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Real Families, Real Stories, Real Success
Andrew was diagnosed with an anaphylactic peanut allergy around the age of 2. He was airborne and contact sensitive, and every RAST test he had came back “over 100” for peanuts. For 13 years, we took no risks and practiced strict avoidance of any and all peanuts.
In 2013, we saw a news story about oral immunotherapy (OIT) and the success it was showing in studies and by the few allergists that were offering it in private practice. We began searching for an OIT allergist and quickly found Dr. Love at the Allergy Clinic of Tulsa, approximately 2 hours away from our Southwest Missouri home. Dr. Love was very honest with us during our initial consultation and explained the risks as well as the hopes of OIT. At the time, Dr. Love was fairly new to offering OIT and had never treated a peanut allergy patient whose RAST scores were off the charts like Andrew’s. However, Dr. Love was willing to try if Andrew was too. For the first time in 13 years, we took a risk. A BIG risk. And it paid off.
We started OIT in May 2013, which happened to be the busiest summer for Andrew, who was a 15 year old, three-sport high school athlete. His summer was already full of baseball practices and games, foo… Read more
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My daughter is allergic to peanuts, cashews, and pistachios. She has a history of MANY anaphylactic reactions simply from touching a surface with residue, and one airborne reaction at a baseball game with peanut shell dust in the air. We took many precautions, but life was scary. I remember asking our beloved allergist about OIT, and he did not recommend it for her.
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.
Fathers Day 2010: The day started pretty simply, I had made my husband two pb&j sandwiches for lunch. As he was eating and watching sports, I was playing “tea party” in the other room with our 18 month old daughter, Emersyn “Em”. As Em and I played she would bring “tea” out to her Dad to share. At one point Em reached for his sandwich and he pulled off a tiny piece of the crust and gave it to her. As soon as she ate it she started to cry hysterically. I went to her and she was pulling at her tongue and it looked as if she had been scratched from her cheeks to her lips. At that point we headed to the ER and put a call into her pcp. The on call Dr responded and asked if she was having a difficult time breathing. “No” was my answer. She had calmed and the streaks had lightened. We were advised not go to the ER, but to give her Benadryl, and watch her. Thankfully she did not have further symptoms that day.
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 never had any idea what life with food allergies was like – until I did. We found out with a tiny bite of a walnut at our kitchen table when our second child was ~18 months old. His face turned bright red, his eyes swelled, within minutes his voice went hoarse, his chest was welting up. We had called the peds after hours number and a neighbor with a son allergic to antiobiotics. We gave Benadryl and it did nothing to help while we were on the phone. The moment his voice changed we raced out the door to the local ER / Urgent care. That was the longest mile drive of my life at the time. Then came the epi-pens, strict avoidance, endless label reading, endless fear every time the phone would ring when he was out of our care. I became the hovering mom, the endless re-checker, the list maker, the epi pens everywhere, can’t have a babysitter, terrorized, running out of meetings to take a local phone call, stressed out allergy parent. People didn’t get it. We limited where we ate out, reviewed restaurants on allergy eats, called ahead, often brought our own food, grilled the waitstaff, grilled our family and friends.
Kaitlyn has a life-threatening peanut allergy that truly dictates every aspect of her daily life. Her allergy is so severe, that she will go into anaphylactic shock if she ingests even the smallest particle of a peanut. This includes ingesting any product that has been produced at a facility that also produces peanut products, being touched by someone who has recently eaten a peanut, and even airborne particles such as those recirculated in a commercial airplane. Daily life is hard, and arguably harder on a such a young girl of 11.
As I reflect on our journey through OIT, the famous quote from Nelson Mandela speaks volumes: “May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears”. I think back to the night before my daughter began the biggest journey of her young life. Making the choice to purposely begin feeding her the very thing that could kill her. The fear was real. We had spent the past 7 1/2 years protecting and teaching this child to avoid peanuts and tree nuts at all costs.
My son, Logan was diagnosed with a peanut allergy when he was less than 2 years old. We managed for the most part ok but around age 8 he became more or more nervous. One week he came home from church with an activity they did about worry—-and his top worry was: dying. This hit us hard. The more we talked about it the more it became clear that he truly was worried about this….all the time.
Then we decided based on testing to start OIT. Logan was excited. I was excited and scared. We have had a ve… 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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