WAFEAST - Washington Food Allergy Eczema & Asthma Support Team

More Info on Peanut Controlled Mariner Games

Jana Robertson — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 05:59:21 +0000

Peanut Controlled Zone at Safeco Field

Thanks again to guest blogger Michael San Soucie!

Hey everyone,

The 2012 game dates are now available for ticket orders at www.mariners.com/nopeanuts. I also noticed a couple other cool things about the games being offered to our group this year. Two of the games are also free giveaway days and one is a business man’s special during the summer which we have not had previously. Pretty cool!

So here are some more specifics on the game dates and the special events taking place those nights:

Sunday, April 22nd vs. Chicago White Sox – this is a day game as we have always requested for those with smaller children. It is also Little League Day! This means a chance to go on the field prior to the game. For those wanting to go on the field for the pre-game parade, have your child wear his/her uniform and get their early. The parade begins at 11:30am and you just need to line up at the Right Field ramp near section 114. This is basically below our seating section on the lower level. All kids 14 and under also receive a drawstring backpack upon entering the stadium.

Friday, May 25th vs. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim – this game is a chance to see Albert Pujols, one of the best players in the game today. It is also Dustin Ackley Bobblehead night. The first 20,000 fans get a free bobblehead. You will need to get there very early to get one of these. It will be a very popular giveaway.

Thursday, July 26th vs. Kansas City Royals – this night is also the 8th annual Stitch ‘n’ Pitch night. Bring your knitting, stitching, quilting, or other fiber arts projects to the game, get help from experts, view the latest samples from area shops, and meet other enthusiasts while enjoying a night at the ballpark.

Wednesday, August 15th vs. Tampa Bay Rays – this game is our very first business man’s special; a midweek day game! Take the day off of work and enjoy a sunny, summer day at the ballpark with your kids. Also a second opportunity for those with younger children to come to the ballpark and not have the kids out too late.

What a great selection of games this year. I can’t wait! Hope to see and meet lots of you at the ballpark this season.

Michael San Soucie

2012 Peanut-Controlled Zone Mariner Games

Jana Robertson — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 06:01:11 +0000

Thank you to guest blogger, Michael San Soucie

Peanut Controlled Zone at Safeco Field

I know! I know! The Super Bowl is this weekend so what am I doing talking about baseball. Well, for those of you who have met me, you know that my favorite thing about the Super Bowl is that it is the last game of the football season. That means it is soon time for pitchers and catchers to report to spring training!

With that in mind I wanted to let you all know we have game dates confirmed for the Seattle Mariners peanut controlled games this upcoming season. I like to get this information out early to everyone in case they need to plan any summer trips around these dates. Tickets are not available quite yet but should be in the next several weeks. So here are the dates:

Sunday, April 22nd vs. the Chicago White Sox
Friday, May 25th vs. the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Thursday, July 26th vs. the Kansas City Royals
Wednesday, August 15th vs. the Tampa Bay Rays

Once again, the Mariners have been extremely generous to us and offered us a good variety of dates. Sunday so we get a day game. Friday while school is still in session. And two summer dates vs. two exciting teams with lots of young talent on their rosters. I can’t wait!

I hope we have really good turn outs to all four games so we can show our support for the Mariners efforts. Once tickets are available, you can purchase them at www.mariners.com/nopeanuts.

That is all for now. Take care, and as for the game on Sunday……….Go Giants!

Michael San Soucie

Nurse Educator at Seattle Children’s Hospital

Kelly Morgan — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 03:55:01 +0000

Food Allergy Initiative Northwest and Seattle Children’s Hospital have been in partnership over the last several years in our Food Allergy Community Health Education Program. Part of this program funds a nurse educator, who does FREE presentations at schools, camps, day cares (anywhere, really) on food allergies. Ann Wahl, our new nurse educator, has made dozens of presentations to almost 2,000 attendees this year alone, all across Washington state. In addition to her presentation tailored to lay people she also has a presentation targeting health professionals.

We are lucky to have such a wonderful, free resource available in our state, and I want to make sure everyone is making use of it!

To schedule a no cost visit call or email Ann at (206) 884-1012 or foodallergy@seattlechildrens.org
And as always feel free to ask me (or any of the other FAI-NW board members) any questions about our nurse educator or the other initiatives we’re working on. We’re happy to help and grateful that our state is at the forefront of this program!

