What is a good proven way to get rid of a cow milk protein allergy (not a lactose allergy)? Preferably something organic. originally appeared on Quora, the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus.

What is a good proven way to get rid of a cow milk protein allergy?

Organic cow’s milk, and immunotherapy.

Oral immunotherapy (OIT) is a modern medical treatment offered by hundreds of medical doctors in the United States, as well as in other parts of the world. There are many scientific articles written about the treatment, and the consensus is that it works.

Oral immunotherapy induces tolerance for your allergen gradually, starting with tiny minute amounts of the problem foods. No other medications are generally used, though you should have antihistamines and epinephrine on hand in case of reaction.

The modern practice of immunotherapy is still somewhat new (most doctors have been offering oral immunotherapy for less than ten years), so there are still some unknowns, such as for how long you will be required to continue “maintenance” dosing (eating your allergen every day so that the allergy won’t return). But the consensus is that OIT works.

Other food allergy treatments may also be organic. Sub-lingual immunotherapy (SLIT) also uses your allergen to treat your allergy (with drops under the tongue instead of ingestion), but I am not sure if the protein drops that they use are made from organic or non-organic milk.

FAHF-2 is another treatment that is available, and established (though less thoroughly) in the scientific literature. It is based on traditional Chinese herbs, which depending on how they are cultivated, may also be organic.

My son, now four years old, treated his severe (anaphylactic) cow’s milk allergy with oral immunotherapy, and he is now free to eat pizza, cake, and even ice cream at parties. He also did SLIT and FAHF-2, since he had a large number of food allergies that we were treating. If it were just a milk allergy, we probably would have only done OIT.

At least for the next year or so, we need to make sure that he gets his dose of 5 oz (about 150 ml) of cow’s milk every day, in order to prevent his allergy from returning.

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