7 ms·
I'm a parent of a 4-year old with a peanut allergy. We've been told that anywhere from 18-25% of kids with it "outgrow" the allergy by age 5. I've been looking
by jwineinger 9y ago
I'm a parent of a 4-year old with a peanut allergy. We've been told that anywhere from 18-25% of kids with it "outgrow" the allergy by age 5. I've been looking into private practice oral immunotherapy (OIT) recently, which this protocol seems to be a variant of (adding the bacteria). My understanding is that you start with a low dose and then gradually increase over months until you're eating whole peanuts (4-12 of them) in the morning and evening as a maintenance dose. From what I've found, this can work for many types of food allergies and for all ages and all sensitivities.
- ljf 9y agoIt is a great time for this study - really hopeful for my child too :)
- JohnTHaller 9y agoThis is basically what most allergy treatments are. Start with 1/1000th of a peanut and gradually increase. It's a simple concept that's been used for nearly a century for other allergens. I did it for cat allergies over a decade ago. Developed them in college after growing up with cats. I have cats now.
- wyldfire 9y agoI don't want to own cats but I would like to cope better with visiting cat-owners' homes. You seem to describe some sort of DIY immunotherapy for cat dander? Can you go into details?
- giarc 9y agoHere is what my wife did (not the commentor though). She had dogs growing up, went away to school and developed an allergy. We bought a dog and she would take allergy pills each day but eventually starting cutting the dose as time went on. Now the allergy is gone. For you, I would say visit your friends with cats often, at first taking an allergy pill before hand. Continue with frequent visits and cutting the dosage down. After you cut out the pill completely, make sure to continue to visit.
- JohnTHaller 9y agoNot DIY. I went to an allergist, found out what I was allergic to, then they inject you with gradually increasing amounts of what you're allergic to weekly in their office. There are risks, as you could have a bad reaction. If you do, you down 1/2 a bottle of Benadryl and go to the ER if necessary. I had one bad reaction in the 2 years I did shots and a double dose of Benadryl fixed it.
- BenjiWiebe 9y agoNowadays some immunotherapy clinics require you to have an EpiPen along or they refuse to give you your shot. Source: currently getting immunotherapy shots
- JohnTHaller 9y agoThis was over a decade ago and in NYC, so it was basically impossible for me to be alone or far from a hospital within 30 minutes of getting a shot. When I started to feel the reaction coming on, I had plenty of time to grab my bottle of Benadryl out of my bag and take a couple swigs while I was walking down the sidewalk. I'd wager it looked interesting to other NYers.
- jaclaz 9y agoHistorically the idea is much earlier, it comes from the legends around Mithridates, King of Pontus, circa 100 BC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithridates_VI_of_Pontus#Mithridates.27_antidote https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithridates_VI_of_Pontus#Mithr... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithridate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithridate http://www.thefreedictionary.com/mithridatism http://www.thefreedictionary.com/mithridatism
- gehwartzen 9y agoYou may also want to pair it with the actual bacteria (probiotic) used in this study: Lactobacillus rhamnosus. Its available as a supplement.