DS 9 months has egg, wheat, peanut allergy

[Suntzu]

How do we make sure he grows out of it by age 2? He also has eczema, but we're now slowly getting that under control - thanks to the lovely mumsnet advice we had!
We heard of the research on peanut allergy recently, plus am aware that dieticians do recommend careful introduction of allergic foods. What do you do? Many thanks!

[Suntzu]

Just read up on allergy desensitisation. How would we do it? Can we just start introducing tiny bits of food, and power through reactions?

[NeedANewDirection]

If your child is properly allergic you need to be under a paediatric allergy clinic and dietician. They will advise what you need to do, how to ensure he gets a balanced diet and monitor his allergy status. Personally I wouldn't advise trying to run a desensitisation programme yourself.

[MayfairMummy]

Suntzu,

desensitisation should only be done under medical supervision.
reintroduction of allergic foods will be recommended by the docs as you go along; the idea being that if your child has a very mild reaction, they can introduce small amounts back into their diet as they slowly grow out of it.

Best thing to help grow out of it quickly, that can be done by you, is to introduce a daily probiotic to your child's diet.... new research shows it reduces the average age an allergy is grown out of.

You should also be aware that not all allergies are always grown out of. Only 20% or so of peanut allergic children grow out of it. something like 80% of dairy allergic children do, though.

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

No no please don't "power through" reactions on your own.

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

Careful introduction of egg is often recommended but not until age 5

[Suntzu]

Thanks very much for the advice!! We are getting referred to a pead but it's taking a while so thought to see what the mumsnet advice was. I'm still breastfeeding him so am eating all the things he's allergic to so he gets exposed to trace amounts. I read that the earlier they're exposed the more likely they'll hrow

Am also giving him sheep's milk yoghurt so hopefully that's probiotic-ish.

[Suntzu]

Grow out of it (not hrow) I meant to type

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

The paed will tell you to avoid the allergens.

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

Well they will definitely tell you not to feed him the allergens directly. And I think probably not to eat them yourself while breastfeeding but I am not 100% sure on that one.

[EggsAreNotFromCows]

Depends on how well they tolerate it. We were told to continue bf and me to continue consuming dairy with baby with severe cmpa in the hope that some desensitisation would happen. But had to cut out dairy myself in the end due to DC's rampant eczema. Which got much better.

You need to avoid allergens unless you plan to have A&E on standby

Have the allergies been confirmed via skin prick test?
I ask because with all my children, they got hivey reactions with egg, but it wasn't a real allergy - just a skin reaction which they outgrew in a few months.

[Suntzu]

We had a blood test which confirmed egg and wheat allergy. Peanut allergy was a recent development when we gave him a tiny bit of peanut butter and he came out on spots. I had always been eating a lot of eggs and wheat, peanuts all through pregnancy and breastfeeding. And when his eczema first came up, we thought it was heat rash till about 3 months when the nurse at his immunizations said it was probably eczema.

So the food I eat doesn't seem to cause a reaction to him these days (though it might have in the early days but we were too ignorant to know!)

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

you may find his eczema clears up if you stop the offending foods. May, not definitely.

[Suntzu]

He now seems to tolerate good quality wheat products (we give him maybe a finger tip amount), and croissants (which contain egg). Peanuts still just via my breastmilk. Straight, unprocessed cooked egg still not really tolerated though. But a smudge of egg some food is fine.

[Suntzu]

For the rest then I think we'll wait till we see the dietician, I guess.

Interested in what you're doing though.

[Suntzu]

He used to have eczema all over his body, and now it's just the odd half a finger tip patch on his cheek and upper lip. Hence we're continuing with the allergen exposure.

[Suntzu]

If we got a strong reaction we would stop till the eczema is stabilised.

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

I think doing this yourself before you have professional advice is very irresponsible, sorry.

[Suntzu]

I wouldn't normally pursue this myself but the paed referral is taking ages, and the research on peanuts (and their previous research on dairy) indicate that you need to start early. Even as early as 4 months old to give a good chance of outgrowing peanut allergy. Using their method of none reaction exposure they managed to get 80% of their patients to tolerate peanuts. Based on data that developing countries don't normally have allergies.

[Suntzu]

maybe does your dd react to processed egg or jusst to pure egg?

[Suntzu]

[[https://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/allergens-probiotics-and-breastmilk?q=allergens-probiotics-and-breastmilk ]]

Link above to an article summarising the research which attempts to mimic how breastmilk exposes young children to allergens in a supportive environment which would desensitise them to allergens.

[SavoyCabbage]

Absolutely everybody who has a child with an allergy wants it to go away. If we could fix it then we would.

I've just waved off my eleven year old to school camp, nine hours away with her epipen. Trusting other people to keep her alive.

There are teams of doctors and scientists all over the world (my dd took part in a trial in Australia) researching allergies, carrying out trials and studying research data. Trying to find out what causes these allergies and how they might be cured. You can't just mess about with it yourself.

You can have the peanut desensitising done privately now for about £12000.

[lemonyone]

My god, please don't do anything yourself. This is terrifying! As an egg and nut allergic person I can safely say that even the tiniest piece can make you end up in hospital.
Do you really want to risk that? Do you have have an epipen and antihistamines on hand?

I understand you are frustrated by the length of time the referral is taking. Could you pay privately to speed things up? At least talk to your GP about how you are thinking of approaching this.

I ended up several times in hospital as a child (and adult). Once was from my dad kissing me on the cheek having eaten peanuts when I was around 2 years old, if that gives you any indication of the seriousness of anaphylaxis and the risks of giving tiny amounts in an unsupervised situation.