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Real Families, Real Stories, Real Success
To anyone who is considering OIT or who is on the fence….
I know. I was there. I was once in your shoes, frozen in fear at the idea of feeding my son his “poison”. The “what ifs” played in my mind on a constant loop. I spent years diligently researching OIT, I was confident in our decision to begin treatment. But the days leading up to that first appointment tore me down. I was terrified! I cried myself to sleep the night before. I remember my hands trembling as we drove to the Allergist’s office, staring at my beautiful precious son in the rear view mirror fighting the overwhelming urge to turn that car around and go back home to our safe little bubble! But that was the problem right there, the idea that turning back would be the safer option, the idea that I could put him in a bubble and protect him with my super mom powers for the rest of his life!
You see, every time our children walk out the door, their lives are at risk. Every time they take a bite of food, safe or not, their lives are at risk. Every morning when they walk into school, their lives are at risk. Every party, every play date, every outing…. there was no safe bubble, and as much as I wanted to believe it, I was n… Read more
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We are a family of four and live in central Oklahoma, an area known for high allergens. With no known family history of food allergy, I never expected my baby would be “that kid”; and have a severe peanut allergy. When my son, Callen, (at 16 mo) vomited after his first real Halloween candy, a Reese’s Cup, I had a slight feeling it could be food allergy. He had chronic eczema and blood tests did reveal a peanut allergy but I knew the tests weren’t black and white and didn’t absolutely mean a true food allergy was present. After all, he could eat eggs just fine and those were on his panel too. So, one day I gave him 2 mini Ritz crackers with peanut butter. He got lethargic and vomited. Just like that Halloween night. It was confirmed. My husband’s grandma has since shared that she has some reactions to peanut but not anaphylaxis.
We used to eat “may contain” products for several years, then I joined several Facebook food allergy groups and realized that I was in the minority.
I was first diagnosed with a peanut allergy as a small child. Growing up I had numerous accidental exposures that led to varied reactions including swollen lips, difficulty breathing, and vomiting. Many people with young children with food allergies often ask if I have ever had to use my EpiPen. I always tell them no, but I probably should have. I have only had one reaction as an adult due to strict avoidance but I did not like the limitations my food allergy had on my life.
If you would’ve told me nine months ago that my severely peanut allergic kindergartner who had reactions to peanut dust on someone else’s hands is now eating 8 peanuts a day I would have thought you were insane! I mean I would’ve been excited but incredibly skeptical. But here we are and exactly 5 months from his day one we graduated peanut OIT with 
I have to say now that the stress and worry for starting was so much worse than it was in real life. He had a very easy time in OIT despite having very chaotic schedules, activities, full-time working parents AND blood tests well over 100. Yet here we are. Maintenance has been relatively easy adaptation to our life and any schedule changes we have to make a well worth it to ha… 
I am here to offer you HOPE.
I think the thing that made me most realize we needed to do OIT was reading about the tragedies of those who died. An underlying theme to the vast majority was that they had only ever had mild reactions and had always been careful about avoiding eating things with peanuts. Until they accidentally did eat peanut on the last day of their lives.
I’ve burned through 7 allergists. Lucky 7 was 
My son Nicolas is 14, diagnosed with peanut allergy at 20 months (post reaction) and we were living in San Diego. Our world changed and my learning curve was huge, I was just told to avoid peanuts. We didn’t have social media back then and found that people didn’t understand. We were strict avoidance but he still had reactions. His last one was major (to a “safe” food) and his Epipen fell apart in my hand. When medics arrived the Benadryl had kicked in and he had thrown up, they took us to the hospital for prednisone and observation. He still talks about how scary it was to not be able to breathe and I still (8 years later) can’t write this without tears, I was terrified beyond words.FROM OUR OIT NEWS BLOG
National Institute of Health: “Oral Immunotherapy Is Safe, Effective Treatment for Peanut-Allergic Preschoolers”
For Immediate Release: Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016 Oral Immunotherapy Is Safe, Effective Treatment for Peanut-Allergic Preschoolers, Study Suggests WHAT: Nearly 80 percent of peanut-allergic preschool children successfully incorporated peanut-containing foods into their diets after receiving peanut oral immunotherapy (OIT), a clinical trial has … [Read More Here]
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