tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272905162914577099.post1003202921630326211..comments2023-06-24T07:01:51.675-07:00Comments on Food Allergy Bitch: Are We Afraid to Let Go of Food Allergies?Food Allergy Bitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10243380102426383939noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272905162914577099.post-64299723718814710272012-10-19T11:40:15.465-07:002012-10-19T11:40:15.465-07:00FAB, I so appreciate your well-considered, well-re...FAB, I so appreciate your well-considered, well-researched posts on this topic, and I do think the FA community needs some tough love on risk management strategy.<br /><br />We were very excited to take the test. Daughter had only one small reaction back at 18 months (OAS + hives), and we thought she might outgrow, as her RAST numbers were getting soooo low. But, then, her numbers shot way back up when she sensitized to grass and birch. For years, I wondered whether maybe she had outgrown the "real" allergy and was now all or mostly OAS to peanut thanks to pollen x-reaction.<br /><br />Got the uKnow results back about two weeks ago. Not what I'd hoped for -- daughter has high Ara h 2, and we were bummed. But I'm okay now. No . . . not just okay . . . I feel *better* than before we had the test, because constantly wondering whether you are needlessly restricting your child and second guessing yourself (and all those folk you *know* think you're overprotective just compound the feeling) is enough to drive anyone crazy!<br /><br />I had a few days between the "executive summary" phone call of the test results and the official meeting/debrief with the allergist to digest the information and think very long, hard, and systematically about our risk management strategies in light of the current data on thresholds and what trace amounts are generally detected in foods with advisory labels.<br /><br />So . . . after meeting with our allergist, we walked away with new clarity about our daughter's significant risk for anaphylaxis from peanut but, actually, *more* flexible risk-management strategies than we have had in the recent past. Mind you, I'm not talking laissez faire, and we are now on order to give Epi automatically with any definite peanut ingestion, regardless of symptoms. But we will accept slightly greater risk in certain situations. <br /><br />And -- honestly -- I feel way less stressed than I did before the test.<br /><br />Peeps, if you're on the fence about uKnow, don't rule it out just because it's not a perfect test.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03833098536365639446noreply@blogger.com