Food Allergies

If you or your kids stay away from gluten — an estimated one in 16 Americans are sensitive to the protein found in wheat and other grains — dining out can be a challenge. Ditto for other food allergies. There's now a suite of mobile apps for the iPhone and iPad that help you navigate allergy- and gluten-free fast food, restaurant dining and more. From Kim Koeller and Robert La France, authors of the 2011 Let's Eat Out with Celiac (R & R Publishing, $26.95) and the pocket Multi-Lingual Phrase Passport, the apps let you chew in peace.

The camera pans across piles of oat, millet, and rice flour and an invitation to a "food allergy party. " The soundtrack swells with the Les Miserables show tune "One Day More," which gets a hypoallergenic rendering as "One Grain More," showing heartbreak in the kitchen - and the bathroom. Then four miserable French chefs try to whip up confections with no allergens. Inspired by his own diagnosis of food allergies, Wynnewood-based musical theater actor-writer Michael Bihovsky has made a music video showing the burden of living with food allergies in a gluttonous, gluten-heavy society.

CHICAGO - Food allergies affect about one in 13 U.S. children, double the latest government estimate, a new study suggests. The researchers say about 40 percent of them have severe reactions - a finding they hope will erase misconceptions that food allergies are just like hay fever and other seasonal allergies that are troublesome but not dangerous. Overall, 8 percent of the children studied had food allergies; peanuts and milk were the most common sources. That translates to nearly 6 million U.S. children.

NEW YORK - Parents are reporting more skin and food allergies in their children, a government survey found. Experts are not sure what is behind the increase. Could it be that children are growing up in households so clean that it leaves them more sensitive to things that can trigger allergies? Or are mom and dad paying closer attention? "We don't really have the answer," said Lara Akinbami of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the senior author of the report released Thursday.

Dear Amy: Eighteen months ago, I got involved with an online role-playing game. I hooked up online with a wonderful woman named Cathy. We love each other and have exchanged letters. Despite the distance, it is a wonderful relationship - she lives on the other side of the world. Recently, my online girlfriend has had a spat with one of our online friends in the role-playing game. Cathy admits she's jealous of how much time I get to talk with this other online friend, Laura. I told her there's nothing between Laura and me. Laura is too sarcastic and cynical for my tastes to start with, not to mention that she's with someone else.

By Terri Faye Brown-Whitehorn In a typical classroom of 20 children, one is likely to have a food allergy that could cause a severe reaction. And one in six children with a food allergy will have his or her first allergic reaction at school. Despite growing awareness of food allergies, tragedies continue to occur. Earlier this year, a Virginia 7-year-old, Ammaria Johnson, ate a peanut at recess and died from a severe allergic reaction. Epinephrine, a medication that may have been able to save Ammaria's life, was not available at her school.

SEGAL'S COMPLIMENT. Protective, demanding, self-sacrificing, upward- striving mothers have gotten a bad rap, according to a psychologist, who says, "Three cheers for the 'Jewish mother.' " Julius Segal writes in Parents magazine that there is little evidence that such mothers - who obviously aren't all Jewish - "were all that bad for her kids. On the contrary, her instinct for on-the-spot responsiveness to the needs of her little ones, starting from birth, appears to have been profoundly wise.

Beware of the Food and Drug Administration's new ruling that apparently exempts most genetically engineered food products from special testing. It may well endanger the food supply. The new policy won't adequately protect people who have restricted diets or food allergies. Under federal law, FDA has the option of regulating genetically engineered food by treating it as if it were an additive. This would require high standards of safety and place on manufacturers a heavy burden of proof that foreign genes and their protein products in food would not injure consumers and not reduce food's nutritional value.

Four of the five people in Keith Patridge's family suffer from environmental allergies. His wife, Melissa, has asthma, as does one of their sons, and another son has food allergies. Patridge himself, 44, developed allergies as an adult - and found little that could keep them in check. "Twelve years ago, it was very difficult to find products that help people to control their environment and keep allergies under control," said Patridge, who started his own store and catalog, Allergy Free Living in Concordville, to provide allergic people with gear.

Food allergies diagnosed by doctors in a new and controversial medical specialty called environmental medicine appear overwhelmingly to be the result of the power of suggestion rather than true reactions to food, according to a study to be published today. The study found that the type of allergy testing used in environmental medicine does not work, despite its widespread use. The report questions the techniques used by doctors in that specialty, which attributes a wide variety of aches and ills to foods, chemicals and environmental pollutants.

