“Two years ago (after years of her begging) we made the decision as a family to begin oral immunization therapy for our peanut-allergic daughter. At the time she was eight years old. Every other week we made a seven-hour round trip to NEFATC in West Hartford to increase our peanut dose – despite our insane schedule of homework, cheer, ballet, soccer, XC, dinner, and LIFE. We drove through rain, snowstorms, and TRAFFIC. In the end… this was the best decision we ever made!! One year went by in the blink of an eye. This successful therapy allows us all to breathe a little easier when she leaves her safe home environment every day to the scary world of cross-contamination. This also allows us to travel and dine wherever we want as a family with a lot less anxiety! She can now safely eat four peanut m&ms a day and anything she wants free from fear of anaphylaxis! She eats the bread and desserts at restaurants, the cake at birthday parties, and scooped ice-cream WITH TOPPINGS. We no longer request the allergy-free classroom and she sits at lunch with her friends!! I’m so proud of our brave girl who pushed us to pursue this treatment and I’m beyond grateful for the wonderful doctors and staff that have given us this life-changing opportunity!

On to our six months maintenance appointment… We’re SO excited that NEFATC has opened an office in Boston. We recently had our first appointment at their beautiful facility in Quincy and guess what… we were there in twenty minutes – woohoo!!! Even more wonderful… our allergy journey has come full circle with Dr. Vallen who is coincidentally also our general allergist and first diagnosed our girl at just a year old!

If you ask my daughter if she has any regrets going through this process she would tell you just one… that she wishes she started earlier. She is so happy with her personal outcome and a new lease on life that she chose to enter her science fair on the subject of Peanut Allergy Desensitization Through Oral Immunization Therapy and took first place

Thank you to everyone at New England Food Allergy Treatment Center” ️