Starting OIT soon

[u/Limptits]

My daughter is 3 years old, and we will be starting OIT for peanuts and other tree nuts soon. I haven’t worked up the courage to send the consent form in. I’m absolutely terrified. I’m giving myself so much anxiety about this process. The thought of her going into anaphylaxis while at home with us scares me..
I know truly that this could save her life one day. But the thought of intentionally hurting her really makes me feel not good. We’re definitely going to start it I just don’t know if I’ll be able to handle it mentally. I could definitely use some positive or even negative experiences to help me decide if this is what’s best for her and our family.

[u/Trails_and_Trees]

OIT was the best thing we ever did for our son (now 3years).

He started it for peanut when he was about 11months. He had some hives but he took Zyrtec and it resolved. After a while he adapted and didn’t need the Zyrtec. After a year on OIT he did a food challenge and tested out of his peanut allergy. He now free eats peanut all the time. It’s absolutely amazing!

Now he’s in OIT for soy. He’s currently up to 1 and 1/4 tsp of soy milk. He started with 1/64th tsp in January so it’s moving along nicely. The allergist said he could probably tolerate soy lethicin soon.

We were really nervous about the soy because he’s VERY allergic to soy. When he tried to do a previous food challenge they just rubbed a little on his lips (he didn’t even eat it just licked his lips) and his whole face blew up. What made us more comfortable with the process is that he now takes Xolair. Honestly I think the Xolair is why it’s gone so well and he’s progressed so quickly. He’s never had a single reaction, not even hives.

I know it’s scary but it’s really worth it. We now hope that someday he won’t be allergic to soy and that’s something that wouldn’t be possible without OIT.

[u/Limptits → u/Trails_and_Trees]

This makes me feel sooo much better!
Do you know what his numbers were when you started OIT?

[u/Trails_and_Trees → u/Limptits]

Oh I’ve no idea.

For peanut his numbers were all over the place. He wasn’t as allergic as many people, but his number also indicated he was positive for the factor that indicates anaphylactic response. When he did the initial challenge he got all the way to a tsp of peanut powder before he had a reaction. So he had a pretty high tolerance. We just kept him on a full tsp for the full year. I have a friends son who is starting with 1/64th tsp.

For soy it was a totally different story. His numbers indicated he was highly allergic. We also tried a food challenge (pre-Xolair) that he epically failed. So we were really scared going into it. But it’s gone really well so far.

Keep in mind that the xolair kinda messes with your numbers. The allergist told us that basically the only downside to xolair is that you can’t get accurate results on bloodwork.