In Littleton, Colorado, a teenage boy died after accidentally eating something with peanuts. Sixteen-year-old Simon Katz was attending a home-coming week bonfire at Chatfield High School, and apparently consumed a treat containing peanuts.  He later died at an area hospital.

Though relatively rare, around 100 people die each year from similar allergic reactions, most of them to food allergies. Some people are so sensitive that even trace amounts can be lethal. Case in point: one teenage girl died after kissing her boyfriend who had eaten peanuts earlier in the day.

If you child has a severe allergy, there are some new tolerance-building therapy’s that have show success. They involve a child being exposed to to a minute amount of peanut protein (equivalent to something like a millionth or a billionth of a gram) while inside a Doctor’s office where they can be monitored for safety. Once they become tolerant, the dose is slowly increased with each appointment to build the child’s tolerance to the protein. A number of kids have been able to diminish their allergy this way to the point of being able to eat an entire peanut without showing a reaction, or even loosing their allergy all-together. It’s not an experiment parents should try on their own, but you should ask your alergist about exposure therapy, because it may be the best way to protect kids with severe allergies.