A new treatment for peanut allergies has emerged and is awaiting approval to be used as a regular treatment. The treatment will not cure your child of their peanut allergy outright.
It is not designed to help your child eat spring rolls and peanut sauce; it is meant to make it so that your child can eat small amounts of peanuts. Essentially, it will help transform the status of their allergy from lethal to scary.
Participants in the treatment’s trials have seen their allergies improve from not being able to eat any peanuts at all at the risk of death to being able to eat up to five peanuts.
This is a welcome improvement to any parent who has to worry that one unwanted mix up might send their child into anaphylactic shock. Read on to learn more about this potentially lifesaving treatment and how you can help your child.
Oral Immunotherapy (OIT)
The treatment is known as oral immunotherapy (OIT). It requires your child to be exposed to micro doses of peanuts over a long period of time. Treatment takes close to 6 months. The child is slowly exposed to larger doses of peanut butter – up to 800 mg each day. The trials have shown that 84% – 91% of participants are able to consume 800 mg of peanut protein safely after a 6-month period. Unfortunately, some children will not be able to benefit from OIT to the full extent. These children still benefit from the treatment to an extent. They will still find that the symptoms they experience from eating peanuts are greatly reduced to the point that eating a small amount of peanuts is still not immediately life threatening.
