New Treatment Option for Children with Peanut Allergies

Lately we have been seeing this  flash up all over the news, Good Morning  America, Good Things Utah, and of course research journals. Having a child with peanut allergies can be rough, exhausting at times. There is no job more important than being a protective parent. I find myself going crazy trying to protect Lilah from all peanuts. In short this means during Christmas when neighbors deliver goodies they go directly to the garage. (sadly) because we have no idea what they are exposed to or what is in them.


It is hard to be told that your child can't enjoy the same treats in class as the other students, or the heart ache of throwing away 80% of her Halloween candy. It is heart breaking when they sit at a table alone. It makes you feel like you are failing your child. Airplanes are especially scary because you are thousands of feet up in the air with no hospital or doctors if your child goes into Anaphylaxis, your only saving grace is an epi pen. Which it does not always work.


So this new trial that many people including us are willing and wanting to try is called oral immunotherapy (OIT) for peanut allergies they also have it for milk and egg allergies. It is a 6 month trial with minute doses of peanuts and there proteins. They expose peanuts to your child under the watchful eye of a physician and medical staff. They monitor if an epi pen is needed or if they have minimal reaction over the 6 months they increase the dose. The overall goal and results is children with deadly allergies are actually able to be around peanuts and ingest them with out life threatening results. The success rate is above 80% and growing!  We will be meeting with Dr. Jones next week to determine if we want to go this route.


Lilah's health is the most important thing and we want her to feel involved and not isolated. This is one of our main interest in  the trial so that she can live a normal life with out fear of an allergic reaction by touch or taste. Rocky Mountain Allergy in Layton Utah is the only clinic in Utah that does this therapy, I believe they maybe the only one on the west coast region.

It is nerve wrecking debating if we should try this trial or not.  Even allowing her to be exposed to this allergen makes my stomach curl into knots. We have prayed hard for answers and I feel that after meeting Dr. Jones I will have better insight into the whole process. I know that parents are flying in from around the country to join this OIT immunotherapy for peanuts.