A desensitization program is allowing a seventh-grader to live without fear of a potentially fatal reaction from peanuts, and doctors hope other families across the USA eventually will benefit.
The program introduces microscopic doses of the allergy-causing food to a patient. The body slowly builds tolerance. For patients with peanut allergies, the first doses are peanut flour mixed into Kool-Aid.
"This is very exciting because this is the first time we've had anything to actively treat these patients with, vs. just avoidance," says physician Whitney Molis of Pediatric & Adult Allergy in Des Moines.
Today, the first graduate of Molis' food desensitization program, Kirsten Mahoney of Urbandale, Iowa, is eating the equivalent of 12 peanuts twice a day with no allergic reaction.
About 5.9 million kids have food allergies; 1.2% of kids have peanut allergies.
Kirsten was an ideal candidate, Molis says: old enough that she wasn't going to outgrow the allergy (about 20% do) and mature enough to tell doctors what she was feeling. Her family was willing to try treatment that was still experimental.
Kirsten began the program May 23. Her first dose was the equivalent of 1/250,000th of a peanut, Molis estimated. As doses increased, spaced about 12 hours apart, peanut flour was mixed with pudding. Eventually, she ate peanut M&Ms, then peanut butter. The program typically takes about five months.
Kirsten still takes twice-daily doses of peanuts, usually in the form of chocolate-flavored peanut butter or peanut M&Ms, to maintain her body's tolerance.
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