Oral Food Challenges: 3 Tips To Make Them Less Stressful
Oral Food Challenges: 3 Tips To Make Them Less Stressful
So your doctor has recommended you do an oral food challenge.
Food allergies can make this test super stressful. I mean a literal stomach ache leading up to it, is stressful.
Because of the overwhelm of giving your child something that you’ve been avoiding like the plague for so long, it can seem almost impossible.
If this is you, and you want to make oral food challenges less scary, this episode is for you.
I’m going to share our experience and how oral food challenges changed our lives AND 3 tips to make them less stressful.
Want to feel less alone in your food allergy journey?
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If, instead, you’re introducing allergens for the first time, you may want to check out this post : Confidently Introducing Allergens When You’re Nervous
Our Experience With Oral Food Challenges
Oral food challenges are becoming very common. This is because having an actual reaction to a food is considered the gold standard in diagnosing food allergy. This is why oral food challenges can be important in determining the next step in your child’s allergy journey.
First, if your doctor wants you to do an oral food challenge, I want you to know that you’re NOT alone in feeling nervous. Doing a food allergy challenge at home or in the office can be really, really hard and scary.
After 17 years of living with multiple food allergies for both of my daughters, we have done many oral food challenges both at home and in the Allergist’s office.
Even though we’ve failed a few food challenges, we have had mostly good experiences. I thought it would help you to share those today.
My oldest daughter had severe milk and egg allergies that she outgrew when she was about 4 years old
The only way to know that my daughter had outgrown her allergies was to do an oral food challenge.
So in her case, an oral food challenge was a requirement to prove that we made it over this huge hurdle of being allergic to milk and eggs.
Those food challenges were done in the doctor’s office and she did fail more than once. They decided that she failed because she broke out in hives a few minutes after eating the food. In her case, failing the challenge meant that we continued avoiding eggs & milk and went back about 6 months later to do another challenge.
Let's stop here and talk about failing the oral food challenge.
I was inspired by a post by Ina @theasianallergymom and she did a post that I fully agree with, and it has to do with our thoughts around failing a challenge and how it might affect our kids.
I know many parents feel like they just don’t want to accept the food allergy life for their child. So failing a food allergy challenge seems utterly disappointing and hard. I GET THAT.
BUT as parents we have to consider more than just our own feelings because research shows that what you think and feel can transfer to your child.
So I want to gently remind you about what they might be thinking in their little minds if you show disappointment after failing an oral food challenge.
Could you inadvertently be showing your child that they are a burden, or that they “failed you”, even if they had no ability to change the results?
Remember, it’s totally ok to feel sad, but I think as a parent, we want to show our kids that we will accept and support them, whether they have food allergies or not. So I think it’s important to wrap our minds around this BEFORE the appointment so that you can consider how you will respond if your child fails the challenge. Just something to consider.
Now let’s get back to our experiences with oral food challenges…
For us, it took a few separate food allergy challenges, but my oldest finally passed and she was able to have milk and eggs! We were lucky because her reactions were not severe. They were usually limited to just hives, and didn’t spread to other body systems.
That win of knowing that my daughter wasn’t allergic to milk or eggs anymore was truly life-changing.
But even so, after the office challenge, it was still a little scary to give her eggs and milk once we got home. After avoiding these foods for years, it’s hard to put all those fears in a box and act like everything is normal.
So if this is you, and you already passed the food allergy challenge, but are having a hard time feeding your child with the allergen they passed, I want to validate your feelings too.
That was my oldest daughter, but my youngest daughter has peanut and tree nut allergies.
Several years ago, the doctor recommended that my youngest try OIT. So far, OIT has been amazing for us, but it has been a long road filled with many oral food challenges at home and in the office.
I remember cashews most vividly because it was our first oral challenge at home.
After tracking her blood work, and looking at other factors, our Allergist was confident we could do the challenge at home.
At first, we almost couldn’t do it. It was so hard to go from desperately trying to avoid cashews at all costs to eating them. We had to do some serious mind work to make it happen (for both me and my daughter).
But it was so amazing when she passed!
Being able to eat that one nut opened the door for more. We could slowly start to see and feel the freedom as we continued on the journey. We still have a way to go, but things are getting better!
I know there’s no guarantee that the outcome of a food challenge will be positive, so I know the worry and fear they cause.
When I became a Food Allergy Mentor, I realized that I wasn’t alone and that many parents struggle.
That’s when I decided to figure out a way to help.
