Peanut/Nut allergy concerns

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TiredMom

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My son received DQ for his ADHD (he stopped taking medicine for it in high school) but nothing was mentioned about his nut allergy. He acknowledged the allergy on questionnaire and even mentioned it with Dr completing his medical screening. I have concerns that he may be waived for ADHD, then get DQ again for the nut allergy later. He is allergic and will not pass a skin or antibodies test. Is it possible, the service academy is OK with his nut allergy?
 
TiredMom said:
My son received DQ for his ADHD (he stopped taking medicine for it in high school) but nothing was mentioned about his nut allergy. He acknowledged the allergy on questionnaire and even mentioned it with Dr completing his medical screening. I have concerns that he may be waived for ADHD, then get DQ again for the nut allergy later. He is allergic and will not pass a skin or antibodies test. Is it possible, the service academy is OK with his nut allergy?
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I am not sure anyone here will be able to give you reassurance on this. I am absolutely not an expert, but from what I have learned on here; DoDMERB is going to make DQ decisions based on the medical standards (if you search, they have been posted on here several times). And food allergies are disqualifying medical conditions. It may be they are seeing if whatever SA your DS is applying to is seeking a waiver for the history of ADHD. It seems that is more an "examine the history and make a decision type of situation". (So no further testing, ect needed.) If it is found that is waiverable, they may then consider the food allergy. There are a lot of posts on here with people's experiences with food allergy DQ's. I haven't seen anyone who said that they were just automatically qualified with a food allergy. I think most people have required further testing for food allergies. Although it does seem unusual (at least to me, and again, no expert) that both conditions weren't flagged as DQs from the beginning. I can certainly understand how that would be confusing. How did your DS find out about his DQ for ADHD? Was it from a letter or from his DoDMERB portal? Did your son log into DoDMERB and confirm that both conditions aren't listed on there? If it of any comfort there are plenty of stories on here of applicants that received waivers for multiple DQ conditions. Best wishes to you and your DS, from one tired mom to another!
 
One of my Mids had been a DQ for peanut allergy. He went through a treatment regimen where he was slowly exposed to increasing amounts of peanuts. He is to the point where he can eat a payday bar without any rash or irritation.

After some advanced testing he is now considered peanut tolerant. I will say it took the better part of a year and some skilled medical practitioners. But he made it through. I think it can also be a concern if there is a prescription for an epi-pen.

All that aside, I'm not a medical authority and their decisions trump anything a cadre will say.
 
Thank you both so much for your guidance/insight. His DoDMERB only requested additional info for his last 18months of Rx’s (as part of the ADHD ) and doctor’s discharge for a sports injury from 2 years prior. He has checked multiple times for any other request for information. Initially, I thought the restrictions were not as bad as 5-10yrs ago, but after reading the threads, I became concerned that even if he gets waiver for the initial DQ, his nut allergy (which he does have Rx for epipen) will be a problem. I don’t want him getting an appointment, then finding out it is receded (especially if he has declined other universities). Does anyone know of a cadet at USMA with true nut allergies (not just a prior diagnosis that they outgrew) that was allowed to attend with an epipen? Thank you all!
 
TiredMom said:
My son received DQ for his ADHD (he stopped taking medicine for it in high school) but nothing was mentioned about his nut allergy. He acknowledged the allergy on questionnaire and even mentioned it with Dr completing his medical screening. I have concerns that he may be waived for ADHD, then get DQ again for the nut allergy later. He is allergic and will not pass a skin or antibodies test. Is it possible, the service academy is OK with his nut allergy?
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Similar thing happened to me. I listed my food allergy on my survey but have not received a DQ for it. Have received DQs for other conditions, but like you are suspicious on why a DQ for the food allergy has not shown up.
 
TiredMom said:
Thank you both so much for your guidance/insight. His DoDMERB only requested additional info for his last 18months of Rx’s (as part of the ADHD ) and doctor’s discharge for a sports injury from 2 years prior. He has checked multiple times for any other request for information. Initially, I thought the restrictions were not as bad as 5-10yrs ago, but after reading the threads, I became concerned that even if he gets waiver for the initial DQ, his nut allergy (which he does have Rx for epipen) will be a problem. I don’t want him getting an appointment, then finding out it is receded (especially if he has declined other universities). Does anyone know of a cadet at USMA with true nut allergies (not just a prior diagnosis that they outgrew) that was allowed to attend with an epipen? Thank you all!
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I would recommend your son contact his RC for guidance. My gut tells me that if he has a current prescription for an EpiPen, that it could be a major stumbling block. Read thru DoD Inst 6130.03 fully to see what the actual requirements are for officer ascension programs. I know reading here that most everyone who received waivers seems to have had immunotherapy, or passed an oral challenge showing and no longer needed medication. Carrying an EpiPen into battle or in a combat zone and having a medical issue because of an active allergy would not be a good thing. Think, he has an attack in a combat situation, no one sees it and cannot help him, and he either passes away or is severely disabled. I would not want that for my son!
 
