ds2 just diagnosed wiith severe peanut allergy. Feeling confused!

[shelsco]

Ds2 (age 10) has had epipen for 5 years as suffers from brittle asthma and had severe reaction to kiwi fruit when he was 5. he had skin prick test which confirmed kiwi allergy and came back negative to peanuts.

About a fortnight ago he finished eating his tea and suddenly started to suffer an anaphalactic reaction. we had skin prick testing today and it came back negative for kiwi and positive for peanuts. Given the severity of the reaction and the fact that it was mango chutney (which said may contain traces of nuts) that triggered it, he has been advised to avoid anything with nut traces.

I'm really confused. he has been avoiding kiwi for 5 years and it turns out he isn't allergic to it and we haven't avoided nuts and it seems he's suddenly highly allergic. has anyone else had this sort of sudden reaction out of the blue at about his age?

Also, I've got info from supermarkets and some of the big companies and their labelling seems good but I'm worried about eating out, parties, the epipen getting lost/left somewhere (as he will have to carry it with him). I feel like I've entered a whole new world. Would love some advice!

[shelsco]

Well it's not just me going mad with washing things then! i took a pack of baby wipes to Ds2's football team's party (which was at a cricket club where they often have bowls of peanuts) and tried to sneakily wipe the area where he was sitting .

I have another 3 DCs too and i have been wondering about them. I feel the same as you, no advice or info really. The paed did say she'd refer us to a dietician but i rang the doctors and that doesn't look like it's happened yet so I'm now chasing that up in the hope that maye a dietician can give me an idea about some of the questions I have.

I read on one website (not sure which or how accurate tho!) and it said to avoid nuts for younger siblings but didn't say anything about older ones! It's DS2 with allergy but it seems a bit weird to stop his two younger siblings from eating nuts but not the older one. Having said that, I do feel happier about letting Ds1 eat nuts as he is 14 now whilst the others are younger and could do the same as ds2 and develop an allergy at the age of 10!! I really don't know.

ds2 wasn't advised to avoid sesame but then, because i really didn't think he was allergic to nuts when he had the SP tests, I told them he was fine with sesame and a few other things because i thought he was. I'm now wishing that I'd asked for him to be tested as he could have developed a sesame allergy as well as a peanut one.

I'm wondering about asking for blood tests for sesame as when ds2 was 3 or 4 he tested slightly positive to peanuts but when he was 5 he had the SP test which tested really allergic to kiwi but negative to peanuts so we didn't avoid them after that. I now think that he probably always had a predisposition to peanut allergy and we probably sensitised him without knowing thinking he was ok. If blood test was negative for sesame I think I would feel fine to let him have it but at the moment i just don't know!!