Food OIT is not a race.  The typical course of gradually increasing doses involves 12-14 doses.  You can increase your dose here in the office every 1-2 weeks.  We may have to slow down if you catch a cold or get too busy to come in on schedule.  On average, it takes 4-6 months to reach your top dose.

Day One is your only ‘long day’, lasting 4-5 hours.  After that you return for ‘updoses’, an hour visit wherein we give you a higher dose and watch you for an hour.  Updoses can be a minimum of 7 days apart, longer if you wish.  Depending on the food, there are 12-15 updoses.

An oral food challenge may or may not be needed before you get started on OIT.  If you reacted to the food in the past few years and have allergy testing supporting your story, than we go directly to OIT.  Occasionally, we will want to challenge a food that you’ve never eaten and have suggestive allergy tests.

You, and your insurance, will be billed in a similar fashion to how you’ve been billed in the past by your allergist: office visit charge and procedures (skin test, desensitization).  If you don’t have insurance or it refuses to pay, the OIT course runs between $3,000 - $4,000.