It had been a couple of years since Amelia was diagnosed with her food allergies and we were back in the clinic for allergy testing. We had been avoiding her allergens for the past two years. I was hoping that she had outgrown some of them—because that’s what we were told—to wait and avoid, and hope to outgrow.

During her skin test, I watched the hives form on her back after her skin prick test all over again—to egg, to milk, cashew, pistachio, hazelnut, pecan, and walnut. Cashew and pistachio began to merge into one, and to my dismay, milk was the next largest hive. The nurse jotted down the sizes of the hives, and the doctor came in, told us that she was still allergic, and told us to come back next year for retesting. Then he left.

We had heard from our previous allergist that milk and egg allergies were commonly outgrown in children, but that was not the case for us. It’s what I had wanted to hear. I was looking for reassurance, but there was none. I felt so defeated. What did I expect him to say? That there is a magic pill to cure her? That she’s not allergic anymore? She clearly was. I felt a sense of hopelessness. There was nothing to be done but to simply continue avoiding her allergens and then retest next year in hopes that we heard something different. The thought that my child would have to live with this forever made my stomach churn. Avoiding nuts was one thing, but dairy and eggs were in everything!

At this point, managing her allergies had been our burden to carry as parents. We made sure to ask for the chef at restaurants to make sure nothing had dairy or eggs or nuts, and nag family members over and over again to make sure they washed their hands after cooking food or eating and reminding them, please don’t kiss her. I had stopped bringing eggs or milk or nuts into the house. I was even annoyed at how much dairy our society consumed. And if milk and egg allergies were so common, as I hear, then why did I not know anyone else who was allergic to milk or eggs?! Perhaps I was being irrational, but I was trying to cope—it’s hard to know there is no cure for something life-threatening your child has.

A year went by, and I was in search of a new allergist—yes, I wanted to change allergists, because I didn’t want to feel dismissed, even when I knew there was no cure. And maybe I needed some hand-holding or empathy. On top of that, we were in a very unique predicament. My husband’s job was taking us to Kenya, and everyone in our family needed to get yellow fever vaccines. Unlike the flu vaccine (which has a negligible amount of egg), the yellow fever vaccine contains a considerable amount—for an egg-allergic patient, that is. We didn’t feel comfortable forgoing the vaccine for our daughter, as yellow fever, a virus spread by mosquitoes, has no cure and can be fatal.

In my research about vaccinating egg-allergic kids against yellow fever, I kept coming across research articles about how successful vaccinations were done after “desensitization” to the vaccine. The vaccine was given in gradually increasing doses. We contacted various allergists, including allergy professors at the local medical school in our area, to see if they could vaccinate our daughter in a stepwise fashion as was outlined in these research articles. We received various responses. Many allergists in the US had never encountered such an issue, as yellow fever is not a concern in the country, so they didn’t know how to proceed. However, they acknowledged that the vaccine had enough egg that it was deemed unsafe.

During our back and forth with these allergists, I stumbled upon the page of an allergy office in my area who spoke of an allergy treatment which they also referred to as “desensitization,” otherwise known as oral immunotherapy. This was not in reference to a vaccine, but simply a treatment for food allergies. Naturally, I went down a rabbit hole researching what oral immunotherapy was. I had no clue this existed, but I was so hopeful and excited and ultimately relieved that there was light at the end of the tunnel. I called the office, and we were scheduled a couple months out for our first appointment!

You can read more about our first allergy appointment here.

And if you’d like to join me in the rabbit hole, here is the article about what oral immunotherapy is, and another one about the deep science behind it.

And if you are here wondering what happened with the vaccine, despair not. We successfully vaccinated our daughter after starting OIT treatment. More about that here.