Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that parents start feeding their children peanuts to rid them of their allergies. But a new study may hold hope for the future for families suffering from peanut allergies. A study out of Duke University has found that feeding children a tiny crumb of peanut every day may eventually help rid them of their allergies.

Researchers took small amounts of peanut protein and gradually increased amounts over a four-month-period. By the end of the study, participants were getting the equivalent of one peanut. “What we’re finding is that children are becoming less sensitive to peanuts,” says head researcher Dr. Wesley Burks. Potentially life-saving news should your child eat a peanut accidentally. “We hope by the end of this study participants will have actually ‘outgrown’ their peanut allergy.”

Some Peanut Allergy Facts:

• Most children experience their first allergic peanut reaction between 14 and 24 months of age.
• Some children react to as little as 1/1000th of a peanut and, in severe cases, it can be life threatening the first time.
• If signs of allergy, such as eczema or other skin conditions, appear before six months of age, there is a one in five chance that your child will develop an allergy by age five.

Cool shoes that are easy for toddlers to put on themselves.

Most of us can’t afford to dress our tots like Suri Cruise. But Converse makes it easy to put your kids in Shiloh Pitt and Violet Affleck’s shoes. Their three-strap oxfords retail for just $35 a pair. Best of all, the velcro is ultra practical and easy for most toddlers to do up themselves. We put the shoes to the ultimate test–two-year-old Bode Ripton.

Bode felt so proud when he could do up his shoes on his own. And he loved showing off his cool new treads to his classmates at preschool.

The three-strap oxford (seen here) and other cool styles are available in stores March 2009 and locations can be found online at converse.com