A Review of "The Peanut Allergy Answer Book"

While any food allergy book is a great addition to a parent with a food allergic child, "The Peanut Allergy Answer Book" by Dr. Michael Young, should be required reading for anyone who has a child with a peanut allergy.

I have to admit when Tyler was first diagnosed with his peanut allergy in 2006, I picked this book up, read a few pages, and quickly put it down. Reading about so much of the horrible things that PA meant to Tyler totally freaked me out. I was overwhelmed at the time with a diagnosis of 3 food allergies (thankfully milk and egg are gone now). I was pregnant and sick. This information was too much for me then. I admit, that wasn't the best response.

However, if you are reading this blog, chances are you are a lot more comfortable with PA than I was in the beginning. If, however, you still have moments of great anxiety over it (and really, who doesn't?) this book should still be in your library, just read it in small chunks over a period of time.

The book starts out explaining what food allergies are. I found the whole description of what the body actually does during a reaction fascinating. It helped fill in some gaps of my knowledge in this area. Then, it moves on to the basics of a peanut allergy. It gives detailed information on many issues those new to the allergy need to read.

Next, he gives a detailed explanation of anaphylaxsis. Again, this stuff can be scary but it is so important for PA parents to read. Knowledge of what can happen and how to prevent it is your best defense against it actually happening.

Dr. Young then talks in depth about keeping your child safe from peanuts in a very "peanutty" world. The chapters that cover this include: peanut exposures, finding hidden peanut products, and keeping safe in a peanut-filled world. These could all probably all be contained in one long chapter since they over lap in many areas.

You don't hear much about the prevention of peanut allergies but this book covers it. After Tyler's diagnosis I learned some of these things (see I did do a little research back then!) and was hopefully able to spare Dylan the same fate (we'll find out for sure next month).

The last chapter is fascinating. It is about the future of the peanut allergy. There are many different types of possibilities mentioned. This book is copyrighted 2006 so the peanut desensitization that sounds promising right now was still too new for him to write about it. (I wrote about it here.) But I still think the things he mentions and their possible treatment of PA are great to read.

If you only buy one book to keep in your library on your child's peanut allergy, it really should be this book. It so in-depth. It's specific to peanut. There are other books out there on PA but I think many agree that this really is the textbook on the subject we parents deal with every day.

If you are interested in the book, purchasing it through this blog helps support PA Kid.