I'm new to the whole allergies thing, so lots of questions:

[fisil]

ds2 (who is 12 months) has an appointment coming up to diagnose a nut allergy. When I took him to the GP I said it was definitely a nut allergy because the 1st two times he was eating a fried breakfast in a cafe and it was nothing he hadn't eaten before, so it must have been cross contamination. The third time it was peanut butter without a doubt.

So we have an appointment, and the blood test paperwork we've been given clearly states that he is to be tested for nut allergy.

Then yesterday he had the same reaction, but this time to soft boiled egg. The two times in the cafes he'd had scrambled egg, so that's probably what it was. However, I have some questions ...

1. how come he can sometimes eat eggs perfectly happily - he certainly has no problem with anything cooked with egg?

2. do I need to let the hospital know that it is probably not just nuts but also egg?

3. are there any patterns in allergy - if he is allergic to nut and egg, is there anything else that we should steer clear of?

4. I gave him a dose of Pyratin (sp?) yesterday, but I'm not sure it did anything - he was perfectly happy throughout and the hives/swelling went away at the same pace as before. So is there a good reason for giving it?

Thank you!

peanut and egg allergy often go togther, it has something to do with the protiens.
Heat changes the protein in the egg, and some children can eat small amounts of egg exposed to these high temps. So for e.g egg in a sponge cake.
However , undercooked egg or partially cooked egg , raw egg can cause a reaction.

Most children who develop egg allergy are allergic to egg, full stop, either cooked or raw.
Then they grow out of the cooked egg allergy first , and then finally the raw.
Some children just develop the raw egg allergy, and some never grow out of egg allergy.
the peak age for out growing peanut is 7yrs, after that , its generally assumed to be a life long allergy.
the lastest i have ever heard of a child outgrowing egg allergy was at 11yrs. But allergies are very individual, and this is why expert medical help is required.

I am sure that other allergies are already making themselves present in your child, eczema , asthma, hay fever , dustmite ,tree pollen etc etc! this is all part and package of the whole atopic allergic child.

i hope this helps.

i'm glad u ask fisil, because my dd3 touchhed some raw egg white and came out in a rash. but GP said as she eats cakes etc then it may not be egg allergy. she has advised me to dab some raw egg on dd3 skin to check for a reaction. but to be prepared to go to A and E. so may do this on weds at my sisters house who lives over the road from the hospital.

OMG misdee - surely not? Surely no GP would recommend experimenting on your child with the potential to put them in A&E? I'd go to another GP for a second opinion!

exactly my initial thoughts. this is the same syrgery who wont belive me about dd1 allergies (lips swelling, then eczema will flare the next day). am considering doing it actually in the hospital.

That is awful advice! My 11 month old son has a severe egg allergy to scrambled, boiled,- eggy egg as we call it but he can eat cakes and biscuits without any problems! Our friend is an immunologist who advised us to continue this kind of exposure(cakes biscuits) in order for his body to "outgrow" the allergy. We're not sure about a nut allergy as he hasn't been exposed to any yet!

i havent purposly given her egg, basically she grabbed the bowl and it got on her hands and arm.

so do i tell the GP that welts appeared even we we dont do the skin tests, because they wont refer till i am 100% certain its egg she is allergic to.

this is how we started to test if dd had outgrown her egg allergy (but she's 5 so way older than your little one misdee)

I can't remember how old dd3 is misdee? if she's older than 1, I might do what the doc suggests (at your sister's place) then you can give her the piriton if she gets a reaction on her skin.

fisil,as williamsmummy said ,my ds is allergic to tree nuts and eggs.He has outgrown has allergy to cooked egg(he's 3.5 now).It was tested in a clinical trial in january.

My dd was also allergic to eggs as a baby/toddler,she's now 14 and has been having eggs of allsorts since she was about 9.

I would mention the eggs at your appt. They can test for all sorts of things.I had ds tested for eggs ,milk,sesame(in bread),lupin(used a lot now ),nuts,peanuts,grass,dogs ,cats,pollen,dust etc.
I just mentioned things I was worried about and they included them in the skin prick tests.

AS for the piriton I tend to give antihistamine(zirtek/cetirizine) as it doesn't make ds drowsy like piriton does.I only really give it if he's really itchy or swollen from a reaction,otherwise I leave the rash to go on it's own.

oh yes fisil, sorry didn't answer your questions!

Definitely mention the egg because they can test for it. Quite common for children to be allergic to 'raw' egg but not stuff with egg cooked into it.

How was the trial ggirl? I am supposed to be contacting them and trying to find a date when we can go (though it is a bit of a pain because we have to go there).

my dd is allergic to dairy. she had egg at 10m and went purpel and lips swelled so we went to a&E. After some time it stopped can're ember exactly when. She now eats eggs with gusto but we had the mmr under controlled conditions. s he had a rast test but didn't show much allergy to either dairy or egg. They said it's not always a very good test. she gets hives and vomits on dairy, used to be immediate but now she's older it's just hives and delayed vomiting.

paediatrician said that the further removed something is from its origin then the less likely they will react so dd can have hard cheese for example and eats digestives now but still couldn't have soft cheese or milk. not that she eats any sort of cheese regularsly but the reaction is def less.

piriton stops the vomiting, you don't know if the reaction will be delayed and more serious so i would alwasy give it as a precaution as something cld happen when they are in bed.

fisil, just wondering if it might be the type of oil that the food was fried in that your ds is allergic to.Good luck with the appointment.

