Another study has found that some children may be freed of their peanut allergies if they eat a tiny amount of peanut products every day until their body develops a tolerance.

Just last month, researchers in Cambridge, U.K., published a study in the journal Allergy that found that giving children with severe peanut allergies tiny doses of peanut flour every day and building up the dose allowed the children to eat a handful of the nuts after six months.

In this study, teams at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina and Arkansas Children's Hospital gave a group of children almost microscopic doses of peanut daily.

Nine of the 33 children in the study have been able to tolerate the treatment for more than two years and four appear to be allergy free, the researchers told reporters.

"At the start of the study, these participants couldn't tolerate one-sixth of a peanut," said Dr. Wesley Burks of Duke, who helped lead the study.

"Six months into it, they were ingesting 13 to 15 peanuts before they had a reaction."

The results of the study were reported at a meeting of the American Academy of Asthma and Immunology in Washington.

"This gives other parents and children hope that we'll soon have a safe, effective treatment that will halt allergies to certain foods," said lead researcher Dr. Wesley Burks, Duke's allergy chief.

The method should not be attempted at home. Doctors in this study monitored youngsters closely in case they needed rescue. As well, they used such tiny amounts of peanuts; it's not possible to chop peanut as small as the treatment doses used.

People with peanut allergies can have severe reactions to even tiny amounts of the ground nuts, including anaphylactic shock, which can cause a drop in blood pressure, swelling of the tongue or throat and sometimes death. Their immune systems mistakenly interpret compounds from the foods as invaders and create antibodies to fight them.

It's estimated more than 150,000 Canadians suffer from peanut allergies. Of them, about 25 to 35 per cent are also sensitive to tree nuts, such as almonds. Some children outgrow the allergy on their own but for at least 80 per cent; it's thought that the allergy will be life long.

Head lice an itchy problem

Many parents have experienced the anxious call from the day care or school saying their child has head lice. Now new research suggests a more accurate way of identifying if indeed a child has the problem or not.

Health care professionals frequently over diagnose head lice and fail to distinguish between active and extinct cases. This new study found combing through a child's wet hair is more accurate in identifying head lice infestations than visual inspection. The research looked at 600 children who were inspected for lice. Visual inspection underestimated the prevalence of head lice, while wet combing had a significantly higher sensitivity for detecting active infection.

With wet combing, a conditioner is applied to wet the hair -- and it's then combed from roots to ends with a fine-toothed comb. This is also a safe effective way to treat the problem.

How do you know when you've gotten rid of all the lice?

There are a couple of ways can help you tell.

The main place to find the nits or eggs is behind the ears and at the back of the head near the neck. Live nits are usually firmly attached to the hair very close to the scalp -- if the nits are more than an inch away or you can pick them off easily, they're likely dead. That's why fine combing is useful.

If decide to use a lice shampoo, don't use hair conditioner before you apply treatment because it may coat the hair and prevent the lice and nits from being treated. And you'll want to repeat any treatment a week later to make sure you've taken care of any newly hatched lice.

What about using the special treatment on other family members preventatively?

There's no need to do this unless they're infected too -- so fine combing and checking every family member regularly is all you need to do.

Also, make sure you dry clean or wash clothing, linens and towels in hot water, and put combs and brushes in boiling water, alcohol or bleach to prevent recurring problems.

With a report by CTV British Columbia's Dr. Rhonda Low.