Medikidz Tackles Food Allergies
The National Food Allergy and Intolerance Week (25-29 January 2010) will highlight the disturbing news that the number of children suffering from food allergies has increased by 200% in the last decade.
“What is worrying is that we are also seeing a growth in the number of children suffering severe allergies, like nut and other food allergies,” says Muriel Simmons of Allergy UK.
As part of the national week, Medikidz - the world's first multimedia health education publishing company for children - will release their latest title, What’s up with Paulina? Medikidz explain Food Allergy on Monday 25 January, to provide support to children diagnosed with a food allergy.
In the book, the five Medikidz Superheroes take Paulina on a trip around Mediland (a planet shaped like the human body) to explain the cause of an allergic reaction, as well as how medicines can help calm and control it. What’s up with Paulina?
Medikidz explain Food Allergy also provides the child with the reassurance that having a food allergy is quite common and so there is no need to feel isolated when living with one.
To ensure accurate and appropriate medical advice, this book has been peer reviewed by two specialists in the field: Professor John O Warner (MD, FRCP, FRCHCH, F Med Sci, Imperial College London), and Dr Anna Nowak-Wegrzyn (MD, Mount Sinai Medical Center, USA).
Dr Kim Chilman-Blair, CEO and Founder of Medikidz, says, “With such a massive growth in the number of children experiencing food allergy, we felt that there was also a substantive need to provide them with accessible educational materials.
“The Medikidz comic book gives children with food allergy a proper medical understanding of why they have to avoid certain foods – in a fun, interesting and engaging way.”
As junior doctors in New Zealand, Dr Kim Chilman-Blair and Dr Kate Hersov became increasingly frustrated that there was very little available to help educate sick children about disease.
With most medical information targeted at adults, they saw an opportunity to develop an entirely new approach to conveying complex information on diseases and illnesses to children. Their solution: a series of comic book superheroes called the Medikidz who explain illnesses to sick children.
What began as an idea for comic books has matured into the world's first multimedia health education publishing company for children.
Right now there are twenty-six titles including books on Asthma, Diabetes, Epilepsy, HIV and Leukaemia and a website that offers medical information and facilitates social networking - a ‘medical Facebook’ for sick kids.
There are also healthy doses of blogging and Twitter to deliver medical information to teenagers.
Medikidz books can be purchased from Amazon, Waterstones and at medikidz.com
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