Another Resource

Last night I went out all by myself.  No, not a date or a girls night out.  I attended a meeting of MOCHA, which is Mothers of Children Having Allergies.  Its an Illinois based group, and I found out about it while looking some other stuff up last week.  Its a great resource, and they meet every other month.  Last night they had two physicians from Children's Memorial Hospital of Chicago present the latest in food allergy research. 

Due to traffic, I got there just before the meeting started.  I didn't have enough time to look at all the resources they had out, but they had a ton of informative flyers from other organizations, as well as a sampling of books related to living with allergies, cooking, and children's books.  I sat next to a very nice man (the only one there initially), and we compared notes about our allergic children.  There were probably at least thirty others there, including a few who work in the allergy clinic at Childrens. 

The lecture itself was informative.  They elaborated on a few studies regarding heated egg and milk studies, as well as some oral nut desensitization studies.  While the studies were based on small test groups (not addressed during the lecture), there is some positive research in this growing field.  It also sounds like there is a much larger study in progress regarding a Chinese herbal formula that may have some positive medicinal results.  Unfortunately though any drug application would probably be in the distant future. 

The meeting was valuable both on a social and educational level.  While I was aware of some of these studies' results, it was good to be able to get more detailed answers on some of the findings and what went into the research.  As for the group itself, its a place where I can meet other parents with similar experiences, as well as a group with extensive knowledge and resources pertaining to food allergies.   This is what I've been looking for, and happy to have found it.