Has your child tested positive for peanut allergies on standard blood or skin-prick test? Apparently, there's a chance your child isn't actually peanut allergic, based on the stats from a new study.

According to their survey, the majority of children considered peanut-sensitized on the basis of standard tests do not have peanut allergy. In fact, only 7 of the 79 peanut-sensitized children showed objective symptoms during the food challenge.

The problem is, food challenge is too risky and time consuming for use in routine diagnostics. The authors suggest a new type of blood test that may be more precise than standard IgE tests. The technique, called component-resolved diagnostics (CRD), involves exposing blood samples to specific, purified peanut proteins and measuring the IgE antibody response.

Hopefully, researchers can come up with a more reliable, more precise diagnostic tool. As a parent of a (confirmed) peanut allergic child, I know how life is like with peanut allergies, and food allergy in general. If you've been living as if you have peanut allergies when you actually don't have the condition, imagine all the stress and axieties you could have been spared!

Th US Food and Drug Administration has cleared Phadia's ImmunoCAP® Rapid Reader II for use in the diagnosis of allergy in the physician's office.

With ImmunoCAP Rapid, physicians who treat asthma and rhinitis patients will have semi-quantitative measurements of IgE levels for ten common inhalant allergens in the United States. With this insight, clinicians can differentiate between atopic and non atopic etiologies contributing to their patient's symptoms; counsel their patients for allergic trigger avoidance; develop targeted exposure reduction action plans specifically tailored to each patient's allergic sensitization profile; and prescribe the right medications.

The perk of this new diagnostic test is that quick results can be available while the patient is still in the office, so that doctors can immediately discuss and make recommendations on the management of the patient's allergies. The test requires drawing of blood sample (they promise it's just going to be one blood draw, once). While this might be scary for some, it is actually less risky that skin prick tests, for example, where there is a risk of allergic reactions as you are exposed to allergens during testing. It's convenient for adults, and a gentle testing option for young children.

If you are a parent of a child with allergies, here are some further reading material from the makers of ImmunoCAP to better understand your child's allergies.

The gift-givign season may have been over, but here's a good gift idea for birthdays and other occasions for people who have medical conditions such as allergies: medic alert jewelry. Bracelets, keychains, and tags can be custom made to indicate medical conditions and other vital information that may be useful in case of emergencies.

The American MedicalID offers classic looking medical jewelry bearing an insignia that immediately identifies itself as a medical ID. While this may be less fashionable, it does make it easier for other people to spot in cases of emergencies, so from the medical point of view, it's a sensible choice.

For the more fashionable look, ICE Gems offer a wide range of stylish medical jewelry. They appear really more like jewelry, but made functional by the addition of the medical symbol and personal info engraved within. Take the "Colour Changing Mood Bead" bracelet for example. Whether you're feeling fiery and passionate or calm and contemplative, these pretty beads will alter in colour to reflect your ever-changing feelings.

Or the "Funky Punky" - little rubber spikey sputniks of pure attitude and funk combined with matching spacer beads make this a truly unique and fun medical I.D. bracelet.

There is something for everyone - for kids there are football or flower themed bracelets and for those that prefer their jewellery sophisticated and understated there is a large selection of beautiful handbeaded bracelets made with Swarovski crystal finished with sterling silver.

There are so many choices of medical alert jewelry out there. When choosing one as a gift to a loved one, however, the most important is to choose something that your recipient will actually wear!

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Cooking Allergy Free has released a new application for iPhone or iPod Touch called "Picky Eater" for people with food allergies. It has a database of over 1500 ingredients and their associations to about 150 allergen groups based on the website's listing of ingredients and allergens.

The folks at Cooking Allergy Free has generously given me one promo code, and since I don't own an iPhone, I'm giving it away: 3Y66R4WKH4LY (claim at the App Store). If the code no longer works, then you can download it for $1.99, with the ability to update itself as new ingredients are added.