Children given everyday foods to treat milk and peanut allergies are showing dramatic signs of improvement, according to early trial results. Five NHS hospitals have joined a £2.5m trial, thanks to funding from the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation.
Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, from Fulham, west London, died in 2016 after suffering a severe allergic reaction to sesame baked into a Pret baguette. Her parents set up the foundation hoping to cure allergies with research.
Nadim and Tanya Ednan-Laperouse have also campaigned for a change in food laws.Foods are given under medical supervision and the trial is also training NHS staff to offer OIT treatment.
Parents of Pret death teen launch allergy study
Sibel Sonmez-Ajtai, paediatric allergy consultant and principal investigator at Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This study is enabling us to do something we would never have dreamed of doing before – giving patients the foods we know they are allergic to.
“This treatment is not a cure for a food allergy, but what it achieves is life-transforming.
“To have a patient who has had anaphylaxis to 4mls of milk to then tolerate 90mls within six to eight months is nothing less than a miracle.”
‘Anxiety around food’
Thomas Farmer, 11, was diagnosed with a severe peanut allergy when he was one. He can now eat six peanuts a day after joining the trial in Southampton. His mother Lauren said joining the trial has “taken away so much anxiety around food”.
“For Thomas to be able to achieve all this with no medicine, just off-the-shelf foods, is amazing,” she said. Since joining the trial in Newcastle, Grace Fisher, five, who has a milk allergy, is now drinking 120ml milk a day.
Her mother Emma said: “Grace is over six months into this journey and is doing amazing. She is currently on 120ml of milk and loves her daily hot chocolates.
Source: BBC
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