Possible allergic reaction??

[Ginnymweasley]

Yesterday my dd ate ome of those happy hippo hazelnut wafer things. Within 10 minutes she had started complaining that her throat hurt and then she threw up everywhere. We took her to the out of hours gp who said it was possibly a allergic reaction to hazulnuts and to avoid nuts for the time being until we can see a specialist, and to carry antihistamine with us from now on. Dd is 4 btw. She was perfectly fine after she threw up. She had no other symptoms such as swelling or rash. I am going to try and get her a gp appointment today.
I am just very confused by it all. She has eaten some nuts before, she has even eaten nutella although not much cause she didn't like it. I am now scared that she is going to have some sort of severe reaction. Has anyone heard of an allergy where the person just throws up rather than swelling and itchiness? I have no idea what I am doing tbh and my panic has been made worse by my sister going on about how much worse it could have been and how she could have died. My dh thinks that we should continue letting her ear things she has always eaten until told otherwise.

My dh thinks that we should continue letting her ear things she has always eaten until told otherwise.

Well you have been told otherwise so you should avoid them.
It's good that your GP listened and reacted to the possibility of an allergy. Some are not as helpful.
There's no point thinking that it could have been worse, it wasn't so be grateful for that. I'm sure you don't end every car journey worrying that you could have crashed.
Hopefully it won't be long before you get an appointment with the allergy specialist which will either give you a diagnosis or give DD the all clear.
My son is allergic to peanuts and while his reactions are severe we've been able to avoid them mostly. In the 6 years he's been diagnosed, he has only had one reaction in that time.

Why are you saying she had no other symptoms before she threw up? She told you her throat hurt and she's 4 so may not have the vocabulary to accurately describe what the sensation.

It is normal to develop an allergic reaction having had no adverse reaction in the past.

The out of hours gp was great, not sure if our actual gp will be as helpful but fingers crossed. I think my dh meant things like cakes and chocolate with the 'may contain traces' etc and the fruit cake she was eating the day before. It has ground almonds in it but she has eaten it loads of times before. He thinks we should just avoid hazelnuts which obv should be quite easy. Luckily I don't really like nuts so we don't have much nut based products in the house. I've promised my dd we will make cookies today to make up for yesterday so that will please her at least. I am so thankful it wasnt worse,tbh about 10 minute Slater she was asking what was for tea so she is in no way bothered by it at all.

Well she said her throat hurt then she threw up straight away so what I mean is there was nothing else. She was drinking so she could swallow etc. She wasnt breathless. As soon as she was sick she said her throat didn't hurt anymore. I have no experience with allergies at all except hayfever. Just trying to get my head around what happened tbh.

What do you mean she was drinking so she could swallow?

She said her throat hurt and she had a drink of juice, just after she stopped drinking she threw up. The dr told me that if she could swallow it meant her throat wasnt actually closing up

Allergic reaction can come out of nowhere.
They tend to worsen after each exposure.
Vomiting is a common occurrence because the body tries to get rid of what it senses as a toxin.
Avoid nuts until tested and shown to be safe.
Don’t be put off by a GP who is less interested.

Thanks. I suffer from anxiety especially related to health/illness so I am never sure if my reaction is normal etc. Shoud I also avoid the 'may contain traces of' like I said I have no experience and huge anxiety stemming from seeing a friend have a serious medical episode as a child. Usually managed well but my sister has reminded me of it all making it worse iyswim?

The way the 'may contain traces of ...' was explained to me was, it means there will have been the allergen present in the factory.
You could eat any number of that food and not react but the next one could cause a reaction.
The level present might not be enough to cause a serious reaction but it can still have an impact on the body and possible future reactions.
Prior to his diagnosis my son would occasionally get slight reddening around his mouth after eating products I later realised 'may contain peanut traces'.
A friend who has a son who also has a peanut allergy diagnosed within months of my own son has never avoided anything with traces. She doesn't want him to miss out and doesn't seem to understand that he might not always react. Her son has had many reactions, some severe in comparison to my sons one minor one.

Thanks. Got her in with the gp this afternoon so hopefully they will be helpful.

My nut allergy started with vomiting but every time you are exposed it gets worse. Sorry your DD has had a rough time

I’m really sorry to say this OP, but I think you are in denial and minimising this when you shouldn’t.

I would be running to the hospital/calling an ambulance if my nut allergic DS told me his throat hurts and feels sick after eating something that may have had nuts in it. Because he complains about the throat when the tongue is getting inflamed and may end up preventing him breathing.

Throwing up is also a reaction, the body is trying to expel the allergens quickly before they cause more damage. Although allergic reactions that involve throwing up may not be life threatening, they can be in combination with throat symptoms.

Ps. It is upsetting at first but please be reassured that if there is an allergen easy to avoid is nuts as they are always indicated in packets, menus and people are very mindful about them.

WRT using products that “may contain nuts”... I would stop until she has proper tests by an allergician, and you get more used at checking her food and determining the level of risk.

Started typing before you posted about your anxiety. The way I managed mine when DS’ allergies started was to say to myself: If I can prevent him from putting bleach on his mouth, I sure can prevent him from putting nuts in his mouth.

It just took spending a whole morning in the supermarket looking at the labels of the products we normally ate, find safe substitutes and not bringing any nuts home.

It is not that difficult, honest. It is overwhelming at the beginning, but you get through the shock and it becomes easier.

I wasnt meaning to minimise. She didn't have an allergy as far as I was aware so when she said her throat hurt I told her to have a sip of her drink. She then threw up. I phoned the nhs and gave her antihistamine. It all happened in 10 mins. My anxiety means I'm never sure whether my reaction is over the top so I tend to play it down to others cause I have been made to feel stupid before. I hardly slept last night cause ei was worrying about it all. We have just moved area,she has a new school etc it just seems like another thing for her to contend with. Like I said we are going to the dr so hopefully will have some more info by this afternoon.

Well the dr was somewhere in the middle of being helpful and not being helpful. He admitted he wasnt sure what to do next as apparently allergy referrals have a long waiting list in north wales where I live. He said he would make some calls and see what the next step should be. Until then no nuts and we have some antihistamine and steroids just incase. Got a follow up on friday so hopefully he will have more of an idea by then.

Yes, I think it probably was. Sounds just like DS's incident when he was 3. He'd eaten the food before but that time his body didn't like it. Following his allergy tests he was issued with epi-pens. No idea why such strong allergies blew up out of nowhere.

Prepare to push off a referral, and push hard. My GP spent two years trying to convince me that DS bloating, eczema and asthma couldn’t be an allergy to milk as he didn’t have projectile vomit, same with the peanut reaction... one of those things, she said. There was no way to get a referral so we took DS abroad to have the tests done by a paediatric allergician, then came back with the positive tests results and with that they had no excuses to defer seeing an allergician so we got the referral and after few months, the blessed epipen.

To this day I am angry at how the GP was happy to let DS suffer broadly with his allergies and be at risk for years, rather than refer. An early referral would have save DS a lot of misery.

Push FOR a referral, damn the autocorrect.