commissioners urge food allergy research

The commissioners urged Congress and Pennsylvania's congressional delegation, including Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Johnstown, to increase the research funding.

Commissioner Bill Harris, reading the resolution, said the U.S. spends less than $10 million a year for allergy research while other health problems receive much higher allocations. Those outlays include $1.2 billion for diabetes and $107 million for attention deficit disorder, he said.

His office was asked by Allergy Moms, a group of mothers of children with food allergies, to seek the commissioners' support for increased funding.

Here is a link to the video

and article
Food Allergies Growing in the US, How Can You Stay Safe?

This week, she has some tips for a happy mothers day for food allergy mom’s. She wrote these for any mom of a child with special needs, and although I know some of us are reluctant to think of our food allergic child as having “special needs”, they do!

Here are my favorites from Terri’s Mother’s Day Wish List:

1. You know that material I’ve been asking you to read about our child’s disabilities, that stack about 500 pages high? Read it. Now. Really.

2. Do some research of your own for a change and bring me something I haven’t seen before. Then explain it to me.

7. Sit down with me for one hour to discuss decisions we have to make about our child’s behavior, treatment, schooling, and/or future. No TV watching, newspaper reading, or dozing allowed.

"As the U.S. leader in allergy-friendly AND gluten-free foods, we take very seriously our responsibility to our customers," says Scott Mandell, President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Enjoy Life Foods. "So we want to do everything in our power to ensure that what happened with that child doesn't happen again," he adds.

Although Enjoy Life Foods' labels and ingredient statements are fully compliant with FDA allergy labeling regulations (The Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA)), the parent apparently misinterpreted the "allergy-free" symbol on the front of its package and failed to read carefully the ingredient statement and package information to determine whether or not his child could eat the product safely.

So, the company redesigned the proprietary symbol on the front of its packages to be even more explicit and to minimize the risk of any potential confusion on the part of its consumers. The old symbol said "allergy-free" and "free of all common allergens." The new, strengthened symbol says "allergy-friendly" and "free of the eight common allergens." In both cases, the packaging directs consumers to read the side or back panel where it is clearly indicated what the product does and does not contain and that it is made in a dedicated nut- and gluten-free facility.

Enjoy Life Foods has partnered with AllergyMoms.com and the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) - as part of Food Allergy Awareness Week (May 11-17) — to urge people with food allergies and other special dietary needs to use extra caution when making food purchases. Food Allergy Awareness Week was created in 1997 by FAAN to raise awareness of food allergies and their consequences.

"Reading ingredient labels and avoiding certain foods is the cornerstone of managing food allergies," says Anne Muñoz-Furlong, Founder and CEO of FAAN. "We applaud companies like Enjoy Life Foods who take a proactive approach in making ingredients easy to read for the 12 million Americans who have food allergies."

"Most experienced parents of kids with food allergies know the importance of reading ingredient statements carefully," says Gina Clowes, founder of the popular AllergyMoms.com blog. "But as more and more kids are diagnosed with food allergies, less experienced parents may think a term like 'allergy-free' is enough," she adds.

So Clowes suggests the following tips for consumers buying allergy-friendly products:

· Have an unbreakable rule: no label = no thank you. Never eat a food that does not have a label.

· Always carefully read ingredient statements. Different versions of the same food can have different ingredients (for example, chewy Spree candy contains egg white while original Spree does not).

· Know that different sizes of the same foods can contain different ingredients. (For example, some "mini" versions of Laffy Taffy do not contain egg, but the large size does contain egg.)

· Don't rely on common sense to determine if foods are safe. Tuna and flavored water can contain dairy, egg rolls and chili can contain peanut butter, licorice and soy sauce can contain wheat, and the list goes on.

· Take all precautionary warnings seriously. Manufacturers use different statements to warn consumers like "may contain" or "processed in a facility with." However, the language used does not indicate the level of risk.

· Know that precautionary warnings are voluntary. If a product does not have a warning, it does not mean that the product is free of cross contamination. When in doubt, call the company to find out where and how the product was processed.

· Don't play ingredient roulette. Even if you or your child once ate a product with a warning, that does not mean the next batch will be safe.

· Beware of hidden allergens. Potent allergens like sesame and mustard can hide behind the words "natural flavors" or "spices."

