DS's Almond Challenge at Mt. Sinai

[GingerPye]

WooHOOO!!!  Yay for the pass!!!  Yum, almonds!  How very exciting..... 

[LinksEtc]

Now the challenge will be to find non-Xcontaminated almonds.  Blue Diamond are now on shared equipment with every darned tree nut known to mankind.  I really don't want to have to buy raw ones, wash them, roast them, etc. 

Congrats!

Maybe something like this would work for the almonds?
http://www.barneybutter.com

[GoingNuts]

Links, that's what they use for The challenge. And it comes in chocolate, too! 

I'm going to bake Cookies with it on Wednesday. 

[Mookie86]

  on passing, and I'm glad you found ones that he can eat.

[hezzier]

Wonderful news!!

[my3guys]

 

[Macabre]

Wonderful also makes pistachios. We buy both the almonds and pistachios.

[Macabre]

Just read your link. Oh wow. Okay we need to put this IMHO in the Pn free tn thread. So cool!!!

GN you can get them right?  super Target sells them.

I cried the first time I bought almonds in a store.

[SilverLining]

so happy to read about another pass. 

[GoingNuts]

OK, I have a few minutes to expand on yesterday's visit.

They divided the dose into 4 servings, waiting 10-15 minutes between  doses, with each dose getting progressively larger.  He had a total of about 2 Tbsps. of Barney Almond Butter.  He had no symptoms at all, but if he had, the RN was stationed right outside the door, with Dr. Nowak nearby.  She came in between doses to check his breathing, etc.

With this pass, Dr. Nowak instructed him to be sure to eat some at least 2X a week for the first 6 months (more if he doesn't get tired of it!) to be sure that his immune system is really tolerating it.  I have instructed him not to eat it unless his father or I are home for at least the first few weeks, just to be sure, and not to exercise afterwards.

He is due to come back in the spring, and I know DS would rather find someone locally (and one that isn't exclusively pediatric, given that he is turning 20 in a few weeks), but as long as they are willing to see him I'd rather continue because I like the way they do challenges there.  He may also be able to do a chick pea challenge, which he was initially "meh" on, but I think he's starting to see the value of adding chick peas to his diet.

Alas, the allergen he would really like to get rid of is sesame, and that has shown no signs of abating whatsoever. 

So that's the story.  We're pretty happy.  I can't stop thinking about the baking implications.  For one, I could have actual "mandel" (almond in Yiddish) in my mandel bread! 

[CMdeux]

That sounds like more or less the standard protocol that our allergist (a Sinai product) also follows for challenges.

He starts with the vehicle, and then adds allergen slowly.  How slowly depends on patient history, evidently.

I'm just SO thrilled for you guys, GN!   

[twinturbo]

It's really the freedom from another allergen rather than the food but it's nice when you can have the traditions. Dr. Nowak certainly seems like the doctor to have. I'm sheepishly considering moving from Sicherer to her. I'm not sure you can change within a practice though.

[PurpleCat]

Congratulations!  What a nice add to your kitchen!

[Jmarc]

that is wonderful news!!!! YAY!!! your allergist sounds like ours!! we were there for a total of 6 hrs and got up to two tablespoons of peanut butter!!

and our allergist said to keep the epi pens for another year just incase..and then if no issues after a year we do not have to renew them..yay!!

[booandbrimom]

Wow - congrats! That's wonderful news. Almonds are such a fun thing to be able to use.