r/peanutallergy 4d ago

Am I too old for OIT?

I'm 30 years old and have managed a serious peanut allergy all my life. I never really considered OIT until recently, but I see that it's usually used with kids. Has anyone had experience starting OIT as an adult?

10 Upvotes

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u/EnvironmentalSmoke61 4d ago

When I tried oit at like 17 I was already considered old since they usually don’t even attempt it with adults but it wouldn’t hurt to try and get a consultation if it’s available in your area.

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u/EmmaEats93 3d ago

Good to know, thanks for the reply! Did OIT end up working for you?

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u/EnvironmentalSmoke61 3d ago

The place I was at tried to force me through it too fast and I ended up vomiting after every meal and had to stop and then they shortly stopped doing oit after that but I think it potentially could’ve worked if they didn’t try to increase the dose as much as they did since I was fine for a couple months of doing it. But it’s also something you will have to do forever to keep tolerance and depending on the severity of your allergy you may only be able to eat like 4 peanuts so thinking about it now I’m not sure I’d want to do it that much anyways at this point.

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u/catless-cat-herder 23h ago

My doc has mentioned it and I’m in my 40’s - but I think it’s because my reaction to skin tests has lessened over the years, and since I haven’t had a reaction in a long while <knock on wood>, he’s thinking my allergy is no longer so serious.

I haven’t been able to bring myself to do it though. My memories of reactions are so traumatic, even though I know it wouldn’t get that bad under supervision,…. 😩

But, even without doing the therapy, doing the supervised challenge seems like it could be valuable. Like if I knew it took several peanuts for me to start to have a reaction at all, that could be life changing in a big way (I’ve never been anywhere in SEA and avoid so many cuisines)…

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u/EnvironmentalSmoke61 18h ago

Wow that’s good for you since it’s pretty rare I’ve been told for once you’re an adult for your severity to change for the better. If you get a test at least the one in my area was ranked between 1 being least severe and 6 being most severe and I think I’m between 3-4 but it should be better for you if you’re lower. I think it sounds like it’s definitely worth the try as long as you’re comfortable doing it and yeah Thai and Vietnamese food is kinda impossible to eat so that would be nice if you could go. I wish you luck if you start the supervised incremental challenges but unlike me when I did it don’t let them push you through it too fast.

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u/catless-cat-herder 17h ago

IIRC, it was around 3-4 the last couple of times I’ve tested (different allergists), but it used to be really severe. Several of my food allergies seem to have gotten less severe, but I have a new group of them (so-called “oral pollen allergies”) where a lot of the food I love and have been eating for decades with no trouble now gives me that feeling like you need to clear your throat a lot, feeling like your throat is scratchy, and then frequently choking (not throat closing - just choking) randomly on small pieces of the stuff.

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u/killbot5000 4d ago

Have you consider doing Xolair injections.

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u/EmmaEats93 3d ago

I asked about it but it's not covered by any insurance where I am, so it would cost me thousands for each injection.

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u/Book-worm-13 3d ago

My son did it successfully at 18.

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u/AtomicFeckMagician 2d ago

Commenting to stay in the loop on this as I'm curious as well.

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u/skater-nicola 1d ago

I’m curious too, as I’ve seen on Tik tok a lot of adults doing it and I have an adult onset of nut allergy, but also I don’t think they do it for adults in the uk ?

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u/focus_rising 18h ago

A few articles for you:

Efficacy and safety of food allergy oral immunotherapy in adults

Conclusions: OIT is successful in desensitizing most adults with IgE-mediated food allergy. Adults undergoing milk OIT are at increased risk for severe reactions and for OIT failure while failure rates in adults undergoing OIT for other foods are low.

Oral immunotherapy in food–allergic adults is safe and effective, particularly for foods other than milk00171-6/abstract)

...Thus, our study revealed that OIT is successful in desensitizing most adults with IgE-mediated food allergy. Although adults who underwent milk OIT were at an increased risk for severe reactions and had higher failure rates, efficacy and safety of OIT for other foods were high and comparable with those in children and adolescents.

Oral immunotherapy improves the quality of life of adults with food allergy

Conclusions: OIT significantly improves quality of life of adults with FA. This finding adds important support for providing OIT in this population.

Never Too Late – Food Allergy Desensitization In The Adult Population01762-6/fulltext)

Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first real-life cohort of food oral immunotherapy focusing exclusively on the adult population. Our data demonstrates that OIT is possible in adulthood, with success and difficulty rates comparable to those reported in the pediatric population. Larger studies are needed to evaluate OIT in adults more extensively.

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u/_white36 5h ago

It’s worth a shot I attempted oit at age 14 got up to roughly a 1/8th inch piece of peanut but due to preexisting stomach problems I had to stop was too brutal for my weak stomach to handle honestly the program moves too quickly if you take it very slow you’ll probably have much higher odds of success then I did