Got milk allergies? Drink more milk
Now this might sound counterintuitive: Giving children small quantities of milk over time may ease their allergic reaction to it.
Allergy experts at Johns Hopkins started following a small group of children in 2008, giving them higher doses of milk over time in an attempt to train their immune systems to tolerate it. It worked. In a recent follow-up, all 18 children with a history of severe milk allergy saw their allergy eased or disappear within 17 months, researchers report in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
Given the extremely small sample size, there are a number of caveats. Researchers are still learning about milk allergy and ways to possibly overcome it. What works for one child may not work for another. And these patients were given milk under the close supervision of a doctor. So a word of caution to parents -- don't try this at home.
Still, researchers are encouraged by the findings: regular dairy use could help children become more tolerant and remain so.
Some children remained allergy free even without daily exposure. For others, the allergies returned after they stop drinking milk, said Dr. Robert Wood, a lead investigator on the studies.
"This may mean that some patients are truly cured of their allergy, while in others the immune system adapts to regular daily exposure to milk, and may, in fact, need the exposure to continue to tolerate it," he said.
Baltimore Sun photo
Comments
Please change this headline, it is sooo misleading and could put food allergic children in danger from well-meaning grandparents and others. The fact is the immune treatment is done in microdrops of exposure in a heavily controlled setting, such as a hospital. As the mother of a food allergic child, I am constantly correcting people that -- NO -- even the tiniest exposure could send my child into shock. The kids who are candidates for this kind of therapy are very carefully chosen for their likihood to respond to the treatment. It is not for everyone. Please clarify in your post what this study does and does not mean.
Posted by: Nancy | August 22, 2009 11:12 AM
Good point Nancy and Kelly mentions in the posting (third paragraph) that this is supervised research. There seems to be an increase in severe allergies in children. I wonder if this is statistically true and if so, why?
Posted by: Carolyn Edwards | August 22, 2009 8:21 PM
Wow, I am shocked at this study. Did the very intelligent, well-educated, well-paid researchers ever consider that humans were not meant to drink the milk of cows? Cows milk is supposed to be for their calves not for us humans and our children. I won't go into details about the horrific conditions these cows tolerate to create milk that humans consume or how study after study shows that animal products lead to heart disease and cancer. There are so many great alternatives to animal milk such as almond milk, soy milk, hemp milk, and rice milk. Why would the researchers put children through this testing? Was this study funded by the dairy industry? Or could it be that even the smartest people in our society have forgotten to ask the simple questions like why is it that we want to drink milk in the first place?
Posted by: Josie Morris | August 24, 2009 1:23 PM
I'm with Nancy. Ironically, I was looking up a food I had eaten thinking it was safe, and after a severe reaction realized that in the teensy tiny print... there was a milk derivative hidden within...
My reactions very often cross into anaphylaxis . If a kid with an allergy like mine were given "extra doses of milk" it will not "toughen them up" as the title seems to suggest.
To Josie, since you've shared so much, I'll share with you. Cursing is not just using a particular bad word, but any word in substitute with the same meaning. The curse is in the thought, not the actual word. So shoot and darn are just as guilty as the gold letter substitutes. By the same token, a vegan going on about hemp milk and almond milk is still just substituting MILK in their diet. No, they are not made from an animal product, but they substitute that product in the same function. It's made to look, taste and act like milk. Sort of like those who have a religious issue with eating pork tryig to circumvent the sin by substituting turkey ham and turkey bacon in their diets to get the same taste as the unclean cloven-hoofer. Hey, it's not "really" pork.
Posted by: Tammy | September 25, 2009 10:24 PM