We just said goodbye to our 8 year-old milk allergic Australian who came to Sarasota for milk oral immunotherapy (OIT). She has returned to Brisbane drinking a small amount of milk daily. On the research front, Dr. Panida Sriaroon from All Children’s Hospital in St. Pete presented a poster of our first 72 peanut OIT patients in California at Stanford’s Gordon Research Conference. Dr. Shiaroon spent several days in Sarasota combing our records to prepare her awesome scientific presentation.

Holiday treats.  Volunteer to provide the allergen free snacks for holiday parties at school or provide the teacher with a box of allergen free snacks for your child so they don’t feel left out. Letting guests know.  Inform your guests that your child has a food allergy. Instead of food, guests may consider bringing holiday themed plates, cups or napkins. Planning ahead.  Let your host know that you or your child has a food allergy. Offer to bring allergen free foods for you and others to enjoy. Food labels.  If you are the host of a holiday feast, keep the...

The doctors and staff at  Windom Allergy  and the  Food Allergy Center of FL  send their prayers to the Alabama family who recently lost their 3 year old son from an allergic reaction to milk.  The adorable little boy was being tested at a children’s hospital in AL for sensitivity to milk contained in a baked muffin.  This is the first ever reported fatal reaction to a food challenge test.  As allergists we have always known of the seriousness of food allergy and this tragic event should make everyone aware.

Based primarily on the results of the 2015 UK study LEAP ( Learning Early About Peanut Allergy) , national guidelines have been released from the NIH and international allergy organizations that recommend introducing peanut in the diet between 4-9 months of age to foster tolerance; once eczema starts food allergy is soon to follow, therefore if the baby has not introduced peanut when eczema begins, a simple skin test or blood test to peanut should be done to make sure they haven’t become allergic and as such would react upon consuming peanut. If the test is negative, peanut feedings can...

Food Allergy? Oral immunotherapy (OIT) safely allows allergic children and adults to no longer live in fear of their food allergy. Since the 1990’s a great deal of research has been conducted in the area of food desensitization. While the exact protocol differs from country to country, the general theme is very consistent: take a highly allergic child or adult, give them a VERY low dose of the offending food by mouth, have them stay on it 1-2 times a day, come back to the clinic for an increase in the dose, stay on that dose at home for a...

Sarasota Clinical Research at Windom Allergy is participating in a national peanut allergy trial.  People with peanut allergy can now enroll in this exciting study by calling Sally at 941-927-4888.  A peanut challenge is not required for study entry. There is no charge for the patient.

Dr. Windom gave a lecture on Food Allergy Treatment at the South Carolina Allergy Society’s annual meeting in Charleston, SC, March 17-19, 2017.  No one is currently offering food oral immunotherapy (OIT) in South Carolina so the society wanted to learn from Dr. Windom’s experience with this novel form of treating patients with serious food allergies. The lecture was titled,  Food Oral Immunotherapy in Clinical Practice .  The two major points were: There are over 20 published studies  on oral immunotherapy (OIT) in the medical literature since 2004, consistently showing the safety and efficacy of desensitizing highly allergic individuals to various...

Drs Ly and Windom attended the  2017 AAAAI Annual Meeting. This years meeting was March 3-6, 2017 in Atlanta.  While this years theme was Expanding Practice: Diagnosis & Treatment of Drug Hypersensitivity, the big news for Windom Allergy is the progress made in food allergy prevention. Based primarily on the results of the 2015 UK study LEAP (Learning Early About Peanut allergy), national guidelines have been released from the NIH and international allergy organizations. From the NIH Directors Blog: "A group representing 26 professional organizations, advocacy groups, and federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has just issued new...

Do You Have A Food Allergy? Check out this post. Responses to food allergies can be quite variable from individual to individual. It may involve gastrointestinal reactions including nausea, abdominal cramps, vomiting, and diarrhea, itchy rash, hives, asthma and hay fever, swelling of the lips, tongue and throat, migraine headaches and in severe cases, anaphylaxis. Some cases of food-induced hives or anaphylaxis are dependent on a cofactor for exacerbation of clinical symptoms. The only cofactor clearly demonstrated to provoke symptoms is exercise. Before one should embark on an investigation of a food allergy, there must be a reasonable suspicion of...

A true food allergy or food hypersensitivity is an adverse reaction to a food or food component that involves the body's immune system. Using milk as an example, an immunologic response would be cow's milk protein allergy, whereas the nonimmunologic response would be lactose intolerance, due to lactase deficiency. Although many people believe they have a food allergy, true food allergies are rare, affecting 1-3% of children under 6 years and less than 2% of adults in the general population.  While any food protein is potentially capable of eliciting an allergic reaction, most reactions are due to a limited number...