More information at http://seattlechildrens.org/foodallergy/

Thank you to our guest blogger, Wendy Heipt. You can contact her at wandeheipt@gmail.com

Thank you for a Spooktacularly Fun Afternoon

Jana Robertson — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 03:47:55 +0000

It was great to see so many families out today. I have not had a chance to look at our check in sheet but we definitely had 20+ adorable costumed food allergic kids and their families enjoying the festivities at Montlake Community Center today.

I must plug Montlake Community Center. When I told them we had food allergic kids coming to the event, they asked the custodian to clean the floors last night with a machine and he wiped surfaces and mirrors down really well. The only group using it before us was a karate class so we didn’t have nearly as much pre-event clean up as we expected. Whew! On top of that, I am very grateful that the City of Seattle granted us a nonprofit rental fee discount (not as easy to get as one might think).

Now I must thank 3 members of the WA FEAST Board for their commitment to making this happen. Desi Tucker is responsible for the cheeky signage and flyer as well as the cool carnival games and the portable PA system and she was assisted by husband Trent and kids on loading, decorating and clean-up;, Teisha Stiles brought 6 members of her family including her artistic and helpful children (and their friend Patrick) who turned the hall into a festive space in no time and helped with the carnival games, and Tiesha whipped up the cutest homemade Wishing (fishing?) Cauldron I have ever seen; Jenny Nolan kept us all organized and oversaw a very successful craft and coloring area. My family made good on their promises to me (OK, so maybe I did a little begging and bribing!) and did a great job with their DJ Checkit Skit and my kids and I played dance music for Dina Blade’s family dance which was a lot of fun.

Everyone pitched in on clean-up – THANK YOU! We were out by 4:30ish!

I am privileged to also say thank you to the WA FEAST Board for a very kind and unexpected gesture. They decided that they would like to help my 13 yo PA daughter and I attend FAAN’s Teen Summit in Washington DC. We may not be able to go this year, due to jazz band commitments, but I am touched and honored and feel that I barely deserve such generosity. If we do go, I hope to bring back some first hand knowledge of how to run such an event and perhaps try to do the same thing here on the West Coast. I am humbled. Thank you.

Finally, I wanted to acknowledge the businesses who made donations to the door prize raffle. I think this is the complete list but please let me know if you took something home that isn’t listed here.

Allerbling,http://www.allerbling.com – two bracelets

Allermates, http://www.allermates.com – 8 bracelets, two lunch boxes

Allergic Living, http://www.allergicliving.com – subscription

The Bugabees Friends with Food Allergy, children’s book by Amy Recob, http://thebugabees.com/

Princess and the Peanut Allergy, children’s book by Wendy McClure, http://www.amazon.com/Princess-Peanut-Allergy-Wendy-McClure/dp/0807566233

Sophie Safe Cooking, Cookbook by Emily Hendrix, http://www.sophiesafecooking.com

Food Allergies and Children (3) /Food Allergies and Schools (3) – Pocket Guides from the Allergy Free Table series. http://www.allergyfreetable.com/

Flourishing with food allergies, book by A. Anderson,http://www.flourishingwithfoodallergies.com/

And last but not least, the “oh so adorable that I wish I had an epipen to put in it for myself” the Epi-Puppy, http://epipuppy.com/

Now the good news for those of you who did not make it today is that we did not send all of this stuff home which means that you may have a chance to win some of it at a future FEAST event!

Be sure to check out “How to have a not-so-spooky Halloween.” It was created by Thanita Clancy of Loudoun Allergy Network and is being share with WA FEAST members with her permission, thanks to the magic of the FAAN Food Allergy Support Group Advisory Commitee Facebook page.

Kelly Morgan

WAFEAST Halloween Carnival – Sat. Oct. 29, 2011

WAFeast — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 17:05:53 +0000

WAFEAST presents Halloween Carnival

Lots of food-free fun planned for Saturday October 29, 2011!
Games, prizes, contests and more!
Join us 1:00-4:00 PM at the Montlake Community Center
1618 E Calhoun Street, Seattle, WA 98112

Please RSVP for this event by responding to this Washington FEAST Halloween Spooktacular Survey

If you have further questions, contact leader@wafeast.org

Download RELEASE OF LIABILITY AND ASSUMPTION OF RISK
for this event.