TiredMom said:
Thank you both so much for your guidance/insight. His DoDMERB only requested additional info for his last 18months of Rx’s (as part of the ADHD ) and doctor’s discharge for a sports injury from 2 years prior. He has checked multiple times for any other request for information. Initially, I thought the restrictions were not as bad as 5-10yrs ago, but after reading the threads, I became concerned that even if he gets waiver for the initial DQ, his nut allergy (which he does have Rx for epipen) will be a problem. I don’t want him getting an appointment, then finding out it is receded (especially if he has declined other universities). Does anyone know of a cadet at USMA with true nut allergies (not just a prior diagnosis that they outgrew) that was allowed to attend with an epipen? Thank you all!
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The link for the military medical accession standard is below, see page 43.

He would not be given a full appointment if he were not found medically qualified. Some SAs offer conditional appointments pending medical clearance/waiver or LOAs requiring medical clearance/waiver.



See the link to USMA Admissions catalog, find Appendix B. This is a condensed, not all inclusive list, of medical issues. Someone who has completed an allergy desensitization program within the last year is a DQ. Making a leap, I would think someone with an allergy and a current epipen Rx would be in a difficult position. I don’t know what their waiver policy is.



The SAs and ROTC use the same medical accession standard. The waiver policies may differ.



They may be working systematically through his history, taking 1 issue at a time.
 
4-2-3-1 said:
Similar thing happened to me. I listed my food allergy on my survey but have not received a DQ for it. Have received DQs for other conditions, but like you are suspicious on why a DQ for the food allergy has not shown up.
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Following up on this, did you ever receive any further AMI request for your nut allergy? Thank!
 
TiredMom said:
Following up on this, did you ever receive any further AMI request for your nut allergy? Thank!
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Since my last comment, I received a DQ for it. A waiver review was then requested for me but they denied it (as of today) with no requests for further medical info. Cadre said my only chance of refuting it is to have new evidence showing I do not have the allergy.
 
4-2-3-1 said:
Since my last comment, I received a DQ for it. A waiver review was then requested for me but they denied it (as of today) with no requests for further medical info. Cadre said my only chance of refuting it is to have new evidence showing I do not have the allergy.
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Same here for my son. Nothing was asked about the Nut allergy or AMI requested about it. His DoDMERB was in system back in Sept. and we supplied all the requested information for waiver in Dec. Unfortunately, admissions called yesterday to say it couldn’t be waived even though he was top nominee. So he’s trying to get into allergist that will start the desensitization and hope to have a better outcome next year. Just wish it was highlighted earlier so maybe we could have started down that path earlier. I guess we thought no news was good news. Good luck to you!
 
TiredMom said:
Same here for my son. Nothing was asked about the Nut allergy or AMI requested about it. His DoDMERB was in system back in Sept. and we supplied all the requested information for waiver in Dec. Unfortunately, admissions called yesterday to say it couldn’t be waived even though he was top nominee. So he’s trying to get into allergist that will start the desensitization and hope to have a better outcome next year. Just wish it was highlighted earlier so maybe we could have started down that path earlier. I guess we thought no news was good news. Good luck to you!
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So sorry for the decision for your son. We are still waiting on waiver decision for asthma/restrictive airway disease/exercise induced asthma. Hopefully a decision will come any day.
 
TiredMom said:
Same here for my son. Nothing was asked about the Nut allergy or AMI requested about it. His DoDMERB was in system back in Sept. and we supplied all the requested information for waiver in Dec. Unfortunately, admissions called yesterday to say it couldn’t be waived even though he was top nominee. So he’s trying to get into allergist that will start the desensitization and hope to have a better outcome next year. Just wish it was highlighted earlier so maybe we could have started down that path earlier. I guess we thought no news was good news. Good luck to you!
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Best of luck to you and your son also. I also wish I could go back in time and start a desensitization program, but obviously that is impossible. In regard to you saying the "no news is good news", I really dislike how they do not give the DQs all at once.
 
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