“Doing Phenomenally Well”
Kaitlyn Crutchlow and dad Ross visit Anna Nowak-Wegrzyn, MD.
After birth, Kaitlyn Crutchlow seemed headed down the same high-risk road as her two brothers, who counted 30 allergies between them. At 4 weeks, she already had body-wide eczema and tested positive for milk and egg allergies. And blood and skin tests at the Elliot and Roslyn Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at Mount Sinai also showed a negative reaction to peanut, which prompted her physician, Anna Nowak-Wegrzyn, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Allergy and Immunology) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, to start the infant at 6 months on a slurry of peanut butter and hot water through an eye dropper. “The idea of giving a potentially highly allergic food to an infant unable to verbalize was kind of nerve-racking,” admits Kaitlyn’s mother, Jenny Crutchlow.
Now, at 16 months of age, Kaitlyn is “doing phenomenally well,” reports her mom. A small rash around her mouth and some hives on the torso caused concern initially, but they disappeared after a month and now she consumes peanut-containing foods every day without any reaction. And that has given Ms. Crutchlow the luxury to think about a world free of the constant threat of allergic reactions. “Imagine your child being able to go to birthday parties without worrying about her having a piece of cake,” she says, “or eating at a restaurant without fear that anaphylaxis—a potentially fatal reaction to allergy—is around the corner.”
“Hopeful and Relieved”
Chia Kuo with son Ander
“I think many parents of kids with allergies have this level of guilt that they could have done something differently,” says Chia Kuo, whose 4-year-old twin daughters have food allergies, one of whom has a severe allergy to peanut. So, when her son, Ander, was born, Ms. Kuo was determined to give him an advantage her daughters did not have. She brought him to the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute for testing at 4 months and, soon after, under physician supervision, began introducing him to peanut-containing food as part of a risk-reduction regimen.
Mount Sinai’s Dr. Nowak-Wegrzyn has treated Ander’s older sisters for nearly five years. Dr. Nowak-Wegrzyn started Ander on small doses of diluted peanut butter even though his allergies were considered mild. After passing this initial “food challenge” at the Jaffe Institute, Ander was cleared for increasing amounts of the mixture at home, three to four times a week.
The prognosis for Ander at 10 months is encouraging. The eczema he has had since birth has remained stable, and Ms. Kuo has been advised her son’s chances of developing a peanut allergy are slim. “I’m hopeful and relieved,” she says. “If not for the treatment, there’s a good chance Ander may have wound up with severe allergies, just as one of my daughters did.”