Dr. Wayne Shreffler is the Director of the Food Allergy Center at MassGeneral Hospital for Children. I was at a blogger event at MassGeneral and met several very impressive and dedicated doctors. Dr. Shreffler expertise in allergies brought up all kinds of questions from parent bloggers:
Why Have Food Allergies Become Such a Problem?
There are many theories but no answers. According to Dr. Shreffler:
- Genetics play a role
- Hygiene Hypothesis
- Western diet
- Vitamin D
- Geography/Cultural
- Exposure Route
What does this mean for parents?
- Our Western diet has introduced intense processing that mirror the rise in food allergies.
- Vitamin D might have protective effects.
- Early introduction to possible allergens is now considered a good idea. This is new for me when advice from 10 years ago urged us to delay introduction to foods like eggs and peanut butter. Good thing I ignored it!
- Early eczema an indicator for allergies? It’s worth testing kids younger if they have eczema as babies.
He is also doing research in Oral Immunology Therapy which gives very small doses of allergic foods to kids to see if they build up resistance. This is the same theory in The Princess Bride where Wesley beat that really smart funny short bad guy in the poison-in-a-cup switcharoo. Turns out Wesley had been drinking small doses of poison for years to build up immunity.
The downside is that children with life threatening allergies can not participate in this study as it is too dangerous. The research is still not conclusive yet but this is a step in the right direction!
I thought this guy was rockstar smart and if my kids had food allergies, I would fight my way into his practice.
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