Geisinger launches new treatment plan for children with food allergies

July 20, 2009, DANVILLE – Nearly 12 million Americans have some form of food allergy, and the problem is getting worse with children. Federal statistics show the prevalence of food allergies among children increased 18 percent from 1997 to 2007.

To address this issue, Geisinger recently started a new treatment course in which children with egg and milk allergies are served those very foods and proteins from those foods with the goal of developing either allergy desensitization or a complete tolerance.

Patients receive the food or food protein in the safety of the clinic setting on a weekly basis, and parents provide their children low doses of the food at home on days between clinic visits, according to Geisinger allergist Allison Freeman, M.D.

For patients at Geisinger Medical Center and Harrisburg specialty clinic, allergists determine a patient’s allergy sensitivity or exact “threshold dose” that makes them sick.

The allergist selects an amount of food that is safely below the threshold and gradually increases that amount through over a period of three to six months.

“We are essentially rerouting or adjusting the immune system to no longer be allergic to certain foods,” Dr. Freeman said. “By giving children this treatment in our controlled environment, we are protecting them in case they accidentally ingest these reaction-causing foods on their own.”

Common symptoms of an allergic reaction to food include itchy mouth or tongue, stomach pains and vomiting, swelling of the tongue and allergic rash. With this therapy, some of these symptoms appear but they become milder. Since allergic reactions can be unpredictable, it is very important that this treatment only be given with supervised medical direction, Dr. Freeman said.

Geisinger’s program is starting with patients with egg and milk allergies, and could expand to peanut allergies in the next year or two, said Geisinger allergist Timothy J. McCloskey, D.O. 
 
A similar approach to building allergy tolerance has been used to help people with animal hair allergies for almost 100 years, according to Dr. McCloskey.
 
“A food allergy is cause for great concern with parents,” Dr. McCloskey said. “The introduction of this exposure therapy will help ease those concerns and reduce the likelihood of a severe allergic reaction.”

Common food allergy terms

• Anaphylaxis: A life-threatening allergic reaction that involves the entire body. It may result in shock or even death, and requires immediate medical attention. 
• Antigen: Any substance that causes the immune system to produce antibodies against it. It may be a foreign substance from the environment such as chemicals, bacteria, viruses, orpollen, and also can be formed within the body.
• Desensitization: A treatment for allergies, also called allergy immunotherapy.  It involves the stimulation of the immune system with gradually increasing doses of the substances to which aperson is allergic, in order to reduce the strength of the allergy. 
• Eczema: A non-contagious condition in which skin is inflamed, red, dry, and itchy, often triggered by stress, irritants (like soaps), allergens, and climate.
• Food allergy: An allergic reaction that occurs when the immune system responds defensively to a specific food.  Symptoms can appear almost immediately or up to two hours after the food has been ingested. 
• Milk allergy: Hypersensitivity to cow’s milk protein by a mechanism involving the immune system. The principal treatment is avoidance. 
• Peanut allergy: An allergy to peanuts that can be extremely violent and life threatening with a minimal amount of exposure to the allergen. It the most common cause of death due to foods and affects nearly 2 percent of the population.
• Tolerance: The body’s recognition of a reaction-causing substance. The body recognizes the presence of a substance but may have a problem with the volume it can cope with at any given time.

About Geisinger Health System
Founded in 1915, Geisinger Health System (Danville, PA) is one of the nation’s largest integrated health services organizations.  Serving more than two million residents throughout central and northeastern Pennsylvania, the physician-led organization is at the forefront of the country's rapidly emerging electronic health records movement. Geisinger is comprised of two medical center campuses, three hospitals, a 740-member group practice, a not-for-profit health insurance company and the Henry Hood Center for Health Research—dedicated to creating innovative new models for patient care, satisfaction and clinical outcomes. For more information, visit www.geisinger.org