OIT for baby's food allergy?
We recently had our 10-month old diagnosed with several allergies - egg, peanut, cashew, almond, and sesame. We have been seeing Dr. Lodewick at the Allergy & Asthma Medical group on the reco of our pediatrician. This has been really hard news for me to handle and I'm feeling a lot of anxiety about what life will be like for our kiddo as he gets older. Dr. Lodewick has recommended a strict avoidance + epi pen route but I have read posts on BPN and talked to other parents who have used other doctors at the same medical group who have been encouraging of OIT. Our doctor seems very against it but I hear from parents who believe it has helped. I know that time can be of the essence with these. Does anyone have any experience at Allergy & Asthma Medical group, either with Dr. Lodewick or someone else, OIT in general, or another doctor that you can recommend? I'm eager to see what other options might be.
Parent Replies
Ellen Cutler, Bioset Clinic in Mill Valley. https://drellencutler.com/
Very expensive. Not covered by insurance. Worth every penny. Very altenerative approach. Saved me and my child's lives both physically and mentally!
I can recommend Dr. Gendo for OIT!
We see Dr. Gendo at Allergy & Asthma and he has been phenomenal. He doesn't push any "treatment" on us, but talks about the options and then we decide what we are comfortable with -- and that has included OIT. Our toddler's allergies were not super severe, but she did have an epi pen for an egg allergy which she has now outgrown (in ~ 1 year). Her other allergies have all resolved as well. Highly recommend Dr. Gendo!
We also go to Allergy & Asthma Medical group for our daughter (now 4) but see a different doctor. She was diagnosed with peanut, egg, walnut, hazelnut, and perhaps some other tree nut allergies that I am forgetting. These all came up positive on her skin prick and blood tests. We did the 3-4 hour long "taste test" in office for walnut and egg and she passed. They advised we come back for in-office "taste tests" for all other tree nuts but we just did them at home. This was against the advise of the doctor, but we felt it was very low risk as there are no other food allergies in the family, we have an epi-pen, and she had passed the others in the office. Our pediatrician was ok with our plan (although we told him after the fact). We have NOT given her peanuts because that is the only food that she did have a reaction to after eating prior to 6 months of age. We would like to return to the office to do a taste test there, but they advise you space these out a bit, they're difficult to schedule, and.....pandemic.
I'm happy to talk more offline about our experience. Good luck!