Book Review - A Little Bit Can Hurt

A Little Bit Can Hurt: The Shocking Truth About Food Allergies Why We Should Care What We Can Do

by Donna DeCosta, MD

Rating *** (3 Stars)

When I think of food allergies I immediately think of gluten and dairy. I will then go to analyze the sulfur level in various foods - since I have an intolerance to sulfur as well. I was excited to pick up this book, because I wanted to understand how consuming even a little bit of gluten will affect my intolerant daughter. 

Except that is not what this book is about - at all. This book is mainly about allergies that can cause a child to go into anaphylaxis shock. It talks a lot about peanut allergies and tree nut allergies. It does also mention diary allergies. 

The book is divided into sections. In the first section you receive stories from various areas of their lifespan - starting at infancy and ending to adulthood. The stories are helpful for individuals to empathize with - an I am not alone kind of thing. They do not provide a wealth of information. You do receive some more information in the second section, which is where medical providers, educators, and community members write about their expertise. 

Overal the book does not provide a whole lot of information on allergies. It is more along the theme of you are not alone, and people do successfully manage their allergy. The biggest problem that I had from the book (besides from it's very generic title) is that everyone in the book is a sample of convenience. By this I mean that they were all connected to the same support group - possibly even all members of just one meeting location. This only provides a limited perspective. Even the medical professionals and community members were all connected to the same support group. While it is not certain if the educational professionals are, the author did not go out of their way there either. Both educators for from the same PRIVATE school. Even though one teacher is in preschool and one in early education you do not get a vary different perspective since they are both from the same school.

The best thing about this book is that it got me thinking about the effect of my daughter's lunch box on children at her school. Yet at the same time it frustrated me. The parents in the book were not very sympathetic to children who only eat peanut butter. It was a your kid can starve because my kid is allergic. Since my child WILL STARVE herself rather then eat a non preferred food I was not very happy with this attitude. However, I have talked with my daughter about how to make sure that she does not contaminate her friends with a peanut allergy. For example she should always wash her hands after she eats. Also, she should never share food with her friends with a nut allergy since we often bake with almond flour and they could be allergic.