Once you become a food allergy parent, you will never stop advocating for prevention, treatment, and management. No matter what level of food allergy awareness you’ve had before experiencing the impacts of food allergies, you will quickly become an expert following your debut as a food allergy parent. You will need to be an expert. You will need to do your research. You will need to cope, and help your kids cope. You will be a master reader of ingredient labels, and you will be navigating a new normal for everyone your family comes across. There’s no half-assing. There’s not much room, if any, for oopsie-daisies. Your new superpowers include diligence, persistence, patience, alertness, and awareness.
If you’re reading this and feeling seen, know that you are not alone. 1 in 13 kids have food allergies, which averages about 2 students in each classroom at your school. When we first found out that our son Brayden had severe (anaphylactic) food allergies, we were fortunate to have scoped out a great allergist. That allergist introduced us to the pillars of food allergy management, including early desensitization (of peanuts), oral food challenges, IgE blood tests, egg ladder, and oral immunotherapy (OIT). This knowledge was vital to the management and treatment of Brayden’s food allergies. Our first allergist also introduced us to a slew of food allergy studies, including the pivotal clinical trials on pediatric allergy treatments led by Latitude co-founder, Dr. Kari Nadeau. With a bit of serendipity, we wound up with Latitude for Brayden’s food allergy care – and we couldn’t be happier!
For us, there was no question that we needed to proactively seek treatment for Brayden’s food allergies.
Strict avoidance of allergens would be incredibly difficult, and with the severity of his reactions, it was likely he needed to be homeschooled. With treatments, despite all the roadblocks we have faced, he can now thrive in school. To us, any bit of tolerance built, any small steps of progress mean a positive, life-changing impact on his safety, lifestyle, and well-being. Because of the treatments, Brayden can touch playdough now without breaking out in hives all over his body. At every updose appointment, Brayden is a step closer to preventing/reducing the chances of a severe reaction with every allergen exposure. This is why, as a mom who is passionate about supporting fellow moms, I seize every opportunity to advocate for food allergy treatments.
Oral Immunotherapy (OIT) is a food allergy treatment that helps desensitize patients to their allergens by giving them small amounts of their allergen on a regular basis, building up the body’s tolerance to those foods. The amount of food is gradually increased over time, with the goal of desensitizing the body to larger quantities, thereby protecting against severe reactions to accidental exposures and increasing quality of life.
Over time, OIT re-trains the immune system to decrease adverse reactions to the specific allergen.
For some of you, OIT may sound challenging or even scary, particularly for those who have experienced severe allergic reactions in the past. What I can tell you is that Brayden has had 5 anaphylactic reactions (some of which were so severe he required up to 5 doses of epinephrine!), yet none of the severe reactions occurred during OIT. Brayden, among the thousands of patients Latitude has helped treat, is a testament that when conducted under the guidance of a trained clinician, OIT is both safe and effective in treating food allergies. No matter if your child has a single food allergy or multiple food allergies to any food (including top 9 allergens such as egg, milk, peanut, tree nuts, wheat, soy, seafood, fish, and sesame, as well as other less-common allergens like mustard and coconut), OIT may be an effective treatment – ready to make a life-changing impact.
As parents, we just want our children’s lives to be as safe and comfortable as possible. A fellow allergy mama couldn’t have said it better: “Whatever it takes to get them to that point will be 1000% worth it.”
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