MIAMI (CBSMiami) — Have you heard of eosinophilic esophagitis? Neither had Ethan Schwartz until recently. The Tequesta Trace Middle School 6th grader was diagnosed with it and made it the focus of his science project.
Eosinophilic esophagitis, or “E-o-E” for short, is an autoimmune disorder resulting in symptoms like chest pain, heartburn, and trouble swallowing. It has been identified only since the early 1990’s, but is now considered a major cause of digestive system (gastrointestinal) illness.
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His entire life, the Weston resident didn’t know what caused this irritation in his esophagus until last year.
Ethan Schwartz (CBS4)
“I was on the cusp of throwing up a lot coughing, nausea,” he recalls. “It’s annoying.”
The only treatment is to eliminate foods out of the diet to see what triggers the uncomfortable symptoms, and conducting an endoscopy, where they collect biopsies to count the eosinophils present in your esophagus.
So, Ethan proposed a science project studying his reactions to a popular indulgence. He playfully called the project “Who Cut the Cheese?”
Ethan Schwartz’ science lab project. (CBS4)
“I chose ice cream to research because everybody loves ice cream. I had to go dairy free, and for two weeks I pretty much logged everything that I ate.”
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He took a variety of dairy free ice creams, ate them all, taking notes and observing and charting his reactions such as coughing, difficulty swallowing, and nausea.
He put the data into charts to show the results. The experiment helped him determine that Sweet Lorens cookie dough ice cream is the best for him.
As an aside he’s also learned how to read food labels carefully.
“If it says milk or butter or buttermilk that’s pretty much what I look for.”
So, while he may skip the post baseball game pizza, there are dairy free treats like Oreos and Pop Tarts to enjoy. Ethan takes it all in stride hoping he can bring awareness to others who may have been suffering from E-o-E as well.
“It’s under control, but it’s not like it’s going to go away.”
If you or a student you know would like to enter our CBS4 Sunday Morning Science Lab contest, it is open to students in grade 3-8 who attend schools in Miami-Dade, Broward, or Monroe Counties (including public, private, and home school. All kinds of STEM projects are accepted ranging from the environment to outer space, as long as its non-flammable.
Click here to enter and see all the rules.
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CBS Miami is accepting entries now through April.
