Probable nut allergy - but did I overreact?

[Whitetara]

Hi
My 3 year old daughter ate a peanut while in a restaurant on Saturday and soon after started complaining and crying about a funny sensation in her mouth. She then went from being bright and excited about her food to curled up on her seat, with glazed eyes, slightly bee stung lips, flushed skin and suddenly lethargic.

I went to boots to get some piriton and as soon as she took it she was sick, so I gave her some more. All the while my husband complained that I was over reacting, but I called nhs24 anyway. I spoke to a nurse and he said to get in a taxi and go to A&E, which we did.

She was assessed and given prednisolole (spelling?) and kept in for an hour after then discharged. All they said was not to eat any whole nuts and pick nuts out of food if cooked with it as she'd been ok in the past, and asked did we have any piriton at home. I've been reading lots on the internet about traces of nuts etc and subsequent reactions being worse next time round and getting myself really really worried.

There's now a pending referral to the allergy clinic, but I've been really really worried about her ever since so today I decided to call up the allergy clinic and clarify how to manage her diet while waiting and they referred me back to the GP.

I called the GP surgery and was phoned back by a nurse who after I explained the situation with her said I needed to see the doctor and booked me in.

I went to see the gp today and basically felt like a bit of a neurotic mother for being worried about it happening again and her getting a trace of something and setting off an even worse reaction. he said he couldn't do anything anyway without her having been fully screened (fair enough).

Have I totally over reacted?

Good god no of course you didn`t over react, in your shoes I probably would have called 999. Insist on a blood test as a starting point.
You will need to carry piriton with you all the time and I personally would ask for a jext pen too.

Avoid all foods with nuts, some supermarkets are better with their allergy advise than others.

An allergic reaction is likely to get worse not better.

Glad to hear you have a referral to an allergy clinic, and doesn't sound like overreaction and tingling in mouth and sudden lethargy can be food allergy symptoms. Might be useful to talk to the Anaphylaxis Campaign helpline for advice about diet, avoidance etc and to help you prepare for the allergy clinic appointment.

Hi
Thanks for your responses, guys. Mumsnet people are just amazing. Do you guys deal with nut allergies or others and how do you cope day to day?

Damndedoubtance, that's exactly what I'd been reading about it getting worse and mild reactions can be followed by massive ones.

I was looking at the anaphylaxis website, among others, and it sent my anxiety levels sky high and I've been so stressed since Saturday. I think I might give them a call now you mention it. Thanks Claire.

The doctor was saying he couldn't prescribe anything like adrenaline before they had isolated the exact cause and that she may well have had something else on her hands and put them in her mouth and it was that and not the nut.

However, in my view the nut was too much of a coincidence. Also there's asthma in the family as well, which has also got me wondering about risk...

I wasn't expecting him to prescribe adrenaline or anything and understand she needs to be fully screened before they can give any drugs, it just seemed that the discharge advice seemed a bit scary after what I'd been reading about subsequent reactions.

I just wanted to know:

• to what extent I needed to be vigilant?
• what precisely I needed to do if it happens again?
• how fast I need to react?
• at what point do I know things are getting iffy?

These might be obvious questions, but at this point I think I need it spelling out to me.

He did say to carry the Piriton everywhere (I have made sure the nursery and childminder also have a bottle for her), but frankly I didn't see it having a fast enough effect at the time, but it seems that's as good as I'll get right now until they accept my referral.

He was also a bit about the idea of traces and thought that companies were trying to cover their arses and I mentioned that I'd read that the anaphylaxis campaign says to avoid all trace and "might contain" type statements. He just said it was impossible to avoid completely anyway.

Question: my husband has booked us all in for a meal at Strada this coming Saturday and reckons dd2 will be fine with pasta.

Doctor was also a bit non committal on this as he said that all restaurants use nuts and when I asked about avoiding them (the restaurants I mean), he just said we don't know if it really was the nut that caused it and besides inadvertent contact is pretty unavoidable (the jist of it).

What to do?

Please come and join our facebook group Uk parents of kids with nut allergy peanuts. (feel free to ask or PM if u need help with this)

As for your questions....

I just wanted to know:

• to what extent I needed to be vigilant?

You must avoid all traces of nuts, any may contain, made in a factory that also manufactures nuts, not suitable for. If you need help sourcing food, treats etc just ask

eating out - you must contact venue in advance, ASK about nuts used in their kitchen, cross contamination, nut traces in products brought in

• what precisely I needed to do if it happens again? If she reacts in this way again id dial 999

• how fast I need to react? instantly

• at what point do I know things are getting iffy? if she reacts in the same way as she did b4 id be taking action.

I don't want to scare you, hopefully you will get an appointment soon and get your wee one tested. But until then I would be extra careful. Shopping will be difficult to begin with as everything you lift will say may contain or something similar, just ask for help and we will be here every step of the way.

