OIT dose diary: what to write down, plus a free printable
An OIT dose diary is a simple daily record of each oral immunotherapy dose and what happened around it. This guide explains what to write down each day, how two parents can keep one diary between them, and how to bring it to your clinic. At the end you will find a free printable OIT diary that you can fill in by hand.
Why your allergist asks for a diary
Between clinic visits, you are the one who sees each dose being given at home. A diary turns those days into something your allergist can read in a few minutes.
ASCIA says families should receive clear written home dosing instructions, including the dose quantity and how to manage missed doses.2
ASCIA also asks families to follow the OIT dosing instructions closely and to keep their scheduled specialist appointments.2
At the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, OIT staff review any medical events a child has had since the last visit.1
In a study of children on milk or egg OIT in Spain, families were asked to keep a daily record of the dose taken and any reactions in a paper diary.3
In the same study, the medical staff recorded what families reported about home doses and reactions at each hospital visit.3
Your own allergist decides what they want to see in your diary, so ask them at the next visit and follow what they say.
What to write down each day
Keep each day on one line, so you can see a whole week at a glance. For every dose, write:
- the date and the time you gave it;
- the dose, copied word for word from your clinic's plan;
- the initials of whoever gave it;
- a tick once the observation window your clinic asked for is over;
- "none" for symptoms, or what you saw in plain words and when it started;
- a note about anything that was different that day, such as illness, fever, poor sleep or a late or skipped dose.
Copying the dose exactly as written matters more than it seems. If the plan changes after a visit, the diary shows which day the new plan started.
ASCIA lists cofactors such as infections, poorly controlled asthma, hay fever and lack of sleep that can increase the risk of allergic reactions from an OIT dose.2
ASCIA says doses should be given when a person can rest and be observed by a parent or guardian for at least one to two hours.2
How long your observation window lasts, and what counts as a cofactor for your child, is for your allergist to tell you.
When a day doesn't go to plan
On some days the diary matters most: a missed dose, a fever or any symptom. Write down what happened and when, then follow your clinic's instructions.
CHOP asks families to call the OIT team before the next scheduled dose if a child misses a dose for any reason.1
CHOP also asks families to contact the OIT team if a child develops a cold, a fever or another illness.1
ASCIA says that if a child has a reaction at school or childcare, families should inform their allergy specialist.2
Your clinic's own instructions for these days always come first.
It helps to keep the clinic's phone number next to the diary.
One diary for two parents
When two parents share the doses, the easiest mistakes are a dose given twice and a day nobody wrote down. Keep one diary, not one each. Put it somewhere both of you see it every day, like the fridge or the living room, so a glance tells you whether today's dose has been given. Write your initials in the "given by" column, so the other parent knows who to ask about that day. If one of you gives the dose and the other notices something later, add it to the same line with the time.
In our family, either of us gives the dose, whoever is at home. We log it in OIT Journal straight away, so we both see that it was given and it doesn't matter who gave it. We don't keep a paper diary, but a single sheet in a shared place does the same job.
The study in Spain noted that none of the families recorded every single daily dose, whatever method they used.3
How your allergist wants you to handle gaps in the diary is up to them.
If you notice a day with nothing written, fill in what you remember and mention the gap at the next visit.
Bringing the diary to the clinic
Take the diary to every clinic visit, including the pages from the months before. Before the visit, write down the questions you want to ask, so they don't get lost in a busy appointment. During or right after the visit, write down what the clinic said, especially any change to the plan. Copy the new dose into the diary exactly as the clinic wrote it, before the first home dose on the new plan.
ASCIA says food OIT should be given in a consistent way to reduce the risk of side effects.2
The plan itself, and every change to it, comes from your allergist.
The free printable
The printable is a two-page oral immunotherapy dosing log that you fill in by hand.
Page 1 is one month, with 31 rows, one for each day. At the top you fill in your child's name, the allergens, the clinic's plan or phase, and the month. Each row has columns for the time, the dose as your clinic wrote it, who gave it, a tick when the observation window is over, symptoms (none, or what you saw) and notes. Page 2 is for questions for the next clinic visit and for what the clinic said. Print page 1 once a month, and page 2 whenever you need a fresh one.
Each day has one dose cell. If your child's OIT covers more than one allergen, use one page per allergen, or write each dose in the cell exactly as the clinic wrote it.
Sources
- Oral Immunotherapy Fundamentals for Families · Children's Hospital of Philadelphia · Accessed
- Oral Immunotherapy for Food Allergy Frequently Asked Questions · Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA) · Accessed
- Mobile App/Web Platform for Monitoring Food Oral Immunotherapy in Children: Longitudinal Clinical Validation Study · JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting · Accessed