Giving peanut butter to tree nut allergic ds

[CasaBevron]

I am under instruction to get peanut butter into ds as soon as possible, as he has tested negative on both rast and skin prick tests. He is, however, positive to cashew as well as egg. We were at St Thomas's yesterday and the doctor that we saw advised not to worry too much about the 'may contain's, but the dietician said to avoid them where possible .

All brands of peanut butter have a 'may contain' label, which doesn't really surprise me I suppose, but now I'm a bit worried about giving it to him. Even the Tesco own brand just says 'may contain' and doesn't indicate what level of risk there is. Why on earth didn't I look before yesterday, so that I could have brought this up at the appointment?? [thick]

Can anyone shed any light on this for me? Do you give your tree nut allergic dc's peanut butter? It'll be scary enough without worrying about cross-contamination!

(On a separate note, the doctor mentioned that labelling regulations were changing soon to provide clearer information on nuts. Anyone know anything about this?)

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Hiya, we were advised to give our DD1 (egg/dairy/tree nut allergic) Bamba snacks (peanut corn snacks akin to wotsits - sp?). You can buy them in Sainsbury's amongst other places (they're kosher if you have any local Jewish shops). It's what they use in the LEAP study (and what lots of Jewish babies are weaned on in Israel).

Not sure about labeling regulations - there was an article in the BMJ earlier in the month about food labels: "Advisory food labels: consumers with allergies need more than ?traces? of information". I don't think it mentioned anything about regulation changing in the short-term just that there was a need to change to avoid ambiguity.

Thanks, I will have a look for them.

Well we did it! I have to admit I have never been so frightened in my life, even though he tested negative. I talked myself round in the end - I figured that if the hospital were telling me that peanut butter is okay, I should trust their advice. And the Bamba snacks contain peanut butter anyway, so I would just be giving the same thing. Didn't stop me nearly keeling over when we got to putting it on ds's lip though!

Fab news! Well done you. We were told to keep giving small amounts to try and avoid becoming sensitised to peanut (They eat 3 packets a week as part of the LEAP study)

Londonmum, I wish I'd got shares in Bamba! Will have a look for them next time I'm in Sainsbo's. I think my heart will be in my mouth every time I give him anything with peanut, but I know it's worth it to try to keep him from becoming sensitised. I thought LEAP was egg-allergic children only, and other allergies prevented them from taking part, but it's reassuring to know that tree-nut allergic children are told to eat peanut products as part of the study.

Babybarrister, the doctor said something about there being a threshold for 'traces' and anything that was likely to contain more than that would have to say so. She said this would be happening 'very soon'. She didn't even mention non-prepacked goods! Do you think these new regs will change anything? I can't help thinking that we will just get the same old 'may contain' on everything from in-store bakeries, etc.

Did you try them? I remember being quite addicted to them at Uni (a very long time ago...)

Yep, LEAP is just egg allergic but our consultant based his advice on LEAP (he's part of the EAT study) after I said I wanted to give my dd1 peanut.

Right, I get it - I thought it was just egg-allergic children because of the link between egg and peanut allergy. I am learning all the time!

It was cross contamination that worried me, bb, but ds is sitting munching on pb on toast for breakfast, so we are doing okay so far, fingers crossed...

Ooh, I was told egg allergic too as my DD1 qualified. Thanks for clarifying babybarrister - sorry for misinformation (wrists slapped).

Will keep my fingers crossed for your DS's peanut challenge. Poor soul has a full house already by the sounds of it.

Right, got to get peanut into my 7 month twins ASAP then.

Yes good luck to your DS babybarrister!

Just coming back to say thanks for the tip about the Bamba snacks. Found some in Sainsbo's today and DS loves them, you even get bonus Nectar points for every 3 packs you buy at the moment!

Babybarrister, the bed test sounds bizarre - we would be fine as long as they didn't test for Hobnobs!

Son very allergic to peanut, even more allergic to Cashew, and even more allergic to Pistachioo. Got to the point theny had nurses standing by at his pin prick tests with adrenaline. Despite that. I would say experiment as life for the suffers would be very boring if they cant try all sort of foods. Just be wary as I recently found a pesto that we had used before had substituted pine nuts with cashew, we were one mouthfull away from hospital or worse....
Although my son is only 4 years old I will let him try most things (with a bit of checking) and when he is 18 i imagine he will get drunk with his friends and a packet of Revels. However I will have trained the designated driver on how to use the Epipen :) Paranoid mum