Milk Allergy Study in Babies in Seattle

WAFeast — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 03:17:00 +0000

Milk Allergy study in babies birth to eight months. Please visit http://www.asthmainc.org/ or contact studies@asthmainc.org

From Blogger Pictures

Back to school tips – Plan! Plan! Plan!

WAFeast — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 22:42:00 +0000

As children, we all remember having butterflies at the end of the summer as our parents prodded us to pick out lunch boxes and try on new clothes. As parents of food allergic children, we may feel those butterflies return, as we think about turning over responsibility of our children’s well being to school staff. If we aren’t careful, our anxiety can spill over and increase the butterflies that our kids are feeling as a natural part of returning to or starting school. While seeking out a therapist in anxiety management may be something to consider, much can be achieved via good planning. There are several vehicles for planning for accommodating food allergic students in the school setting, including the Individualized Health Plan (IHP) and 504 Plan, in some cases they are one in the same.

· Emergency action plan. This plan is developed in conjunction with the school nurse and is based on written prescription orders from your child’s physician. This plan describes the symptoms of anaphylaxis that your child may exhibit and instructs staff about what actions to take in the event of a food allergy emergency. If you are in a state where nurses are not allowed to delegate judgment authority to staff, you may find that the staff will be advocating that all reactions are treated with epinephrine.

· Risk reduction plan. This plan informs school staff about how to AVOID having to implement the Emergency Action Plan. The goal is to address as many plausible risky situations as possible and contingencies for unanticipated situations. The topics you might address here include what allergens are allowed in the room for parties and snacks, review any food used in class projects or science kits, assess potential risks associated with field trips,

· Inclusiveness plan. This plan addresses steps to be taken by the school and staff to avoid exclusion of your food allergic child and can layer on top of a risk reduction plan, but in some ways I think it is beneficial to think of it as a separate exercise. Many parents supply safe snacks/treats for their food allergic children. However, due to the fact that this is a “separate but equal approach,” more and more parents are requesting that all celebrations and snacks be inclusive. This can be achieved by implementing non-food rewards and celebrations and, if food is allowed, only food listed on an approved snack/party list is used.

Where to start? See if your state has food allergy guidelines in place. If not, guidelines from other states can be very useful. Finally, there are many 504 planning resources on the web. For more info, check out http://www.foodallergy.org/.

Kelly Morgan

Workplace Food Allergies Taskforce

WAFeast — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 17:06:00 +0000

On Saturday, August 27th at 10:30 am Christina and I will be meeting at the Bellevue Library to hash out the beginnings of a pamphlet advising workplaces on how best to handle employees with food allergies, as well as some best practices for employees with food allergies.

If you have food allergies and are in the workforce, please join us, or e-mail us what has worked (and not worked) for you. What are some challenges you’ve faced?

If you know of someone struggling with food allergies in the workplace, we’d love to hear from them.

Kids just entering the workplace who have questions – we’d like to know what those questions are.

Also – if you or someone you know work in Human Resources or are lawyers with experience in ADA cases, we need some expert backup as we move down the line here.

We would like to create a pamphlet (or pamphlets) that is useful to WA-FEAST, FAI, FAAN, HR departments, supervisors, and employees alike. If you know of work already done in this area, we’d love to use that too.

Thanks, Alice

www.SafeAndYummy.com

Next Mariner’s peanut-controlled-zone game Thursday July 14

WAFeast — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 15:37:00 +0000

Hope you all had a fun and safe 4th of July! With the holiday behind us I just realized that our next Mariners game is only a week away. Go to www.mariners.com/nopeanuts to order your tickets now. Game is on Thursday, July 14th vs. Texas Rangers. It’s the first game after the All-Star break.

Let’s recap. Earlier in the season I said that it was true the Mariners were not very good, but we should go support them anyway. Well, heck, they have been playing much better now and are even in the race for first place. So let’s really get out there and support them. Their pitching has been out of this world. Maybe we can all go and fire up their offense with our cheering.

