One day when she was 9 months old, Valerie Chase reached out her hand when her mother happened to be eating something with peanut butter.

She touched her mother's face and almost instantly Valerie's own tiny face swelled.

"You could barely even see her little nose," Valerie's mother, Kathy, said.

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, peanut butter cookies and peanut M &M's are comfort food for some children, but for others like Valerie, it is cause for alarm.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease says that one in 200 Americans has a peanut or nut allergy.

Schools in the Helena area have addressed the problem.

Some schools designate peanut-free tables in the lunchrooms, and some teachers don't allow anything to be brought into the classroom that contains peanut products.

Teachers have educated their students about reading labels and sent home letters to parents about peanut-free goodies they may send with their children.

The caution is necessary. Some children don't even have to ingest peanuts to have problems. Just being close to the foods that have peanuts as an ingredient can trigger a rash or even a severe respiratory reaction.

Now a sixth grader at Helena Middle School, Valerie and her family have established a plan that has worked both in the home and at school.

Only one time has an incident given the family a major scare since Valerie's allergy was diagnosed. She was in second grade when she was given some candy that either had peanuts in the ingredients or was cross-contaminated -- some products are processed in a facility that also processes peanuts in other products.

"She started to have a reaction," Kathy said. "Luckily, we had a plan in place. She got to the nurse, who injected the EpiPen. She was fine and everything went according to the plan."

Many teachers in the Helena School District are trained to use an EpiPen, an injector that contains medicine to stop the reaction, said Lu Driessen, a registered nurse with the Helena School District.

Driessen explained that students with these types of allergies have a care program in place involving administrators, teachers and faculty. In the event of exposure there are trained adults on hand to help.

Ryan and Bryce MacNeill are siblings who have peanut allergies, although neither of their parents is allergic.

Their mother, Laurie, says she first gave Ryan, now in sixth grade at HMS, peanut butter on toast when he was about 1. She said that in just a couple of hours her infant son became very fussy, and his face began to swell.

A trip to the doctor showed that Ryan had severe peanut allergies.

With Bryce, Laurie waited a little longer to introduce anything that included peanuts in the ingredients, remembering what happened with Ryan.

When the day came that Bryce did try some, Laurie knew that her youngest son also had the allergy.

His reaction came on so fast that Laurie had to pull the car over on the way to the doctor's office to administer an injection of ephedrine.

The most common food allergies besides peanuts include soy, wheat, milk, eggs, fish and shellfish.

In the past five years peanut allergies in children have doubled. The estimated number of Americans with food allergies has increased from 6 million to approximately 11 million, according to the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network.

According to FAAN, peanut allergies kill nearly 100 people a year in the United States and account for about 30,000 emergency room visits.

It is unclear why food allergies are becoming more and more common, but the hard cold fact is that they are killing people.

Helena has also experienced an increase in the number of patients with allergies, according to allergist Richard Buswell, M.D.

"The reason why is not clear," he said. "There are a number of theories, but nothing conclusive at this point."

Last month's death of 15-year-old Canadian teenager Christina Desforges has renewed attention to the seriousness of the issue.

Desforges, who had a severe allergy to peanuts, died after kissing her boyfriend who had eaten a peanut-butter sandwich hours earlier.

Education is a big part of the battle against outbreaks for those allergic to peanut butter.

"I didn't know anything about food allergies," Kathy said recalling her daughter's first anaphylaxis reaction. "I have no history in my family of food allergies. At first, we were all blissfully ignorant of how dangerous it could be. After we went under the care of an allergist, he gave us information and suggested that we carry an EpiPen."

Driessen works hard to help ensure that everyone knows the seriousness of the issue.

"Sometimes these kids get singled out and people don't understand the severity," Driessen said. "This is just like some people have blue eyes and some people have green eyes."

Buswell recommends not introducing peanuts or peanut butter to infants for the first few years of life and even longer if there is a family history.

He also suggests that those who have eczema or asthma may be prone to other allergies, but that isn't always the case.

Making sure that people around children with allergies are aware of them helps in the prevention of an exposure.

The MacNeill family makes a practice of reminding friends and parents about Ryan's and Bryce's allergies, and sometimes even leaves them with an EpiPen.

"What is scary to me is someone may forget," Laurie said. "That is why it is something I remind people of all the time."

Ryan doesn't feel like having a peanut allergy has limited his childhood experiences.

When it is time for a PB&J, he has a different agenda. "I just have a plain jelly sandwich, and I am fine," he said.

At lunchtime he doesn't segregate himself by sitting at the peanut-free table either. He just sits with his friends and hasn't had any problems so far.

The good news for Laurie is that her sons are very responsible about their allergies, she says.

Buswell said the best form of treatment is avoidance. However, accidents do happen and therefore children with known peanut allergies should have an EpiPen at home and at school and be sure that everyone knows how to use it.

There are demonstrators to practice at his office and there are also directions on the packaging. Another medicine to have on hand is an antihistamine, such as Benadryl, Buswell added.

Reading ingredients lists on food labels is the first defense for those who have peanut allergies. Many are surprised at the number of products that use ingredients derived from peanuts. For example, skin products that are peach-, cucumber- or melon-scented sometimes include oils from peanuts and other nuts.

There is no cure for peanut allergies except avoidance. A vaccine for peanut allergies is being worked on, but no shot currently is available.

Sometimes childhood allergies can be outgrown and at other times, they pose a lifelong challenge.

MacNeill recently had Ryan go to the doctor for another reason, and had him tested hoping that he had outgrown the allergy. A blood test showed that he still had it and actually was at high risk, she said.

"The doctor told us that he will probably have it for life," she said.