As an end-of-the-season celebration, we will provide pizza and cookies to all attending, specially made by Adam Froelich of New York Slices in Highland Park. Adam is a strong advocate for food-allergic families, and all New York Slices food is 100% nut, peanut, and transfat free! Thanks, Adam! Bring your own drink, or purchase one in the soda machine conveniently located near our meeting room at Highland Park Hospital

Our speaker will be Ruchi Gupta, MD MPH, assistant professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University ’s Feinberg School of Medicine and Children’s Memorial Research Center. For the past 3 years, Dr. Gupta has worked to raise food allergy awareness by developing and administering a series of surveys assessing food allergy knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs among parents of children with food allergy, primary care physicians, and members of the general public. She will discuss the results of these surveys, sharing with us common and surprising knowledge misconceptions as well as attitudes of the general public and quality of life issues for parents. Improved awareness in these areas will help to improve the lives of children and families with food allergies.

May 10 - 16 is FAAN’s 12th Annual Food Allergy Awareness Week! Go to their website at www.foodallergy.org to see how you can participate.

We’re looking forward to being together next week. Bring your friends. See you there.

7:00 - 9:00 pm
Highland Park Hospital
777 Park Avenue West
Highland Park, IL 60035
847-432-8000

Meeting Room 2 in the basement.

POCHA meeting this Thursday, April 30, 7:00 p.m. at the Main Oak Park Library, 843 W. Lake St. (contrary to local paper info) - bring your expired epi-pens and oranges so we can practice!

Bring your Emergency Health Care Action forms and 504 plans. We’ll talk about keeping your child safe when you’re not there. (My son goes on a church youth group retreat May 8th - I’m nervous!)

Bring your questions and concerns!

Dr. Tobin, our very own Allergy Goddess, will be joining us!

I will have the current ingredient listings for District 97 lunches for you to look at.

Our next meeting will be Monday, March 9, 2009. Our speaker will be Mary Beth Feuling, RD, MS, CNSD, Registered Dietician at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. Mary Beth works with food allergy patients and other children who have various types of gastrointestinal issues including EE (Eosinophilic Esophagitis). Mary Beth has been instrumental in helping many families navigate the nutritional challenges of our food-allergic children, and we know you will be encouraged by her message. We hope you will be able to attend this informative meeting. Make sure to bring any nutritional questions you may have.

Due to the forecast of severe weather, we are canceling tonight’s meeting and are trying to RESCHEDULE our excellent speaker for Monday, February 9th.

We will follow up as soon as we know for sure.

Sorry for the inconvenience, but we do not want to take chances with your safety.

We are excited about our upcoming MOCHA Meeting on Monday, January 12th from 7-9 pm at Highland Park Hospital (777 Park Avenue West, Highland Park 60035 847-432-8000). Enter at the Main Entrance, and follow the purple MOCHA signs to the elevators, down to the basement. We’ll be in Meeting Room 2.

Our speaker will be Mary Beth Feuling, RD, MS, CNSD, Registered Dietician at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. Mary Beth works with food allergy patients and other children who have various types of gastrointestinal issues including EE (Eosinophilic Esophagitis). Mary Beth has been instrumental in helping my family navigate the nutritional challenges of our food-allergic children, and I know you will be encouraged by her message. Her presentation will be from 7:15-8:15 with a Question and Answer from 8:15-8:45 and leaving promptly at 9:00. We are so lucky to have her as our speaker.

We hope you will be able to attend this informative meeting. Make sure to bring any nutritional questions you may have.

Reminder that our next meeting is this coming Monday, November 10th, 7-9 pm at Highland Park Hospital, Meeting Room 2.

We have an incredible program lined up for you:

1. Our featured speaker will be Steven Glink, Steven is a Northbrook attorney who specializes in school law, and has experience particularly in the field of Special Education Rights. He has a proven track record of defending the rights of students and parents in school cases involving special education needs and Section 504 plans. His goal when working with a family is to make sure that the local school district follows all of the requirements of state and federal law in regards to a child’s special needs. In 2005, Steven was selected as a “Leading Lawyer” in education/school law by a poll of all the members of the Illinois State Bar Association. And he was also a co-recipient of the American Diabetes Association Father of the Year award in 2003. This is sure to be a fascinating discussion and one that hits close to home for all of us.
2. Dey Laboratories will have a representative at this meeting as well to provide their latest educational information, as well as EpiPen training. Dey is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development of prescription drug products for the treatment of respiratory diseases and respiratory related allergies (i.e., anaphylaxis). It will be very informative to have one of their representatives available to us and providing hands-on training that evening.
3. As we all gear up for a busy holiday season, we are also providing at the meeting a number of samples of allergy-friendly foods. These will include some that are ready to eat, other products to order, and ready-made and packaged goods. So bring your appetites!

