Food Challenges

Did you get to see Nightline last week when they featured food allergies and food challenges?

It's a heart-wrenching story about a 5-year-old who has been fed through a feeding tube for the past 2 years since he seemed to be allergic to everything. The piece implies that food challenges offer a new way to control food allergies, which is a mis-leading portrayl. Hopefully people will read the article and watch the video to understand what a food challenge is, and what it isn't.

We're visiting the allergiest Friday for an egg challenge. We haven't done a food challenge in over 5 years. There are many emotions associated with a food challenge-excitement in possibly being able to introduce a new food, fear that something will go wrong, anxiety about the process...

I'm making scrambled eggs and french toast to take to the office. My son has really been looking forward to eating french toast and I've been stumped over how to make it egg-free. Anyway, on Friday, he'll at least get one tiny bite of it. My hope is that he'll be able to eat the whole thing and then come home for a towering plate of golden, crisply-fried, cinnamon-sugar french toast.

Whoops! I just drooled on my keyboard.

4 comments:

Nowheymama said...

I hope everything goes well, whatever the outcome.

Sabrina K. said...

Good luck!

We're hoping to get to do a milk trial in about 18 months. It's exciting, scary, and overwhelming and it's a year and a half away!

Unknown said...

Little guy woke up with a sore throat and runny nose this morning. I called the allergist and they said we should re-schedule tomorrow's egg challenge- darn! I guess I'll wait until summer vacation so he doesn't miss any school.

Sabrina and Nowheymama- have either of you had experience with food challenges and older kids?

I found my son to be so anxious about this challenge because he really gets what it is. I had to reassure him that he wouldn't die when he tried some egg in the allergist's office and admit that he might get a shot of epinepherine while there. Difficult stuff for a kid.

Any words of wisdom or other experiences?

kidsfoodallergiesblog.com said...

Good luck with your egg challenge -- whenever it happens. My daughter passed her in-office egg challenge this summer, and then reacted to french toast the next day. The thinking was the office challenge was slow, the home challenge was more egg more quickly. For what it's worth...