Friday, June 01, 2007

Peanut Allergies Strike Again

This morning, I heard DJ Mike on 89.3 KSBJ talking about how his family discovered his daughter Abby Grace is allergic to peanuts. They discovered the peanut allergy in a similar fashion as we discovered Little K's... trial & error with peanut butter.

I want to share some info based on my 2-year-old daughter's peanut allergy. Much of this information was provided to us by our allergy doctor at Allergy & Asthma Associates so it's legitimate.

- Most restaurants that cook with peanut oil are actually using "heat-extracted" peanut oil which does NOT have the peanut allergen in it. Yes, ChickFilA is okay to eat. "Cold-extracted" peanut oil is very expensive so restaurants don't use it.
- Only 10% of folks with peanut allergies will outgrow the allergy. Other food allergies vary.
- Peanut allergies range on a scale of 0 (no allergy) to 6 (super allergic). However, a person's range/sensitivity to peanuts can change year to year. So, consider having Abby Grace tested by a doctor.

Whew! Now, that that's off my chest, I can get to work. Peanut allergies are very scary but living with one is doable without living in a bubble.

Until the next nap time...

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi - I'm a mom of a kid with peanut allergies. Thanks for helping raise awareness about this!

However, one correction - highly refined heat-processed peanut oil does contain peanut protein, just at very low levels. 95% of peanut allergic people won't react, but unfortunately my son is in the 5% who do react, so we have to avoid peanut oil (which can be hard, because it is exempt from U.S. labeling laws). No Chik-A-Fil A or Boardwalk Fries for us!

Here's a report that includes information on peanut protein content in refined oil:
http://www.inchem.org/documents/jecfa/jecmono/v44jec11.htm

The mean protein content of peanut oil is reduced at each stage
of the refining process described above. Although the results differed
depending on whether the Lowry assay or the Pierce Micro bicinchoninic
acid assay was used for protein analysis, there was a consistent
downward trend with each analytical procedure. The mean protein
content in extracts of oil prepared by two separate procedures and
analysed by each assay were 187 µg/ml of crude peanut oil; 60 µg/ml of
oil after alkali refining, neutralization, and washing; 15 µg/ml of
oil after bleaching and filtering; and 2.2 µg/ml of oil after
deodorization (Skinner & Haynes, 1998).

Kids Activity Queen said...

Thanks for that feedback, greenlady31!