NEW YORK - Parents are reporting more skin and food allergies in their children, a government survey found. Experts are not sure what is behind the increase. Could it be that children are growing up in households so clean that it leaves them more sensitive to things that can trigger allergies? Or are mom and dad paying closer attention? "We don't really have the answer," said Lara Akinbami of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the senior author of the report released Thursday.

Many food-allergic kids are bullied, teased - by adults, too Research shows that many kids with food allergies report being bullied or teased about the condition. About 8 percent of U.S. children are allergic to at least one food, and many of them have multiple food allergies, studies show. The foods most likely to cause reactions in children include peanuts, tree nuts (such as cashews and walnuts), milk, shellfish, and eggs. A 2010 survey of more than 350 parents of food-allergic kids found that 35 percent of children 5 and older were bullied, teased, or harassed because of the allergy, and 86 percent of those reported it happening more than once.

By Jessica Braun I realized that I had lost control of my life when I couldn't eat the lasagna. I started dieting around ninth grade. I have been in The Zone, eaten a Big Mac sans bun, and squeezed many lemons into my magical maple syrup-cayenne pepper elixir. I can recite the foods most beneficial to my blood type (liver, mutton, beet leaves) and can say with certainty that saving all your Weight Watcher points for a six-pack of Miller Light (18 points) instead of food never ends well.

By Terri Faye Brown-Whitehorn In a typical classroom of 20 children, one is likely to have a food allergy that could cause a severe reaction. And one in six children with a food allergy will have his or her first allergic reaction at school. Despite growing awareness of food allergies, tragedies continue to occur. Earlier this year, a Virginia 7-year-old, Ammaria Johnson, ate a peanut at recess and died from a severe allergic reaction. Epinephrine, a medication that may have been able to save Ammaria's life, was not available at her school.

While I'm away, readers give the advice. On missing your child's birth because of a prior social commitment: I am an aunt to two children whose mother died giving birth to the second child 13 years ago. It still happens. You need to be there. On unsolicited opinions and advice on medical conditions: My daughter is 7, and from age 3 has had asthma triggered by tree-pollen allergies, as well as an egg allergy we must carry an EpiPen for. She is also allergic to any furry and feathered pets, dust, and weeds, and can get asthmatic in other people's houses from pet hair/dander.

The camera pans across piles of oat, millet, and rice flour and an invitation to a "food allergy party. " The soundtrack swells with the Les Miserables show tune "One Day More," which gets a hypoallergenic rendering as "One Grain More," showing heartbreak in the kitchen - and the bathroom. Then four miserable French chefs try to whip up confections with no allergens. Inspired by his own diagnosis of food allergies, Wynnewood-based musical theater actor-writer Michael Bihovsky has made a music video showing the burden of living with food allergies in a gluttonous, gluten-heavy society.

If you or your kids stay away from gluten — an estimated one in 16 Americans are sensitive to the protein found in wheat and other grains — dining out can be a challenge. Ditto for other food allergies. There's now a suite of mobile apps for the iPhone and iPad that help you navigate allergy- and gluten-free fast food, restaurant dining and more. From Kim Koeller and Robert La France, authors of the 2011 Let's Eat Out with Celiac (R & R Publishing, $26.95) and the pocket Multi-Lingual Phrase Passport, the apps let you chew in peace.

The Internet nearly killed Amy Kunkle's Philadelphia business when an ill-advised Groupon offer drove her thousands of dollars into a hole. But this week, the Internet also helped save it. Kunkle owns Mount Airy's Food for All Market, a cafe and shop at 7127 Germantown Ave. Food for All serves a special niche: people wary of certain foods - nuts, soy, eggs, wheat, and others - that cause them allergic reactions. It's a market Kunkle, 36, knows firsthand. She and her son Gabriel, 8, both carry emergency pens to inject themselves with epinephrine in case they react to an allergen.

CHICAGO - Food allergies affect about one in 13 U.S. children, double the latest government estimate, a new study suggests. The researchers say about 40 percent of them have severe reactions - a finding they hope will erase misconceptions that food allergies are just like hay fever and other seasonal allergies that are troublesome but not dangerous. Overall, 8 percent of the children studied had food allergies; peanuts and milk were the most common sources. That translates to nearly 6 million U.S. children.

Prominently displayed in every classroom in the House at Pooh Corner in Germantown is this chart: Ben: peanuts Audrey: blueberries and strawberries Marley: squash Mateo: fava beans Tahir: seafood Elie, Lola, Raj, Solveig, Zuri: dairy Elise: milk, soy Sarah: eggs These are the reported food allergies of 12 out of 55 Pooh preschoolers. "This is a relatively new phenomenon," says Teri DiCesare, owner and director of Child's Conceptions Day Care Center, which operates Pooh.