Friend thinks giving foods her dd is allergic to will 'get her used to them'

[VeryStressedMum]

My friend's dd has been diagnosed with fish and nut allergy and has been given an epi pen just in case.
But my friend thinks that because her dd hasn't had a severe reaction it's not that bad and that giving the foods she's allergic to will get her body used to them. She thinks this because her dd had an allergic reaction to something (tomatoes i think) and she kept on giving it to her and now she's not allergic anymore!!

I've tried to tell her that this is really not the best thingto do. I think that giving a child something they are allergic to can make the allergy more severe. I am I right or is she?

I would be inclined to agree with your friend on this, but I am sure that I will be in the minority. My dd had an egg allergy when she was a toddler but I carried on letting her have them and she is fine now (had a bolied egg for breakfast this morning in fact)
I had a fish allergy when I was a child but don't know.
I am rather 1970's about the whole thing I am afraid

Hmmm, depends how severe, but if she has been given an epi pen that suggests possible severe. I have allergies, as does my mum and my understanding of them is that if something gives you a mild reaction, then quite often the reaction will be worse next time.

Definately shouldn't give nuts, nut allergy can be so severe and even in people who previously had no reaction.

Would question whether the tomatoes was a genuine allergic reaction to the tomatoes in the first place.

Although aware that some children can grow out of allergies

Our immunologist explained it to me as this - they have allergy reaction scale. There is no knowing wether they are on the 'upward' slope or 'downward' slope in their reaction.

Ds2 has had worsening reactions to egg so presumably is on the upward scale. One could argue that his reactions are worse However because I have allowed him to have tiny amounts of cooked egg, i e in cakes etc.

I think it does depend on the allergy. My dd has had an anaphylactic reaction to horses and has epipen. She also has asthma and milder reactions to some foods and other animals. When she went for testing her blood result came back very high for hazelnuts which shocked us as she regularly eats Nutella. The allergy specialist said not to exclude the Nutella from her diet as small regular exposure could be what is stopping her body going into to hyper reaction. He thinks that if she excludes hazelnuts and then years down the line suddenly eats one her body could react severely. So your friends theory might not be so mad, however, she should get professional advice on this not just do what she thinks is right; it should be medically based.

I tried this approach with my ds1's v. mild celery allergy -cut out celery but let him have stock/marmite/ketchup with small amounts in because he wasn't reacting to those. His allergy got worse .

With peanuts and milk his initial reactions were more serious so we cut them out totally. He outgrew his milk allergy at age 3 and will probably have a peanut challenge in the next 12 months.

If your friend's dd needs an epipen I think she should not take chances.

DS's consultant wants us to give him things with a teeny bit of milk in as he nearly passed his milk challenge, in the hope that he will be able to tolerate it more. So there us a school of thought that more exposure means more tolerance.

It's not going to well so far though, the milk challenge seems to have resensitised him.

I would be very hesitant about that approach without the advice of a consultant.

We were just told today after DS needing bloods taken as skintests were unclear not to try and eliminate things as more exposure means more tolerance, and if you eliminate and then reintroduce there is more chance of a more severe reaction.
Fairly sure that if DS had an identified allergy that required an epipen I probably wouldn't be doing my own experiments.

Someone I know is a coastguard volunteer and also owns his own company providing ambulances and is a paramedic.

He got called out once to a boat where an adult had reacted to green food dye (or some sort of green colouring). He/She had reacted 24 years before and had the allergy identitfied. I think over the course of becoming an adult with no reactions the allergen had been slowly introduced. She then had an analphylatic reaction.

This was told to me as a reason to ensure DS always has his epi-pen even though he has unidentitifed allergens and good/ bad periods.

I always agreed with the idea of introducing a little if safe, but the above conflicts that.

I have been doing similar with DS. Allowing him outside even though I know he'll begin a reaction (eyes/nose) and avoiding giving extra AH (he has daily dose already) to encourage his body to accept the allergen not medicating it iyswim?

It's new and unchartered waters - lots of research at the moment so I'd be hesitant in 'just doing it'

I would suggest your friend asks for a food challenge.

if you have been diagnosed with ige allergies, having them in your diet daily is not really a safe option. nor does it help allergies improve.

only if there are signs of outgrowing can you safety , after a food challenge add that food in the diet.

each reaction to each exposure is different. and we have no idea if todays reaction is going to be mild, or full blown anaphylaxis.

if a parent is casual with a food allergy , a teen will be very, very casual when they take on the responsibility.

I can understand what your friend is saying but obviously she should follow her doctor's advice.

My ds's allergy specialist said it was fine for us to try him at home with the foods that he had previously been allergic to.

I think the advice regarding allergies and what you can and cannot eat in pregnancy, and what you can and cannot give children to eat, will change drastically over the next few years, as heliumballoons says, there is a lot of ongoing research.