DS with nut allergy had swollen lips at Grandad's House

[Niceweather]

He is staying at Grandad's and phoned yesterday to say that his lips had swollen (Dad was eating cashews) so it must have just been a fleck that somehow got on his lips or in his mouth. I told him to take an antihistamine which was reducing the swelling when we last spoke. I told my Dad to keep an eye on him.

Is there anything else I need to know here? What could have happened? Should we have monitored him more closely? I guess we don't need to tell the doctor?

It's only the second time it's happened. We established that he had a nut allergy after the first time so he's never needed an epi-pen. I guess we can add cashews (which he wasn't tested for) to brazils and walnuts as the problem but the doc said no nuts anyway.

Please please get an Epi-pen!!

I knew of a girl, she knew she had a nut allergy, so avoided them, didn't bother with a proper diagnosis or an Epi-pen. Fine until she went to University, she went out for a meal with her friends. It had been cooked in nut oil, her allergy had been getting worse from the exposure over time. She had a full anaphylaxis shock and died. (It was in a lot of newspapers, and shock a whole generation of teenagers in this town.)

Her family hadn't got her an Epi-pen or a proper diagnosis as it had seemed fine to just avoid nuts.

Oh, thanks for your concern. Sorry, I didn't make it clear. He does have an epi-pen and he has it with him. He has one at school and one at home but he's never had to use it. This is only the second time he's had any kind of reaction. The doctor said that his allergy test reaction to brazils was the biggest she'd ever seen so we obviously need to be very vigilant.
Thanks again.

Just spoke to them and all is well but Grandad is now suspecting that it could have been caused by DS eating a peach and then getting right up close and crunching into the stone. Just did a Google and indeed, this could be a possibility. Do you think we need to ask for further allergy testing?

yes, ask for further testing. does your son have tree pollen allergy or other environmental allergies?

He does get hayfever and mild eczema. They only tested for about 10 things when they did the allergy tests. He was ok for most of them, it was just brazils and walnuts that came up.

Thanks for you advice.

It is very distressing. Have you got a good management plan that tells you when to use antihistamine and when to use the epipen?

The anaphylaxis Campaign do a great DVD which goes into what symptoms to watch for.

Some of my children have this.They take all their medicine with them every where they go, and also instructions about what to do if they have an attack.Yes,it is the management plan that their GP wrote,and it has been photocopied and given out teverybody,that is friends,relatives school etc etc
We have gone through it with all these people.
My kids management plan says what pills to give,and the epipens to give.Then the person looking after them has to also dial 999,and the kid gets taken to hospital.

I should also add that it is possible to have different reactions to different nuts.That is also on my kids management plan.So that people can recognise it as being a nut allergy attack.

We don't have a management plan or any instructions. I've been told and have had epi-pen training but I can see that we need something on paper to go with the epi-pen and pills. DS is 12 rather than a youngster so perhaps that's why they didn't give us one. I am going to make contact again after this latest reaction.

Part of the reason for a management plan,is because he may not feel well enough to be able to administer treatment himself,while having an attack.
So your sons age should be immaterial.
Agree with contacting the GP again,or even a different one in the surgery who may be a bit more proactive.

The best person I have dealt with so far has been the school nurse who was very proactive and chased up the referral for the allergy clinic. She was right on the ball with it all. GP was not on the ball, didn't prescribe the correct dose of epi-pen and wrote something totally inaccurate on the referral letter!

Thanks for your advice.