Assignment 7A: Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

 Food Allergies/Sensitivities 

o   Millions of children and young adults unexpectedly develop food sensitivities or allergies that can have serious impacts on their health and lifestyle.

§  Who: Children and young adults

§  What: They are susceptible to threatening/nonlife-threatening reactions and impacts on their lifestyle

§  Why: They are still growing and their bodies are still developing

·       Testing:

o   The Who: The main focus of who has this need are children and young adults because they are still growing. However, adults may have this need, too. Sometimes different events, stressors, foods, etc. can trigger reactions at any time or age. Adults may not have an overwhelming need for food sensitivity tests, but it still can be an option for them.

o   The What: Not all food reactions are serious, which is what people tend to think of when people have food sensitivities or allergies. If the reaction is not serious, this can impact how people choose to deal with the problem. Although not as common, food allergies and sensitivities can also be linked to behavioral issues.

o   The Why: Children and young adults are at the stage where they bodies are continuing to grow and develop. Sometimes this creates changes in the body’s digestive system and causes food or the proteins, chemicals, etc. in foods to become toxic to the body or hard to digest. Also, everyone is different so it would be incredibly hard to pin point which foods affect which people and how severe the reaction will be. I think that this opportunity will aid in the knowledge and, maybe even, prevention of serious and non-serious food reactions.

·       Interviews:

o   Interview 1: For the first interview, I wanted to talk with a person who has a serious food allergy and ask how they found out. The female student that I talked to said she discovered that she was allergic to pineapple out of blue when she was on vacation in Hawaii. The full reaction of the allergy, anaphylaxis, came out of nowhere and it was weird for her because pineapple was her favorite fruit and she ate it all the time. However, she said looking back now she should have asked questions when her tongue started becoming numb and her throat was getting itchy after eating pineapple. She said that she thought everyone experienced that and thought it was normal. She said that if her doctor offered her a basic food test that she probably would have used it or would have taken her symptoms more seriously.

o   Interview 2: This interviewee was a mom who has three younger children with different food allergies. She wholeheartedly agreed with my idea that that having a simple food allergy/sensitivity test at the doctor’s office would be useful. She said kids are always in and out of the doctor’s office so it would be fairly easy to do. She also mentioned that for one of her children, who has a diary allergy, that it was very expensive to figure out what was wrong with her son. She bounced from doctor to doctor. However, having a severe stomach ache is very general and not everyone automatically thinks food allergy.

o   Interview 3: This interview was done with a male seventh-grade school student (my cousin). Although he did not have food allergies, I asked about some of his peers. He said that there are a few kids with severe peanut allergies. They were so severe that the other students were not able to bring anything with peanuts as an ingredient into the class. He did say that now he was curious if he had any serious food allergies.

o   Interview 4: The next interview was with a female college student studying APK. She said that she personally did not have any food allergies, but my idea was interesting and could be useful. She understands that the body goes through different changes during growth and these changes can impact the digestive system. She also brought up the fact that there are take home food allergy/sensitivity tests, but she liked the fact that my idea included having them done at a doctor’s office. She said it would be easier for a doctor to interpret the information and come up with a plan if an allergy/sensitivity is detected.

o   Interview 5: For the last interview, I wanted to speak with someone who has a food sensitivity. The person I interviewed, a young college male, may be lactose intolerant, however he chooses not to do anything about it. He said does get stomach aches when he east dairy product, but he feels as though that is the only problem. To combat this, he simply stays away from milk, cheese, yogurt, etc. He said that right now he is too busy with school work and that visiting a gastroenterologist would be too expensive. He said that if his symptoms became more severe he would probably want to take a food sensitivity test, but for right now avoiding the cause of the issue (dairy) is enough right now.

·       New Knowledge:

o   When I first thought of this opportunity in Assignment 4, I mainly focused at young adults/college students because that is when I developed my food sensitivity. However, after speaking with the mother of three young children who all have food allergies, I decided include children in the age range of my “who”.

o   When I talked to my cousin about his classmates with peanut allergies, I started thinking about maybe introducing this tests to schools. When I was in grade school, my classmates and I were given optional hearing and vision tests. Schools could offer an optional food sensitivity test to spread knowledge about how common food allergies are and that children are the ones most affected by them.

o   After speaking with my interviewees, I feel as though my idea is useful and can spread awareness of food allergies/sensitivities. Although, not everyone will use this, as in the case of interview 5, it at least gets the word out there. The mom I interviewed said that food allergy was the last thing she thought of when visiting the numerous doctors to find out what was wrong with her son. So even just mentioning a food allergy/sensitivity test can at least help narrow down trips to the doctors or possible ailments.