And for our last Rainiers game I said it would be your last chance to see Dustin Ackley close up before he got called up to the Mariners. Well, they were a little more anxious than expected and Mr. Ackley got called up just prior to our Raininers game. So now is your chance to see him play in the big leagues.

And let’s not kid ourselves. The weather at our first couple of games wasn’t the best. But man has it been nice lately. The kids are out of school now, so come on out and enjoy a nice evening at the ballpark.

One important item of note I wanted to mention as well. My main contact with the Mariners, Bob Hellinger, has suffered a pretty serious medical issue and has been in the hospital for a while. He may not return to his work this season while he recovers. I was planning on making a get well sign to hold up at the game and thought other folks may want to do the same. We really did well with signs our first couple of games a few years back, but that has sort of died down. So let’s bring that action back. Make get well signs for Bob, make thank you signs for the Mariners, and make garlic fry signs as well.

Basically, let’s get out there, buy lots of tickets for our section to show our support for their efforts and then really show it during the game as well. Hope to see lots of you at the ballpark again! Have a great weekend.
Michael San Soucie

Tree Nut Allergy Research in Seattle

WAFeast — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 01:00:00 +0000

Benaroya Research Institute of Virginia Mason is seeking adults for food allergy research.

From Blogger Pictures

Benaroya Research Institute (BRI) is looking for severely tree nut allergic and/or peanut allergic individuals to donate their blood and answer a questionnaire about their allergy history. If you have a severe tree nut allergy, please consider helping BRI’s team of world-renowned scientists identify causes and cures for immune-mediated diseases, such as allergies.If interested, please contact the Allergy Translational Research Coordinator:

Jennifer Heaton
(206)342-6971
jheaton@benaroyaresearch.org

From Blogger Pictures

Benaroya Research Institute Receives $5.3 Million for Allergy Studies
SEATTLE, Wash. – (Feb. 18, 2008) – Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason (BRI) recently received a $5.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for William Kwok, PhD, and his team to further research allergens.
Dr. Kwok and David Robinson, MD, of the Virginia Mason Asthma and Allergy Clinic, will work together to study immune response to environmental allergens. The scientists will use tetramers to identify and study cells from individuals who are allergic to cat dander, tree and grass pollen, peanuts, mold and others.

Allergies are prevalent in many people’s lives. It is estimated that about 25 percent of the population has allergies based on positive skin test results. About 36 million Americans suffer from allergic rhinitis, 10 million Americans suffer from allergic asthma, and 2 to 4 percent of children and 1 to 2 percent of adults have food allergies.

Tetramers can specifically identify the piece of the allergen molecule (peptide) that a person reacts with. This allows for safer ways to monitor and desensitize patients to allergies. The hope is that this work can lead to an understanding of the role certain cells play in allergies. It is intended that the cells being studied can regulate immune responses that lead to allergic reaction.Currently allergy shots, given to increase people’s tolerance for a particular allergen, contain the whole allergen to reduce the symptoms of allergy. In some cases, the shots may cause life threatening symptoms such as anaphylactic shock and low blood pressure. This research work will lead to development of vaccines that use a small fragment of the allergen (peptide) which will be much safer compared to the whole allergen. It may be able to change the immune system’s tolerance for the allergy without using the actual allergen.

“The long term hope is that the peptides will be more specific with fewer side effects than giving shots with the whole allergen,” says Dr. Kwok. “We would like to develop a more individualized, specific treatment that will reduce any risks using the whole allergen.”

“This grant gives us an opportunity to make a significant difference for people who suffer from allergies and elevate their options for care – yet another great example of how we’re taking research from the bench at BRI to the bedside at Virginia Mason,” said Dr. Robinson.

Dr. Robinson continued, “From a basic science standpoint, being able to identify what the T-cell recognizes in the allergen is a fundamental step in the allergic immune response that we have not been able to define before. This will potentially allow researchers to tease apart fine details of the allergic immune response and this could lead to other treatment approaches that have not yet even been conceived.”

About Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia MasonBenaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason (BRI), founded in 1956, works to unlock the mysteries of the immune system. Its team of world-renowned scientists is focused on identifying causes and cures for devastating diseases including diabetes, arthritis, heart disease and cancer. BRI is an international leader in immune system and autoimmune disease research with a focus on translating laboratory discoveries to real-life applications.