Dr. Ruchi S. Gupta
Earlier this week, I ran across this article from UPI, “Physicians lack food allergies knowledge.” The article talks about a study led by Dr. Ruchi Gupta at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
Dr. Gupta and her team interviewed 400 pediatricians and family doctors and found that many of them held misconceptions about food allergies. Many even self-reported that they weren’t comfortable with diagnosis and treatment of food allergies.
Here at Nutricia we, of course, greatly value the care that physicians and other healthcare providers provide to so many food allergy families. But we’ve also heard some parents lament how long it took to get their child the right diagnosis ― and therefore, treatment.
What is your experience? Do you feel like your pediatrician “gets” your child’s food allergies? If not, what do you think the food allergy community (families, researchers/experts, support groups, non-profit organizations and companies like Nutricia) can/should do to help improve understanding of food allergies?
- Christine
2 Responses to “In the News: Physicians Lack Food Allergies Knowledge”
Leave a Reply
Please refer to our Comments & Trackbacks Policy before commenting.
January 3rd, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Out of 9 pediatricians that we saw in the past year (my son is 1) only 2 kind of “got it.” the first one is no longer accepting Medicaid and was not even my son’s PCP, he was just an emergency rotating doctor and doctor 2 (our newest one) only knows about them because her nurse has children with food allergies. Before these two doctors, the 7 other doctors made me feel crazy and guilty for always taking my son in for sick-child visits. When doctor 1 referred us to an allergist at 6 months, my son’s PCP did not seem interested in the results and was never in contact with the allergist. Our newest doctor seems genuinely concerned and has even referred us to TEFRA after Medicaid denied my son Neocate 1 +.
One of the problems that my husband and I have encountered is that many pediatricians do not know about Neocate. Since they receive most of their sample formulas from a single company, their relationship with Neocate is non-exixtant. My husband and I have come to believe that representatives in each state or county where the doctors can have someone to contact about Neocate. Also food allergies should be just as focused on a childhood diabetes. Medical schools should teach doctors about food allergies just as they teach about childhood obesity. Also since food allergies affect everyone from parents to caregivers to siblings, pediatricians should be proactive and encourage patients and parents to establish support groups.
January 4th, 2010 at 6:58 pm
Before my daughter was diagnosed by an allergist I was point blank told by her pediatrician and her gastrointerologist that she did not have an allergy to milk or wheat. This was after her face gradually turned red from her chin up after yogurt and her tummy was always painful. Turns out she was allergic to these as well as other things like peanuts/treenuts(only one she has now). I always tell new parents that they must be their child’s advocate. If they feel something is wrong, insist that the dr get a true diagnosis.