Food allergy treatments for Canadian kids could get a boost under new guidelines

A new study is providing guidelines for oral immunotherapy to help clinicians prepare families before they begin treatment of the food allergy treatment.

With almost 600,000 Canadian children dealing with food allergies, some caregivers and their kids face a feeling of constant worry.

Rebecca Cooper from St. Thomas, Ont., is one such caregiver. Her 13-year-old son Bergen Eckert is allergic to peanuts, sesame, chickpeas, as well as most other nuts except for almonds.

Though it’s all he’s known, Cooper says she’s constantly worried when he goes into a “new food environment.”

“Things like birthday parties or sleepovers, they just stress me out a lot more with him,” she told Global News.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Eckert began a therapy called oral immunotherapy (OIT), which for decades has seen food allergens introduced in very small amounts and then gradually increasing doses until they can eat a certain amount without reaction.

Though they could not continue due to the pandemic and her concerns of safety at hospitals, Cooper said her son was able to tolerate the therapy to a certain extent.

“I do know that there’s lots the parents who would (consider OIT) and … I understand that because I was a parent who wanted to do that at one point,” Cooper said.

“I think that there are a lot of guidelines that could be very helpful.”