Five-year-old Lily Levesque is a well-known face in the halls of Aurora, Colorado's Children’s Hospital because she’s part of a study that periodically brings her to the hospital. The study is on the use of a patch that can help Lily with something she’s struggled with since she was a baby: food allergies.

“At 11 months old, we fed her peanut butter for the first time, and she had an immediate reaction,” Lily’s mother Brooke Levesque said.

Lily had to go to the emergency room that day. Since then, she’s learned to avoid anything with peanuts. But every doctor knows that accidental ingestion can occur. That’s why the research study that Lily is part of is so important.

“If you ask parents what do they want, they just want their child not to be hurt when there’s an accidental ingestion,” Dr. Matthew Greenhawt, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and co-director of the Food Challenge Unit at Children’s Hospital Colorado, said.

He and Dr. David Fleischer, also co-director of the Food Challenge Unit, are researching a patch that slowly releases a patient’s allergen in to their skin. That patch is put on the patient’s back and changed periodically. The patients are closely monitored by Dr. Greenhawt and Dr. Fleischer.

“The thought is that gradual exposure through the skin can increase desensitization,” Greenhawt said.

The goal is to increase a person’s resistance to their allergen just enough to prevent a severe reaction if that person accidentally eats a small amount of food that contains something to which they are allergic.

“You’d be able to eat up to a certain amount and not react,” Greenhawt said.

The study comes at a time when food allergies are on the rise. According to a study by the Centers for Disease Control, the number of food allergies among children increased by about 50 percent between 1997 and 2011. Researchers don’t quite know why, but they think now is an important time to educate the public, since this week is Food Allergy Awareness Week.

“We’ve absolutely seen an increase not just in food allergies, but in all allergic diseases,” Fleischer said.

One theory is that withholding foods like peanuts for too long could increase a child’s sensitivity to the food. That theory was part of research published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which urges doctors to change their recommendations to parents.

“We used to recommend avoiding milk, and egg and peanuts two you’re two or three years of age,” Fleischer said. “That changed recently with the guidelines in studies showing that if you introduce these foods earlier, you can actually decrease the risk of these children developing food allergies.”

Fleischer and Greenhawt are part of a committee of doctors and allergy experts who are helping to rewrite the recommendations to parents on when to expose their children to peanuts.

“Peanut was said to be avoided until you’re 3 years old. Now they’re recommending to introduce it between four and six months of age. So very young,” Fleischer said.

The new recommendations should be finished in a few months. The research on the allergy patch has been underway for several months. It’ll take place for a full year. Lily’s parents are hoping that, within that time, the study could make a difference for her. It’s something Lily hopes for too, since she insisted on being a part of the study.

“We’re very proud of her and her bravery,” Lily’s mom said.

For more information on Food Allergy Awareness Week, visit: http://bit.ly/1T4yuhe.

Copyright 2016 KUSA