· Know where the food is made. Seek out products that say they are made in a “dedicated peanut-free, nut-free, soy-free or allergy-free facility,” depending on your diet restriction. This provides even further assurance of the food’s safety.

Enjoy Life Foods currently has 21 delicious products including allergy-friendly AND gluten-free soft-baked cookies, snack bars, granola, trail mixes, bagels and semi-sweet chocolate chips. All Enjoy Life products are free of the eight most common allergens[1][1] and made in a dedicated nut- and gluten-free bakery. They are also certified gluten-free (by the Gluten-Free Certification Organization), and are all-natural, trans fat-free and Kosher. More than 80 percent of Enjoy Life's products are vegan with the exception of three products[2][2] that are vegetarian because they contain honey.

I did end up going back after my first son was born, albeit part-time. I had a terrific job, an adorable son, excellent childcare (Grandma) and a meticulously clean house. After a few years, my husband and I felt another child would complete our family. Since moms are often more relaxed and experience the second time around, I looked forward to an easy time where I'd do an even better job as a parent now that I knew the ropes. I'm sure that somebody up there somewhere got a chuckle out of our assumption that we could improve on the perfection of the first.

After my second son was born, the option of returning to work immediately evaporated, and so did the option of sleeping more than three consecutive hours. My newborn son - who was supposed to be the "easy" one — was covered with head-to-toe hives on his second day of life and those hives stayed with him for years. The pediatrician joked that he had a "face that only a mother could love." When we brought him home from the hospital, he also had terrible acid reflux and we could not lay him down for fear that he would choke on his vomit. It was frightening, and there was no parenting book or motherly advice that was going to make it go away. We changed his diaper for 2 ½ years with his head propped up on pillows.

His first year of life was a whirlwind of acid reflux, eczema, hives, ear infections and lack of sleep. The pediatrician said he'd grow out of the acid reflux. She told me to count how many times he spit up in a day. I stopped counting after eight times in 30 minutes. For his first 15 months, I slept sitting against the headboard of my bed with my son lying face down on my chest.

Confirming a Food Allergy Diagnosis
Every chance I got, I'd jump online to earn a few more credits toward my Google MD. I learned words like atopic dermatitis and urticaria and immunoglobulin E (IgE). After discussing this with my real doctor, she suggested I avoid dairy, then soy, then egg, then wheat, but still things were not better. Of course I was eating peanut butter rice cakes and munching on pistachios for protein. We did allergy skin testing and it was negative. (I later learned that infant skin sometimes does not contain enough mast cells to show a reaction.)

After numerous doctor appointments and conflicting diagnoses, we packed up our family and drove nine hours to New York City to the Jaffe Food Allergy Clinic at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. There, we were able to see one of the leading pediatric allergists in the country. I was hoping he would tell me I was just an anxious mom. But instead he confirmed that our son had over a dozen food allergies, some life threatening. He told us our son should never be without epinephrine.

That was the beginning.

The doctor explained that since I was breastfeeding, I had to avoid all the foods to which he was allergic, including milk, wheat, egg, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, garlic, banana and more. It wasn't easy, but unlike any reducing diet I'd ever gone on (and gone right back off), this one was for my son. Cheating on the diet was not an option.

The good news is that I fit into my jeans from college. The bad news is that I was so cranky, tired and miserable that no one wanted to be around me.

It was very difficult to go to parties or bunko or even out to dinner. I avoided so many foods that I'd really long for what others were eating. I knew that I was only on the diet for a limited time (six months), while my son would be on this diet indefinitely. It was only the first glimpse at how challenging his life would become.

Support From Friends and Family
As we shared the news of my son's food allergies with friends and family, we naively assumed that they would rush to learn as much as possible and do whatever they could to accommodate him. Many pleasantly surprised us, but others never really learned enough to gain our confidence.

The pressure and stress that this invisible condition creates can affect everyone in the family. It is so important to get support from family and friends but also from other allergy moms and dads. There is a comradery there and an understanding that those outside the "allergy world" will never get. The exclusion and isolation that can occur is often just as difficult as managing the special foods and the potential for anaphylaxis.

Any mom can tell you that there is no greater pain in life than seeing your child hurt, physically or emotionally. Yet sometimes getting roughed up a little in life brings out the best in us and our kids too. We empathize with our son, but we teach him that food allergies won't stop him from being every thing he was meant to be.