Oral Immunotherapy (OIT): A New Treatment for Food Allergies
Patients and parents of food allergic children often experience anxiety or stress over potential exposure to food allergens. As the parents of a peanut allergic child, Dr. Weinstein and his wife are no different. They have often lamented the prospect of bringing their daughter her own food for birthday parties. For decades, we have advised our food allergic patients to strictly avoid their allergenic foods and to carry emergency doses of injectable epinephrine in the event of an accidental ingestion. Now there is a new hope for patients with food allergies: Oral Immunotherapy, or OIT.
OIT is a procedure in which food allergic patients are fed small, incremental amounts of their allergenic food. This process can desensitize patients with food allergies, allowing them to tolerate accidental exposures to foods without fear of an allergic reaction.
Hudson-Essex Allergy is proud to announce that oral immunotherapy will be available to patients with food allergies in our new, state-of-the-art allergy office in Jersey City, NJ. In our carefully controlled, safety-conscious clinical setting, patients will ingest very small amounts of the food that they are allergic to. Over a period of about 8-10 months, we will increase the “dose” of the allergenic food, allowing the patient to consume more and more of that food. Everything is done by mouth and there are no painful shots involved.
Our goal at Hudson-Essex Allergy is to provide peace of mind through oral immunotherapy. After undergoing this new treatment, patients should not experience an allergic reaction if they are accidentally exposed to previously allergenic foods. In fact, during treatment many patients can consume as much of these foods as they would like without experiencing a reaction.
Patient safety will always be our primary concern. Our staff has been trained by the most prominent practitioner of in-office OIT, and we continue to maintain a sister-office relationship with them. We use a conservative program that has been used to desensitize over 600 patients with a greater than 90% success rate in order to minimize risk to patients undergoing OIT.
Our new office in Jersey City, NJ will be the exclusive home of the oral immunotherapy/food allergy desensitization program for Hudson-Essex Allergy. The office is conveniently located at 33 Hudson Street: on the corner of Hudson and Essex streets. There is parking available at the office. We are also accessible via the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail (the Essex Street stop is at our front door), ferry if coming from Manhattan (Paulus Hook Pier), and PATH train (Exchange Place).
For more information on the oral immunotherapy/food allergy desensitization program at Hudson-Essex Allergy please call or set up a consultation at (973) 759-9253.