Approximately 6 million children in the U.S. have food allergies, or roughly two in every school classroom. Food allergy reactions are serious and can be life-threatening. Every three minutes, a food allergy reaction sends someone to the emergency room and this number has only tripled for children between the late 1990s and mid-200s.
Avoidance is commonly thought of as the only way to manage a food allergy, but breakthroughs in science and medicine have changed the future for children living with severe food allergies. The Tolerance Induction Program (TIP��) at Southern California Food Allergy Institute is the first food allergy treatment program of its kind, turning what was once thought of as a lifetime of avoidance into a future of food freedom.
What makes TIP™ different?
Other treatments, including Oral Immunotherapy Treatment (OIT), only allow your child toeat cross-contamination levels of a food allergen to avoid reaction from accidental exposure. At the end of treatment with TIP™, your child can eat any amount of their allergen without fear of reaction. That means they can eat unrestricted amounts of peanuts, tree nuts or whatever else they were allergic to! This is what we call Food Freedom, or a lifetime free from reading food labels, special treatment at social gatherings, and anxiety whenever food is present.
Is TIP™ safe?
Not only does TIP™ offer a lifetime of freedom, it’s also a much safer treatment than OIT. Side effects from OIT are not optimal, reported in more than 95% of cases unlike TIP™’s 0.5%. Safety is a priority in TIP™ and we want all our patients to reach Food Freedom. Since 2005, more than 12,000 children have enrolled in the program with a 99% success rate, drastically smaller than the 33% failure rate with OIT.
How does TIP™ work?
TIP™ uses trillions of data points to create customized treatment plans for each child. Not a one-size-fits-all model like OIT, every patient in TIP™ goes through extensive diagnostic testing to map out their allergens and form an individualized treatment plan.
The program builds tolerance to the unique proteins each child is allergic to, all before introducing their most anaphylactic allergen. This ensures patient safety, and over time alters their immune system to not react to any of their allergens. Once your child has reached remission, they can eat like any child without a food allergy for the rest of their life.