Nope, sorry. And you must have been one of the lucky ones even as a kid.
In decades past, doctors did try exactly what you remember – giving small but increasing oral doses of the allergy-causing substance from poison ivy in hopes of “desensitizing” people, that is, making their immune systems more “tolerant” or less reactive, to poison ivy. But these attempts usually failed, and sometimes made people worse, said Dr. Robert Stern, chief of dermatology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.