Fighting Peanut Allergies With Peanuts

Oct. 23, 2008— -- Three-year-old Peyton Youse of Charlotte, N.C., is severely allergic to peanuts.

But now doctors are fighting back -- with peanuts.

Peyton's mother, Jennifer Youse, drives close to three hours every two weeks so Peyton can participate in an allergy study at Duke University Medical School. Doctors there are working on promising research to see if exposing kids to the very thing they're allergic to will help build tolerance.

"The theory behind it is you start out at very low doses and build up over time," said Dr. Wesley Burks, professor of pediatrics at Duke University Medical Center. "And as you do that, then you lessen the allergic side effects, and then you have the effect on the immune system to make the disease go away."

Food allergies among children are increasing at an alarming rate in the United States. According to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control, three million children in the United States had food or digestive allergies in 2007 -- an increase of 18 percent in a decade.

So researchers are taking on the allergies with new approaches -- including using Chinese herbs and dietary changes.

Children in the Duke study are treated with peanut proteins -- either in liquid or powdered form. The initial dose is only 1/1,000 of a peanut, but it is slowly increased to the equivalent of one peanut and more.

Four children who have completed years of the treatment are now able to tolerate 13 to 15 peanuts without showing even mild symptoms.

Ten-year-old Elissa Miller has seen amazing progress after three years in the study.

"I take six peanuts, and it's very cool because I never thought I would be able to even eat one," she said.

The first time Elissa was exposed to peanut butter, at age two, her throat began to close. Since then, she has carried an epi-pen to school to treat her allergy. She is used to asking questions at restaurants about whether her meal is cooked in peanut oil -- and worrying.

Her improvement is a huge relief to her family, which has worried about everything Elissa touches.

"As a mother with a child with a peanut allergy, I can send her out and not have to worry about it, and know that she can handle it," said Elissa's mother, Sandy Miller.