Adventures of an Allergist Mommy

Allergy & Asthma Network - Mothers of Asthmatics (AANMA) is partnering with the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (ACAAI) to produce six video vignettes on "Why see an Allergist?" and they need your help! AANMA is looking for people who fit the following criteria and are willing to participate: Newly diagnosed or undiagnosed patients with symptoms of allergy and/or asthma  Patients diagnosed with at least one of the following conditions:  Children with seasonal allergies  Food allergy  Pregnancy and asthma  Teenager with asthma  Pet allergies  Rhinitis  Required to send a homemade, 60-second video of your story to AANMA by March 15, 2013  Willing to participate in a pre-interview via telephone with video production agency  Able and willing to participate in a one-day commercial video shoot in downtown Chicago in April 2013  The video vignettes will be utilized in social media outlets to raise...

As a mother of 2 boys, I sometimes feel outnumbered. Therefore, I was delighted to be invited by the local Daisy Scouts to a meeting which focused on being kind and considerate. Using the topic of food allergy as an example, we were able to address the issues of safety, inclusion/exclusion, bullying, how to be a good friend, and more. The girls offered up a whole host of ideas about how to celebrate special events without being food-centric, just in time for Valentine's Day! In this one group of Daisy Scouts, there were allergies to milk, egg, peanuts, tree nuts and fish! It was lovely to see the girls talk about how they pack special lunches so they can sit with their food-allergic friends and how they don't ever share food. One adorable little one demonstrated, arms outstretched, how she would come between a bully and her food-allergic pal! We did a drill of how to call for help if a friend is experiencing an allergic reaction, and familiarized ourselves with autoinjectabl...

The other day, my 7 year old son came home from school excited to tell me about his day. His second-grade class had just begun a unit in science about the human body. As an introduction to the unit, his teacher asked the students to name organ systems. One child called out, "the gut", and another, "the lungs". But not my child. No, my kid offered up "the immune system"! Here's the book he took from my office to read to his class: http://primaryimmune.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Our-Immune-System.pdf "Our Immune System", by Sara LeBien Obviously, I'm biased by both genetics and profession. But I couldn't be prouder. :-)

A new treatment option for peanut allergy is currently being studied in Chicago! This treatment modality is commonly referred to as the "peanut patch", and aims to induce tolerance to peanut protein by delivering small amounts of peanut allergen to the immune system through the skin. This is similar in concept to oral and sublingual immunotherapy for foods. However, in the case of the patch, the mode of delivery is hoped to result in fewer reactions during treatment, as the allergen will not be ingested. It is certainly an interesting development, which may hold promise in the treatment of food allergy. This study is recruiting children as young as age 6 years, so it may be an option for those children who are not old enough to qualify for the Food Allergy Herbal Formula study. Please read the memorandum below for further details: -------------------------------------------------------------------- ...I would like to share with you the exciting new peanut allerg...

It's been a crazy few months... My micropractice is now a little over a year old, and I've been blessed with a growing patient base. However, with more patients comes MORE WORK! I love the patient care part - could do that all day. However, I could do without some of the paperwork, data entry, inventory, etc. I pretty much stopped sleeping. So the time came to add someone to my team. The search for someone who can channel my vision for the practice into their everyday activities was not an easy one. Resumes, essay exams (yes, I actually had candidates complete an essay exam!), interviews, math quizzes, background checks... phew! Adding employees also means adding an employee handbook, policies and procedure manual, compliance programs, payroll, worker's insurance. Wait a minute - I thought getting help was supposed to reduce my workload? So, no one would blame me if I haven't been scrapbooking, right? Wrong. My 4 year old blames me, and rightfully so. This morn...

Yesterday morning, I asked my younger son to throw his dirty clothes down the laundry chute. What I witnessed shortly thereafter cracked me up: Son #2: "Bye-bye, underwear! Have a nice trip!" Son #2 (imitating the "voice" of his dirty underwear): "Nooooo! I don't want to go!" Son #2 (back to himself): "Sorry, you need to get clean. Now go, and have a nice day!" It makes me smile to witness my children engaged in imaginative play. In this day of little faces glued to tiny screens, it's so nice to see that creativity and imagination are still the best entertainment. It's a long trip for a small pair of drawers!

My younger son and I both have asthma. Although we are well controlled, we still carry rescue medication with us everywhere. Even well-controlled asthma can flare severely under the right (or wrong) circumstances. I was especially cautious during a recent family vacation to Colorado. Living in the Midwest, we were unaccustomed to the thin mountain air, and I worried that my 3 year old might have his enjoyment of the trip ruined by asthma symptoms. So when our agenda was modified to include a steep 1.2 mile hike to view a pristine lake nestled close to the mountaintop, I wondered aloud if we should leave him behind at the hotel with his grandparents. My husband (who does not have asthma) glibly replied, "Relax, he can handle it!". "Easy for you to say," I retorted. "What are we going to do if he has an asthma attack halfway up the mountain?" Dear hubby didn't need to reply. My fearless son overheard the conversation and chimed in: "I want ...