It makes me so angry that health professionals know so little about allergies. I've never heard anything so idiotic as telling someone to pick nuts out of food!
I don't really have anything else to add that ukry hasn't said. Just that it does get easier, checking food packets just become part of what you do. (Even though DH f**ked up today & bought chocolate with nuts in, luckily not opened or given to DS!)
The Anaphylaxis campaign are great and there's also a couple of good Facebook groups.

I am confused. My DD is allergic to peanuts but not other nuts; she has Nutella on toast regularly without adverse affects. Should she be avoiding all nuts?

I am not familiar with strada, and I don't see any clear allergen info on their website other than indicating what products actually contain nuts.

I would contact them and ask about what nuts they use in their kitchen

if they use nuts/peanuts how will they avoid cross contamination while preparing meal.

do their products have may contain nuts, manufactured in a factory that also manufactures nut products etc.

zookeeper - if your DD is ONLY allergic to peanuts then its OK to only avoid peanuts, though be very careful with other nuts due to cross contamination as peanuts and tree nuts are often manufactured in the same facility.

Just to second what ukey said really! You did not over-react at all. Your dd had definite allergy symptoms, the hospital gave prednisolone and more to take home so they obviously felt her symptoms warranted steroids which again backs up the fact that she did need more medical help than just antihistamines.
Your GP may be right to say that you don't know that it was the peanut that caused the reaction but, given that peanuts are one of the 14 most common allergens and she'd just eaten one, it does seem far more likely to be a reaction to that than anything else. There aren't really that many allergens that commonly cause a reaction with just a trace so if your dd did have a tiny amount of something on her hands it wouldn't have been as likely to cause this type of reaction as the peanut.
I also thought that may contain traces was just companies covering themselves but actually this isn't always the case at all. My DS had a major reaction to something labelled like this (he had never reacted to peanuts before) and I know several other people who have too so it is definitely worth avoiding foods which are labelled in that way until your dd is tested.
As far as eating out is involved, pasta may be fine but you do need to ask and make sure they don't prepare it with foods containing nuts and get them to check that the packaging to make sure it wasn't made in a factory with nuts (unless it freshly made on the premises!)
It is really scary at first, I know. Hopefully, it won't have been the peanut but until you know that, you're being really wise and doing exactly the right thing. GP's often don't really have any understanding of allergy. The advice of the chemist showed far more understanding.

Thanks Ukey

My dd had an allergic reaction to hazlenuts but is fine with other nuts. We always contact the venue before we eat out, like supermarkets some are better than others. You cannot take this too seriously. Dd's worst reaction was to a chocolate coin that had no nuts listed in the ingredients so she reacted very strongly to a trace.

Read up on what an allergic reaction is and get your Dh to read up on it too. We were given blood tests within about a week of going to the gp.

Our gp took it very seriously, she said to avoid all may contain / not suitable for etc.

It's hard to start with but you get used to it and build up on the ingredients you can use.

Thank you again for taking the time to write your helpful replies and I've read them all closely.

Hubby still maintains I was over reacting emotionally as much as anything and admittedly I've been really upset and a bit panicky/tearful this week, although I've calmed down a lot.

I read quite a lot about allergic reactions this week, hubby's not read anything and to be honest probably won't unless the allergy doc gives him something. He doesn't "do" hypotheticals, only straight facts, and there's no convincing him otherwise.

Ukey - I've joined. Thanks for the tip.

Interesting Damndedoubtace that you were given tests so quickly and great that your daughter's gp was so understanding. One of my colleagues has an allergy to cocoa. When you said your daughter reacted to a chocolate coin not labelled with nuts, it made me think of this colleague. I take it she's normally ok with chocolate?

You've all clearly been through a lot yourselves with your own children and some quite scary experiences, especially those relating to unexpected reactions to things not labelled with warnings.

She is fine with chocolate, we get it from Kinerton who produce it in a nut free factory. Chocolate, like cereal, is often produced in factory's where there are hazlenuts and it all comes off the same conveyer belt so is one of the food types which can carry traces.

We got our test within a week, it was just a case of making an appointment with the nurse who comes into the practice. Took a while for the results to come through, about a fortnight, and then my gp called me to let me know the results.

However we were given jext pens before blood tests just in case plus extra for the school. Dds reaction was very similar to your daughters.

Damndedoutance, great that you were given jext pens for just in case before the tests. My gp said he didn't feel comfortable giving adrenaline or anything without the allergy being pinpointed (not that I'd asked at that point for anything like that). I guess things must vary from area to area and practice to practice.

I think it varies from GP to GP to be honest. My GP had just come back from a holiday where a young lad had died because of an allergic reaction She said the country she was in didn`t believe in nut allergys.