IgE antibodies

New guidelines were issued this week concerning diagnosing and treating food allergies in children. Childhood food allergies are on the rise with 4% of children appearing to have them. If a child has eczema, it is recommended that his/her blood is tested for IgE antibodies against the common culprits and then further confirmed with skin prick tests. Both of my grandsons seem to have these allergies to peanuts, treenuts, and eggs (I forget who has what allergies..must keep all those foods away from them). These tests however cast a wide net  (lots of false positives) and now they're recommending food challenge tests to pinpoint what the child really is allergic to. Shanna has an epi pen on hand if somehow the kids ingest allergens accidentally. She was very careful to introduce new foods gradually yet her kids have these sensitivities. I wasn't nearly as careful as her. I have Shanna sucking on a bagel at 5 months (eggs?wheat?). If Steve's mother is correct, he seemed to be downing hamburgers at a month (I guess moms in those days had competitions to see what foods they could get their very young babies to eat).

Why all this sensitivity? I actually was surprised at the 4% rate as it seems higher to me or just my relatives have a lot of food allergies. None of my children have food allergies. Josh and Shanna have seasonal hay fever and Shanna reacts to certain pet dander such as rabbits, guinea pigs and some cats. Are all these new immunizations causing their little bodies to react to everything? Steve and I have none of this though certain cats make me sneeze. I do over react to poison ivy and sulfonamides.

Elizabeth Edwards died of BC yesterday. BC spares no one no matter how much else she had to deal with. It made me sad.

The annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium just started. I hope some useful research is revealed soon.

Although it was cold today, it wasn't too windy and the roads were dry so I did get a nice run in though sometimes I really have to prod myself to get out there.

My Cancer Cooking class is tonight.