Having a food allergy, as some of you know, can be daunting when in social situations or even sending your kid to school. Will he ride the bus, will the bus driver know how to save his life? What forms do I need? Should he self-carry? Separate treats at school for parties, how do I make this work? Where will these 3 sets of epi-pens be placed at school? Planning trips and even outings with family/friends is tricky, where and what can he eat? I would have to bring a stash just in case. It's a lot.
When Mason was in preschool, he didn't mind being the different kid but as he got older and further into elementary school, this would change. He would start to turn away his different treats at a birthday party, he would rather eat nothing. There is also this fear everytime my phone rings and its the school. Is he having a reaction? Did he accidentally eat something that wasn't gluten free?
We started hearing about OIT over the last few years, (but it was always for peanut allergy.) This is a way to desensitize one's body to their allergen, so it doesn't react upon contact. Every summer I would ask our doctor when we could start and if this would work for us. It just wasn't available to us at this allergy practice, there were so many hoops to jump through to get a practice with almost 30 doctors in it, on board. Last year, I heard about another doctor in the area doing OIT for wheat (solo dr.) The husband and I mulled it over and second-guessed leaving our beloved doctor but eventually decided to pull the trigger.
It seems crazy to me that you needed to change doctors to pursue this course of treatment. What in the world did the former allergist have to say about why he/she did not want to use this method of OIT? From what I understand it is an evidenced based/research based method.
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It is absolutely crazy, you are right! He would always say one day they would get it in. We got tired of waiting. He just said it was too hard to get so many doctors on board. Maybe they were just too big of a practice for us. There is no real good reason in my mind.
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