when / did you expose your child with other allergies to nuts?

[Maz007]

I'd be interested to hear when people introduced nuts in cooking to their children with other allergies but no KNOWN allergy to nuts.

DD is allergic to egg and has an intolerance to milk protein and soya. As is the way these days, she was not tested for things other than those we presented a problem with already. Obviously we will avoid peanuts until she's older and her consultant said we'd discuss it again in a couple of years which I guess might mean he'll test her if she hasn't had accidental exposure in the meantime which will tell us either way

I was wondering where things stand re giving her things like ground almonds in cooking - it would be a nice source of protein, calcium and calories... but I'm not sure if it would be playing with fire and best left alone? I guess I'm going to have to expose her to these things sometime though? I can't expect to wait for her to be tested for every known allergen right? Or are nuts a different case entirely?

I guess it's about how we all manage risks and it's very individual and varies according to the circumstances but I'd be interested to hear about others' decision making processes.

We were told by the consultant to avoid until 5 so we did. Ds hasn't got a nut allergy and all turned out to be fine when we did. He is allergic to eggs.

DS (5) is allergic to milk, wheat and eggs. He has had blood test for peanut allergy which came back as 'mild to moderate' even though he's never been exposed to them. My husband is allergic to most nuts so we steer clear of all of them, just in case. Not sure whether or not the consultant plans to test DS for other nuts at some point but if he doesn't, I'm not planning to let DS have any, just in case. Even with DD (11) who doesn't have any allergies, I waited until she was about 7 or 8 before I let her try any nuts simply because of DH's allergy.

You're right OP about it being a personal decision based on our own perceived level of risk. I do find it frustrating not really knowing which nuts DS may or may not be allergic to but I find avoiding nuts a lot easier than his other allergies so for me personally I feel happier just avoiding them all.

Thanks both - always helpful to share a dilemma... esp if it is a frustrating one with no easy answer.

DD1 was allergic to both egg and cow's milk protein. She grew out of the CMP allergy at a year and we have recently gas a successful egg challenge with foods containing baked egg - she's just over 3. Our consultant told us to keep her nut-free until 3, and when we saw her earlier this year and had the egg challenge ratified, she told us we could start nuts. Her peanut IgE was negative when it was tested at 7 months.

No problems yet!

That's a hopeful experience - thanks for sharing it. My eldest was also CMPA and outgrew by about 3 so fingers crossed DD follows suit. I'm thinking it's not worth messing about with - I'll put my plan to have a marzipan based picnic outside the local
A&E on hold. Like lots of people have said, they're easy to avoid and not essential will leave well alone I think.

My rule of thumb was no peanuts until kids were old enough to describe verbally what was happening in their bodies (ie, "I'm itchy", "my throat is tightening" "I'm having trouble breathing"). I didn't avoid other types of nuts after age 2 or so as there are no nut allergies in our family. I also carried an epi-pen for myself, so worried less.

DS1 was allergic to egg and intolerant to CMP and I had been determined that he was not going to have nuts/peanuts until he was much older.

But, he was incredibly fussy on top of his already limited diet and he wouldn't eat any meat so I was worried about his protein intake.

I had been avoiding nuts as was still breastfeeding, so decided to start eating them first so that he would be exposed through my milk, and when he was fine with that, I introduced peanut butter.

I think he was about 2.5yo at the time, but can't remember exactly.

i didnt have this concern with my first two kids as its only my 3rd with ige allergies. the first two were brought up on peanut butter on wholemeal bread etc.

however with my fourth, as she didnt have any visable indicators to allergy i carried on as normal when she was 6 months old. when it came to nuts i simply gave her chocolate with a selection of nuts in it. no problems showed, and now as son is not allergic at all to tree nuts, we can all eat nuts from the shell direct.
if she showed some sign of atopic disease i would have played things more careful and asked for medical support.

however when all said and done, she is now as a teen intolerent to milk and soya.

My dd is 11 months and allergic to CMP and eggs. I'd planned to wait til she was at least 2 but idiot DP dropped a (whole!) peanut on the floor last week and she ate it. Not the best way to test! She was absolutely fine, but I'm terrified it will have been the 'first-strike' and will have sensitised her to them. Would love to be able to give her peanut butter though!

DS (aged nearly 4) has never been exposed to nuts as far as I know but avoiding them was an easy decision for me. At 13 months, his RAST tests showed that he is allergic to both tree nuts and peanuts. (He also has a number of other food allergies, including dairy, eggs, pulses, bananas, sesame and a few others.)

The hospital consultant has told us that it is okay to try him with other stuff that is 'risky' - e.g. seeds such as poppy and coriander. Despite this advice, I have been putting it off until he is older. This is partly cowardice, and I am also hoping that his immune system will grow stronger as he gets older.

The way I see it, although DS's diet is very limited, there are still plenty of other nutritious things that he can eat. It seems logical to me to wait for as long as is practical. He is starting to grow out of some of his 'minor' allergies already (e.g. peaches used to give him hives but he can now eat tinned peaches until they come out of his ears, even though he still can't manage fresh; can eat ketchup and tomato puree although still won't touch fresh tomatoes).

Maz I think in your position I would be holding off the nuts for now. I know it is frustrating avoiding whole food groups, and that nuts can be very nutritious, but then again nuts are fairly easy to avoid (great labelling and lots of understanding about nut allergies). But, as you so wisely say, we all manage risks differently, and I am by no means sure that I am right about this!

Thanks everyone. I think I will leave well alone as most people decided to. Like you say, it's an easy food group to avoid. I think i was feeling rebellious when I posed the question... But in the cold light of day, given that everyday activities inevitably involve risk we can't avoid (DD touched some crumbs that someone had dropped on the grass in the park and came up in hives last week!) why would I want to introduce risks that are unnecessary really? I appreciate everyone's thoughts though - I now dont feel like I'm being over-cautious in coming to that decision :)