There is significant disagreement among top clinicians and researchers regarding the safety of oral desensitization.
In fact, rumor has it that a death earlier this month in Boston was a case in which a "desensitized" child suffered catastrophic anaphylaxis upon ingestion of a serving of the allergen.
ETA: oral desensitization studies have included fatalities, and while there was a LOT of buzz about this 5 to 7 years ago, the problem is that so many severely allergic children don't "hold" a particular threshold dose very well. What this means is that a maintenance dose can-- without warning-- cause refractory anaphylaxis that no medical intervention can mitigate. Pretty significant risk.
Some people seem to do well with OIT, and some don't-- and there is unfortunately no way to know who is in which group (at the moment).
Hugh Sampson has openly stated rather emphatically that OIT for food allergens is not ready for wide clinical use. He is certainly one of the foremost research physicians in the field, world-wide. Our own allergist trained with him, and concurs wholeheartedly-- we've discussed it with him. He feels that our DD is a very poor risk for OIT given her history and how she responded to SCIT for aeroallergens (very high risk-- probably would have discontinued if we hadn't had an expert in desensitization working with us).
I've been hearing the "five more years" line since my DD first anaphylaxed at 11mo of age, by the way. I've quit believing it, myself.
Last edited by HowlerKarma; 12/23/13 09:51 AM. Reason: stupid homonyms
