Children and Medical Studies

[Nai]

Sorry - this is long!!!

My DD1 has a peanut allergy and when we had her re-tested yesterday it showed that her allergy is still significant and she is also allergic to brazil nuts. We were hoping she would grow out of her peanut allergy but it doesn't look like this is likely to happen.

Anyway the Murdoch Institute at the Royal Children's is conducting a study into the effectiveness of a new treatment for peanut allergy where they give the children peanut oral immunotherapy (increasing amounts of peanut) plus a probiotic to see if it results in tolerance or desinsitisation to the allergin.

So they are looking for children to participate in this and they will go into one of 2 groups - a treatment group or a placebo group (you don't get told what your group is).

I am debating at the moment if I should nominate DD1 to partake in the study. It will take a lot of time but potentially she could become tolerant or desensitised to her allery, or she could have no benefit. She could also be in the placebo group and get no outcome. But if the study shows that it is effective then it could be a fantastic new treatment (as opposed to just avoiding nuts and carrying an epi-pen). So even if she gets no personal outcome it could be a treatment for her in the future, as well as for lots of other children.

I guess I'm asking for thoughts and feedback and if anyone else has any experience with putting their kids through medical studies???