Dr. Windom attended the American College of Allergy Asthma & Immunology annual meeting in Houston in November. He lectured on ‘Food Oral Immunotherapy (OIT) in Clinical Practice’ to the Association of Allergists of Indian-Origin. Many in the audience expressed interest in offering this life-changing therapy to their patients based on the aspirational words of Dr. Windom. The results of our first 180 peanut allergy patients treated with OIT, compiled with the help of pre-med student Lara Gasich, were presented as a poster at the national meeting.

This month Dr. Fergeson led our emergency room training review. During these sessions our physicians, nurses and office staff discuss how to safely and efficiently manage a patient who is having an allergic reaction. We also had the opportunity to review our airway and IV placement skills, as well as apply these skills in our mock patient clinical scenarios. We are constantly learning here at Windom Allergy and always strive to provide the best care to our patients.

Halloween is just around the corner! For all of our ghouls and goblins living with food allergy and/or receiving oral immunotherapy (OIT), we’ve conjured up a few tips for a safe and enjoyable Halloween: For those receiving food OIT, please be mindful of the 2-hour rest period after your dose and avoid dosing after 8 PM. If this is not possible, it is fine to skip your dose that day and resume normal dosing the following day.Don’t let your food-allergic child trick-or-treat alone, and always make sure they carry their autoinjectable epinephrine with them.Verify that adults or friends with your child understand his...

October is Eczema Awareness Month! Eczema is also referred to as atopic dermatitis. This skin condition can affect children and adults and may be associated with other allergic conditions including food allergies, hay fever, and asthma. In eczema, the skin is very dry and may lead to an itchy, red rash on the face in infants and typically in the creases of the arms and knees in children and adults.  Moisturizing the skin routinely is essential. For those struggling with eczema, topical medications and other new treatments are available.  Please feel free to make an appointment for an evaluation with one...

Because of the amazing success of food oral immunotherapy (OIT) at Windom Allergy and other clinics around the world, a pharmaceutical company is close to having their peanut capsule, Palforzia, approved by the FDA.  Obtaining FDA approval for the same OIT protocol we’ve been using for years, legitimizes this life changing therapy for all of those doctors and patients who felt the need for this ultimate FDA stamp before pursuing peanut desensitization. Yes, the commercial capsule has been checked for purity and full peanut composition, a requirement to make peanut a drug, but we remain comfortable using regular peanuts to desensitize our patients...

Guess what???Dr. Ly made a youtube video that is silly and fun for her food allergy kiddos! Please watch as Dr. Ly explains food allergies to kids with the help of science and toys! Learn about allergy soldiers and how they cause food allergies. Most importantly, you will learn how to make yourself feel better if you have an allergic reaction. If you like the video please share the message and help other food allergy families! A special thanks to Jim McCampbell who edited the video and added the sound effects! You made the video so fun friend!

Windom Allergy, and Sarasota in general, is very fortunate to have Dr. Tara Saco in our presence! Dr. Saco spent a portion of her Allergy/Immunology medical training with the nation’s leading drug allergy ‘guru’, Dr. Mariana Castells at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, learning cutting edge methods of helping patients with reactions to chemotherapy drugs and the many new biologic agents (the ones you see on all the commercials).  Dr. Saco has been seeing patients with us since early July and would be happy to help solve your allergies at an appointment soon!  

We said goodbye to two patients from the UK and one from Trinidad this week! We wish them the very best as they return home, safely eating small amounts of peanut and cashew.  These kids came over with their parents for 5-6 weeks in Sarasota to start the oral immunotherapy (OIT) process for their severe food allergy. They will continue daily OIT dosing in their home country until they can return to the Florida gulf coast to complete ‘updosing’ to our goal of three nuts daily. We loved spending time with Michael, Rosa, and River! Thinking about coming to see us...

The less hectic pace of summer could be just the right time to consider taking a definitive step to control your allergies.  If you have allergic asthma, runny nose/hay fever, or sinus problems, you probably have a medicine cabinet full of antihistamines, inhalers, and nose sprays to help you limp through the various allergy seasons.  Is there a better answer?  Yes, there is, and it’s called desensitization. Allergen desensitization has been around for over 100 years, often referred to as allergen immunotherapy or allergy shots.  This remains the most effective way to ‘turn off’ your airborne allergies.  Another option, for those...

But also shop with a healthy dose of common sense and evidence based advice! Common Misconceptions: Risk of contamination can be stratified based on the Precautionary Allergy Labeling (PAL) terminology used, such as “made in a facility” or “shared lines”. FALSE! The exact PAL term on the food label CANNOT be used to stratify riskOnce a food with PAL is tolerated, it is always safe to eat. There may be batch-to-batch differences in the level of contamination of the same productRisk of contamination is the same for all foods. Food at the highest risk of contamination are thought to include chocolate...