Know of anyone who is allergic to eggs?
Given the prevalence of eggs in many types of foods these days, you can only imagine how inconvenient it is for those with this dietary allergy and the resulting restrictions.
Egg allergy, it turns out, is the most common food allergy among children in Singapore, according to the KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH).
There is no accepted treatment for egg allergy yet, and therefore, the only solution is to avoid eating eggs.
However, doctors at KKH are looking at a new treatment that can potentially help improve the tolerance in egg allergy.
Their research study involves eating pancakes and cookies.
Research study on managing egg allergy among children
KKH is looking for children and teens aged two to 15 who are allergic to eggs to participate in this study.
The study will take place for 12 to 18 months and requires participants to visit KKH for about nine to 11 times over the study period.
Participants will undergo a baseline screening cooked egg challenge to confirm that he or she is allergic to eggs before being sorted into an Active Group or Control Group.
The Active Group will undergo a muffin challenge to see if they are tolerant of baked-egg products.
If they do not react negatively to baked egg products, they will proceed with the consumption of pancakes made from a standardised recipe.
On the other hand, those who react negatively will start with cookies first before proceeding to eating pancakes.
The pancakes and/ or cookies will be consumed daily and the quantity will increase over time to the top pancake dose of the study.
At the end of the treatment, participants' tolerance to cooked egg will be tested again.
Separately, the Control Group will continue to abstain from eating egg and all foods containing egg.
They will be assessed for tolerance to cooked eggs at the end of the treatment too.
Participants aged two to 15 wanted
The research study is looking for participants aged two to 15.
They should be able to communicate in English comfortably and be accompanied by a parent during their participation.
A token of appreciation will be given to participants.
A person is less likely to outgrow egg allergy if he/ she is still allergic to eggs in the later part of childhood.
This study will help to improve quality of life for those who have egg allergy should the oral immunotherapy prove to make a difference to participants' tolerance to eggs.
More details here:
via KK Women's and Children's Hospital/Facebook
Top image via KK Women's and Children's Hospital and Unsplash