I used what I had learned from our experiences doing oral food challenges and did some insightful research. I created a set of questions and an encouraging video to help mamas in this boat. Then, I asked some food allergy moms in my community to test the workshop to see if it made doing an oral food challenge and/or introducing allergens easier.
I took their feedback and used it to make the workshop even better. After many tweaks and improvements, the workshop has grown so much.
I now have a 30-minute workshop that is very successful in helping food allergy parents get over the fear of the oral food challenge and introducing new foods so they can finally get it done with confidence instead of constantly worrying about it.
Since then, the workshop has helped many parents. I’ll post a link in the show notes so you can read what parents have said about the workshop, and if the workshop would be helpful for you.
3 Tips that will make Oral Food Challenges less stressful…
Tip 1: Find your why- knowing exactly why you’re doing this will help you do hard things.
For example, think of a road trip. At times, the journey can be exhausting, with endless hours on the road, traffic jams, and unexpected detours. Without a clear destination in mind, it’s easy to feel frustrated and wonder if it’s worth it.
Now, imagine your destination is a special place where your child can experience joy, freedom, and safety—like a vacation spot they’ve been dreaming about for months. Knowing that you’re driving towards this wonderful place gives you the patience to handle the traffic, the perseverance to keep going despite the long hours, and the determination to navigate any detours along the way.
That’s what finding your why can do for oral food challenges too.
Whatever that “WHY” is, it’s important to think it through and find the one or more “WHY’s” that are MOST meaningful to you.
Because if you don’t have a valuable reason, it’s hard to push yourself! Don’t worry, you may need to dig deep and think outside the box to find what is truly important to you and your child so you can get this hard thing done.
Tip 2: Focus on truth instead of what could go wrong.
There’s too many to list here and I have them all in the workshop, but the stats are actually in your favor. Unless we KNOW this and constantly direct our minds toward truth, fear will take over.
I urge you to focus on the truth and not to let fear take over.
Tip 3: Be prepared.
Once we’re fully prepared, we will feel more confident because we know we haven’t left any stone unturned.
You may want to start by asking a few questions of your Allergist.
Again, I want to give credit to Ina @theasianallergymom, because she recently did a post about all the questions to ask before and after an oral food challenge.
I used Ina’s post for inspiration and came up with a few questions to ask your doctor so you can feel fully prepared:
What medications do I need to stop and for how long before the oral food challenge?
Do I need to bring my own food for the challenge? If so, is there a recipe that I should follow, or a specific brand of food I should buy?
Can we still do the oral food challenge if my child is sick? What symptoms of sickness would require us to reschedule? What should I do if they are sick on the day of?
What symptoms should we watch for during and after the challenge, and how will we decide if the challenge should be stopped?
How many doses of the allergen will be given, and how long will there be between doses?
What can we do if my child refuses food? Can it be mixed with anything? If so, should I bring something to mix it with?
Can we eat OTHER food before, during or for a time after the last dose?
What medications should I bring to the oral food challenge?
Should we call 911 or the Allergist office if there’s a reaction at home?
If we pass the challenge, how often do we need to feed our child the food, and at what dosage?
If we pass the challenge, is there a recipe or brand of allergen I should give my child?
If we fail the challenge this time, what are the next steps?
I hope these 3 tips help you feel less stressed about oral food challenges, but what if you’re just plain nervous about doing it? What if the thought of it makes you nauseous and you’re not sure you can bring yourself to do it? OR maybe you’ve just been avoiding it?
If this is you; you’re not alone!
It’s ok if you need a bit more help to get over the fear and THAT’s OK!
Check out Get Over The Fear of Trying New Foods Workshop. In it, you’ll get encouragement with myth-busting research and information that will put your mind at ease so that you can do that oral food challenge.
The workshop also has massively helpful mental grounding techniques and a full checklist of things to do before, during, and after the challenge so you can feel in control and confident.
The cool thing is that you can do it whenever it works for you. So if you need it now, and you want to revisit it every time you do another oral food challenge, you can!
I’ve had SO MANY parents give me feedback about how it’s helped them. You can see what other parents are saying about this workshop and enroll here.
Your Turn
What scares you most about completing an oral food challenge at home? Let me know in the comments.
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Confidently Introducing Allergens When You’re Nervous
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DISCLAIMER *As always, this information is for informational purposes only and NOT medical advice. Be sure to check with your doctor before doing any oral food challenge at home.