"Sometimes Ellis Glover would be forced to leave her friends and sit at a lunch table where no one was eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  I wanted to sit with my good good friends but I couldnt the yearold said. If youre a kid and you have a food allergy its harder on you. Youre missing out on a lot of stuff other children can have. I always want to try peanut stuff.  Mom Monica Glover said the family discovered Ellis peanut allergy when she was about . The tipoff a skin reaction around her mouth after she was given food with a small amount of peanuts in it. We were lucky to have discovered it that way. That was a mild reaction Glover said and a doctor confirmed the allergy through tests.  Serviced residences are tailoring their properties for specific kinds of travelers. Which type are you The discovery was distressing Glover said. Accidental exposure to peanuts has happened resulting in severe stomach cramps and vomiting she said. Essentially we have to live in fear all the time of Ellis being inadvertently exposed to peanuts and having a reaction that is potentially lifethreatening. Glover seized the opportunity to participate in a study on the safety and effectiveness of an experimental treatment that could give her daughter protection against accidental exposure to peanuts. Despite the risk it was a gift she said adding that her family hoped their efforts might help lots of other children. The risk paid off Twothirds of the kids in the study were able to eat the equivalent of two peanuts without any symptoms after following the monthslong experimental treatment regimen the researchers found.  Ellis is one of the majority of children for whom the treatment works. Its been a huge success her mother said. The study httpsdx.doi.org.NEJMoa results published Sunday in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the American College of Allergy Asthma and Immunologys Annual Scientific Meeting prove that the treatment can protect some children against accidental exposure to or ingestion of a very small amount of peanuts or peanut products. Not a cure Dr. Brian Vickery http the studys lead author director of the Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta Food Allergy Program and an associate professor of pediatrics at the Emory University School of Medicine cautioned that its not a cure.  It does not make the allergy to go away Vickery said. The purpose is not to get them to be no longer peanut allergic and allow them to eat whatever they want.  Still thats no small accomplishment he said. There are no US Food and Drug Administrationapproved treatment options for food allergies of any kind or peanut allergy in particular which along with tree nut allergy affects an estimated  million Americans https or more.  Aimmune Therapeutics Inc. https the Californiabased biopharmaceutical company that made the experimental product will be submitting an application for marketing approval httpir.aimmune.comnewsreleasesnewsreleasedetailsaimmunetherapeuticsannouncesthirdquarterfinancial to the FDA in December and the FDA has designated the treatment as worthy of an expedited approval process.  Im telling patients when I see them that my hope is that patients will have access by late next summer something like that Vickery said. He added that although the study proved the treatments effectiveness and safety only in children adults would probably benefit in the same way. How the study worked To test the experimental therapy  research centers in  countries recruited  participants who ranged in age from  to  and who all had a peanut allergy. Most   participants  were between the ages of  and .  The treatment https which comes in powderfilled capsules is an oral immunotherapy and the concept is treating an allergy by gradually exposing people to the very same thing theyre allergic to Vickery said. Essentially the treatment is a peanut powder.  Ellis participated in the study at the Pediatric Clinical Research Unit at Arkansas Childrens Hospital in Little Rock which was overseen by Dr. Stacie M. Jones https a professor of pediatrics and chief of allergy and immunology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Arkansas Childrens Hospital. We were extremely wellinformed about the entire process Glover said. You start at a super low dose and work your way up. You take it at the hospital under observation. Then you take it at home every day.   Threequarters of the study participants were given the treatment in increasing amounts every two weeks until reaching maintenance when they received the equivalent of one peanut daily. The remainder of the participants were given a placebo. At the conclusion of the study after a year all of the participants faced an exit food challenge They ate under a doctors supervision the equivalent of two peanuts.  Twothirds of the treatment participants were able to tolerate this exit dose without a severe reaction. Half tolerated even twice that amount a fourpeanut dose.  Overall participants experienced fewer side effects during the study than the researchers had anticipated. Its intuitive that that process would trigger some allergic symptoms in many patients Vickery said. A third completed the study with no more than mild side effects such as stomachache. Ellis experienced stomach cramps and vomiting multiple times during the study usually on days when her dose was increased to raise her tolerance. Having stomach cramps did not feel very good she said. Still she usually vomited and the cramps passed quickly.  Once she felt her throat constrict and it was harder for me to breathe she said. Shed gone into anaphylaxis a severe allergic reaction. The hospital staff reacted immediately and gave her a shot of epinephrine. I felt safe with all the doctors and nurses around me. They can help you get through it she said. A little more than  of the children dropped out of the study due to severe side effects. Among children receiving the treatment  required rescue epinephrine during the exit challenge compared with  in the placebo group. These treatments really have the potential to transform peoples lives Vickery said and I have seen it happen firsthand the sense of relief families get when a child becomes desensitized.  Trying to be bite safe Dr. Scott Sicherer https a professor of pediatrics and director of the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York said the study is the largest of the phase three studies in pharmaceuticalgrade peanut.  Its what a lot of families call trying to be bite safe. its not that youre curing the allergy its not that youre going to be able to eat peanut butter sandwiches said Sicherer who was not involved in the study. Its really just to have a better threshold so that if you accidentally ate something that had a little bit of peanut in it maybe you wouldnt have a reaction or the reaction wouldnt be so bad. Though the immunotherapy treatment is simply a matter of gradually increasing your tolerance to peanuts you could have a severe reaction at home. This is not something to try at home Sicherer said. Aimmune has made peanut into a pharmaceuticalgrade product he said. Most people think of it as medicinalized food. Doctors and patients both know exactly how much youre getting he said and thats important because if youre reactive to say a th of a peanut you dont want to have a mistake where youre suddenly getting a th of peanut. Assuming the treatment wins FDA approval Sicherer said the conversation between doctors and patients will be Is it better to just avoid the food and ask a lot of questions at restaurants and be real careful or do something like this and still dont eat the food and ask the questions in the restaurant but at least know you have a bit of a safety valve  There are more than a few caveats when it comes to the treatment regimen. For one its a commitment he said. You cannot take a dose before exercising and you cant skip doses or you might have a severe reaction when you pick it up again. Glover noted Its somewhat disruptive. You have to do it every day. Generally we would take it after dinner. After giving the medicine she added parents must carefully monitor their children preventing them from becoming too active or too hot. Sicherer said The family that does this really really really has to be a rule follower. Its not easy. It would still be worth it to many he said. If this ends up being the first approved treatment if it is covered by insurance and if details of whom it works for best were all worked out and the risks and benefits were clear that would be so amazing because we havent really had anything like that before he said. Get CNN Healths weekly newsletter  Its not everything we would hope for but its still fantastic to be able to raise someones threshold from a teeny tiny amount of peanut to a couple of peanuts or more said Sicherer who believes that other allergy products will be developed in time I can tell my patients that this might be the right thing for them but if not were looking at things that might be easier and better down the road. Glover acknowledges that its not a perfect solution. I would say its been some work to go through this study just in terms of a time commitment. Still if it had taken twice the amount of time she would have done it Its peace of mind. Even though she dislikes the medicines taste Ellis also believes it is worth it. Its definitely better she would say to another kid with peanut allergy You know you can be around your friends when they have peanut butter on them."