Oldest ds allergic to peanuts and sesame, risk of allergies in younger siblings?

[PJ67]

Hi. My 14 yr old is allergic to peanuts and sesame. He was only diagnosed about two years ago although had had mild itching in his mouth on a few occasions several years before this. I have two younger sons age 4 and 7 and am scared to let them try peanuts and sesame. Are they at much higher risk of allergies as well?
Thanks

[DanMallaghan]

Hey PJ67,

I would err on the safe side and avoid peanuts for all of your kids until you can get them checked out.
Our Eldest daughter is allergy free, but our first son has quite a severe peanut allergy, and we recently discovered that our youngest has the same level of allergy as well.

I don't know if there is any scientific evidence surrounding this (I'm sure it's fairly easy to find out) but certainly, from my experience, it would appear to be the case.

Better safe than sorry

Dan

[PJ67]

Hi. I was told that they wouldn't test the younger ones as some people have positive results but no allergy and others have low results and highly allergic so I'm not sure whether avoiding them as long as possible is the best thing to do or if this could make a potential allergy worse.

[greenbananas]

Can't say I fully understand the research regarding avoidance and risk of allergy - think the conclusions are a bit mixed at the moment.

However, I think there's not much evidence that children will have the same allergies as their siblings. You can inherit the tendency to have allergies, but one might have an allergy to nuts while the other is allergic to fish or pollen or cats.

Some foods are more likely to cause problems with allergy than others (e.g. milk, eggs, peanuts, soya, sesame) but people can be allergic to pretty much anything.

If you're worried (and I can understand that you are) can you talk to a health professional about this?

You could always try the most scary food while sitting in the car park of A&E - think a fair few mums of allergic children do this.