Legislative Update:

As many of you are aware, the food allergy community has been working diligently to pass legislation in Springfield that will require local school boards to develop guidelines to manage their students with life threatening food allergies.

The great news is that this initiative has been met by unanimous support by the members of the Illinois General Assembly — both in the House and the Senate. It has also received the endorsement of the Illinois State Board of Education and the Illinois Department of Public Health. First Lady Patti Blagojevich has taken an important role in supporting this legislation. There are no opponents to our initiative.

Unfortunately, for reasons beyond our control, the bill has been held up because of a disagreement about whether a statutory or a regulatory vehicle should be used to accomplish our policy goals. We are in daily conversations with our legislative champions and the Governor’s administration to determine how to proceed. We hope to finalize an action plan during the Fall and will keep you updated.

Thank you so much for your hard work on this legislation. We have not given up and will not. We will advise you in future emails about how you can help us in our advocacy with legislators and the Governor’s administration.

Meeting Highlights

What a terrific meeting we had Monday night! Dr. Pongracic packed the house with a record attendance of 56!

Dr. Pongracic encouraged us to continue to support the Food Allergy Study at Children’s Memorial Hospital. The goal is to get 1,000 new families to participate in the study. Please make the commitment to participate even if your entire family is not available. Families with a few members participating are better than families with no members participating! Your family really can make a difference! Dr. Pongracic and Dr. Wang extend huge appreciation to those families who have already participated. Two convenient locations are now available: Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago and Children’s Glenbrook facility in Glenview. Please call Deanna Caruso at 312-573-7755 to sign up. Check out www.FoodAllergyProject.org for more info and the direct link.

FAI Chicago Inaugural Benefit is coming up

When: Saturday, November 1, 2008
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Chicago Illuminating Company, 19 East 21st Street, Chicago
www.faiusa.org/chicago

Reminder: Our first meeting is Monday, Sept. 22, at Highland Park Hospital. Details are below and on our Meetings page.

Legislative Update: We have gotten word that the Illinois Senate is going into session on Monday, 9/22. It is critical that we make a strong statement now to encourage the legislature to push bill (Senate Bill 2685/House Bill 5338, School Food Allergy Guidelines) through.

House Bill 5338 Update - The bill, which would provide for the development of a statewide school policy for children with food allergies, has passed both houses of the Illinois legislature, but is currently held up along with other bills by the political situation in Springfield between the legislature and the Governor. We are confident that the bill will become law and wish to thank everyone who took time to contact representatives. It did make a difference!

First Meeting Date Change - Monday, 9/22 - Our first meeting of the school year will feature our very own Dr. Jacqueline Pongracic, Division Head of the Allergy Dept. at Children’s Memorial Hospital. Dr. Pongracic will provide an “Update on Food Allergy Research at CMH and Beyond.”

FAAN Walk - Saturday, 9/27 - Please join us for a 3-mile walk through Lincoln Park and along Lake Michigan to raise money for food allergy education, research, and advocacy, and to increase awareness in the community. Please visit FoodAllergyWalk.org for more information.

Food Allergy Initiative Chicago Benefit - We’re thrilled to announce that the Food Allergy Initiative (FAI) Chicago will hold it’s first Annual Benefit on Saturday, November 1, 2008, at 7:00p at the Chicago Illuminating Company. Visit FAI-Chicago for more information.

We look forward to seeing you at the MOCHA-Chicago meeting this week as we welcome cookbook author Kim Lutz. Kim is the mother of two food allergic sons. She recently published the Welcoming Kitchen Allergen-Free Recipes for Snacks and Goodies cookbook. The recipes are free of peanuts, nuts, dairy, eggs, soy, wheat, fish & shellfish. Two additional cookbooks are coming soon: Welcoming Kitchen Allergen-Free Recipes for Home Cooking and Welcoming Kitchen Allergen-Free Recipes for Entertaining. You may recognize Kim from Chicago Parent Magazine, February 2008 (chicagoparent.com).

MOCHA-Chicago Meeting
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
6:30 p.m.-8:00 p.m.
Children’s Memorial Hospital Outpatient Center
2515 N. Clark Street, 7th floor Conference Room (Deming Building)
Chicago, IL
Discounted Parking available in the attached garage