Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Desensitization Study

Children's Hospital Boston has a series of videos about Brett and their Milk Desensitization Study link.

As the videos continue on this Hospital Blog, I hope to learn more about this program, and others like it.

How many patients are participating in the Desensitization? Is their a double blind placebo group? Brett has out grown some of his allergies, are all the people in the study already out growing their allergies? Do the patients have a history of contact allergies? How much milk does Brett's doctors hope he can tolerate? What are the risks for people doing a desensitization? Is their one place where the results of different desensitization studies can be compared?


The media has talked about Desensitization for allergies, some times as if it were a cure, at least in the headlines.

What questions do you have?

2 comments:

Jenny said...

As a mom of a MA child (among other allergies), this seems promising. I, like you and others, have questions too. Is there a chance the desensitization process (over time) can increase the severity of the allergy? Will the process result in complete tolerance of dairy or will they only be able to tolerate it in small amounts? Are all of the different milk proteins included in the desensitizing process?

I will be watching this study carefully and hoping that maybe it will make the jump to the Midwest in a location close to us. If it is promising without major side effects (i.e reactions), than I would seriously consider it with my son.

Thanks for posting!

Kevin said...

If complete avoidance is the recommended path, can this regular exposure decrease the likelihood that the child will outgrow the allergy on his/her own? My daughter has been flagged as a good candidate for the study, as she is highly allergic to dairy but does not go into anaphalactic shock. I have a few more weeks to decide, but I wish there was more data to digest. She is only 6, so she could still outgrow it on her own.