There's a lot happening at Grand Rapids Allergy! We held our quarterly
Food Allergy Center of Excellence (FACE) meeting, conducted a day of filming brand-new educational videos for our patients, and sponsored two fabulous peanut-free Whitecaps baseball games, all within the last month!
FACE Full House At our FACE event on May 6, the highlight of the evening was an informative talk from guest speaker Dr. Steven Pastyrnak about the way children cope with chronic illnesses such as severe food allergy, and how their coping strategies change throughout development. (See his recommended reading list below for books on helping children with anxiety.) Specialist Jodi Bauer and her fantastic team of child-life specialists led our child attendees in hands-on activities designed to explore their own experiences with food allergy. With 21 adults and 20 children, we had a full house and lots of great discussion. Watch for our next meeting coming up in a few short months!
Lights, Camera, Action After our FACE meeting, the doctors and staff were at it again the very next day, working hard to produce several new educational videos to demonstrate treatment techniques for severe eczema, hyperkeratosis, hives and more. We had a stellar lineup of patients who generously volunteered their time to come talk about their own experiences and how their treatment plans worked for them. Their touching, honest testimonies about difficulties and successes will add immeasurably to the value of these videos and will be an encouragement to others.
Peanut-Free Baseball Only two weeks later, we were at 5/3 Ballpark sponsoring this year's
peanut-free days with Grand Rapids' own Whitecaps. The workers at the park had been cleaning, sweeping, hosing down and raking out the entire park for three days before the first of two peanut-free games began, and the park looked fantastic. It was a great opportunity for children with nut allergies to enjoy a baseball game with their friends and family, and a great time for our nurses, medical assistants, front desk workers and managers to meet and greet thousands of West Michigan baseball fans!
As a follow-up to Dr. Pastyrnak's talk at May's FACE meeting, here are two books he recommends for parents for helping their children with anxiety:
You may have seen the EPA's asthma awareness commercials lately, featuring children who describe asthma attacks as making them feel like "a fish with no water." The EPA provides a 