An allergist will recommend dabbing food on child to check for any skin reaction. Usually somewhere the child cannot reach and possibly put hand in mouth. This is especially with a new food they have not had before. My ds tested allergic to egg at 9 months and is now nearly 3. He seems to have outgrown cooked egg (in other foods) but I still have not tried him with straight egg. I will wait until 5-6 as this is the usual age for them to outgrow an egg allergy if they will. Most people are allergic to the actual egg white and not the yolk but it is virtually impossible to have an egg yolk with no traces of white.

It depends on your allergist and his training.( with regard to the lip dabbing test at home)

personaly when considering my sons huge amount of allergies, and his wide and varying reactions, trying any high risk food, even dabbing on the lips would be a dangerous situation.

Our consultant agrees with us, and thats why we test in hospital conditions.

Its not up to parents to make a medical judgement that their child has grown out of a allergen, even if tempted to stand out side the door of the hospital with child is still a risk.
Shame the NHS allergy services are pants in this regard.

If we tested our son at home we have to consider, 1 , the time the ambulance will take ( 20 mins) , and 2, how many epi pens we had to keep him going until ambulance came.

Maybe because our son has so many allergies we over react, but once you have been told by a doc that your child is unusual , you realise that its not a compliment.

So testing at home, is not on our idea of a safe activity.

I was also told to test on an inconspicuos area of skin. To be honest, I already KNEW ds was allergic to milk & egg, he reacts in hives to both. I agree that home testing can be dangerous, especially if you don't know what kind of reaction to expect or you notice that the reaction gets worse with each exposure. How do you know the next exposure won't be the one to send them into anaphalactic shock? My ds is allergic to nuts according to his RAST, but I have never given him nuts to eat, so don't know what kind of reaction to expect. He managed to pick up a handful of nuts at a family party a little while ago and had no skin reaction. There is no way that iwould risk letting him try one just to see if he does react.

As for your questions:

My ds is allergic to milk, soya, eggs, nuts & wheat. When he was first diagnosed with his egg allergy, it seemed to be just raw egg he was allergic to, but he came out in a few hives when i kissed him after eating an omlette last week (silly me, forgot I had eaten it :( ). When ds was diagnosed he was eating biscuits and all sorts of things that had dried egg powder in it. I would certainly tell the hospital that you think he may be allergic to egg. Perhaps get them to run a standard paediatric screen (milk, eggs, nuts, fish & wheat).

As for piraton, I have also used it an not really noticed any difference to ds's hives or itchyness. It does seem to work well on hayfever though, although he hates the taste of it and refuses to take it :)
Good luck with the testing.

Medulla: I am really surprised that your friend actually recommended that you keep exposing you ds to the kind of egg he can tolerate. I was speaking with our allergist last week and asked why we are excluding all egg when he was only allergic to raw egg. He said that if we avoid all forms of egg or egg derivatives for the next 2 years, that ds's body will "forget" that it is supposed to react to this allergen. Apparently it is his best chance of outgrowing it sooner rather than later. I just wish that all allergists/immunologists would be on the same page. I seemt o get differnt advice depending who i speak to.

agree that they all say somehting different. dd1 does have allergies and for a while dd2 had suspected allergies and we recently moved house so I've seen a number of different paediatricians/dietitions/nutrition people either at the hospitals or at the surgery and they all differ in their advice.

luckily none of my kids allergies need a pen or had a severe reaction or i would be more concerned. I have come to think that they basically don't know the best thing and tend to work on 'recent studies' and quote those to you. I think you have to go with what seems best to you.

never heard of peanut and egg allergy being linked before. They are both common allergens and kids who have one allergy often have others but I've never heard of a link between the type of protein. Nothing came up on a quick google search either.

As other people have said its quite common to have problems with raw but not cooked food so with raw egg but not well cooked egg, cooking changes proteins.

If he does test positive for peanut definitely get him tested for lupin and sesame. Also worth asking about soya as its the same family as peanut. He should automatically be tested for a range of things but they only do a limited number so best to ask for the ones you most want. Take antihistamine cream with you as the test spots can itch a lot and they don't automatically offer it. Don't let your child have antihistamine for several days before you go as the skin prick tests won't work if you do.

I wouldn't test at home a child who has already had a reaction to that substance. Allergy clinics tell you to be tested in hospital and they do it very slowly and carefully even with full back-up available. If I was planning to introduce a nw food to an allergic child I would test it on their skin - but not skin on the face, the back is a good place. I'd have piriton handy, it works faster than any other antihistamine. It's not as good for hay fever where you want a long lasting effect but its better for an emergency response to a reaction.

Misdee if you can see another doctor, if not ask yours if he will speak to the allergy consultant and check its safe to try it at home.

soya is in a lot of processed food, equally posible with peanut allergy is bean allergy. 5% of peanut allergic are allergic to beans.

sorry, flooding you with things to worry about. just write down a list of questions to take in to see the doc.

aagghhh no - not soya! Well, if that's the case then dp is just going to have to start eating meat again after a quarter of a century!

Afraid so, I'm starting to think DS is allergic to any legume be it peanut or beans, he certainly reacts worse to some beans than to soya, fortunately...beans are rarely hidden with different names so, they are not that difficult to avoid.