When should I introduce nuts..............

[islandgirl]

I have a 3year old and a 20 month old, and have never given them nuts, or anything with nuts in them . Now we are doing quite a bit of cake baking, and wonder if I am being over cautious not using any form of nuts. My three year old does accasionally come out in a rash which is terribly itchy, but we cannot pin point what it is, and I suppose I worry that if he has a nut allergy then what do I do?

Sorry, dont know enough about it to give serious advice,but I'm sure I read that Nigella Lawson took her two to the doctors and fed them peanut butter sandwiches in the waiting room so she'd be in the right place if they did turn out to be allergic...

The last thing I read from the Analyphalixis campaign was 7 years old although my health visitor said 5 so possibly I've not remembered properly. One key thought is whether or not your child would be able to say something like "my mouth feels funny" which can be the symptons of the first reaction.

Could the rash be ecezma (sp?)

message withdrawn

I've been advised to wait until dd is 5yrs before introducing nuts in any form but it is so hard to avoid them in products so we try to limit exposure to food products containing them but I have read that early exposure can cause allergy later so maybe it's best to introduce them gradually and monitor reactions. I bake cakes without adding nuts and avoid whole nuts. I like the idea of peanut butter at the doctors but our GP's will only see you if you phone to make an appointment first.

Message withdrawn

robinw, are you talking about peanuts or about all nuts? I've not yet introduced peanut butter to ds1 (28 months) but he has had other sorts of nut butter and lots of other things that I'm sure have peanut traces in them and has seemed fine. I wonder if I should do things differently for ds2? We've no history of nut allergies but they both have mild eczema (in common with about a quarter of all children!)

I had an allergy to all nuts when I was a child. It gradually went away and now I seem to be allergic only to Brazil nuts. DD is 15 months old and I have no intention of giving her nuts for a long time, but I had been wondering whether I should get her tested professionally now, rather than risking her eating nuts unintentionally and having an allergic reaction. Does anyone know how I could go about getting this done?

Robimw, is it just peanuts that chocolate is likely to be contaminated with or all nuts.
DS was tested as allergic to almonds, and previously he didn't like chocolate, but seems to have had a reaction to some yesterday. Is this likely, or do you think it could be "Chocolate" itself IYSWIM?

Chocolate can be contaminated with all nuts, DS is allergic to tree nuts and unfortunately we have to avoid it. I say that with easter looming and having hunted high and low for a 'nut free' egg his little heart will be broken when he doesn't get an easter egg. He will have a bag of mixed sweets, including mini twix bars which are the only ones I can find without the warning, so hopefully he won't be too disappointed that the easter bunny has singled him out. It's basically cross contamination potential where they make 'fruit and nut' bars etc. on teh same production line on in same factory.

I know somebody who introduces new food in the car outside A&E in case of other reactions.

We discovered DS's allergy when he had a fll blown attack in a cafe but in hindsight he had come home from nursery on 3 occasions with hives and poorly after birthday parties. I had wrongly assumed he was allergic to face paint and had asked them not to do it but in retrospect I think it was teh cake and 'goodies' he was having at the nuresery party. Very scary that they never told me or noticed something going on IMO.

sibble my ds is allergic to tree nuts and is able to have white chocolate buttons so presumably a white button egg would be fine aswell although I haven't checked.His Gran gave him an egg from M&S ,actually a white choc duck that has no nuts .,He's eaten some of it and is fine.
Also waitrose and other outlets stock Kinnerton Chocolate that is made in a nut free environment,they sell little teletubbie and fimble eggs in my local waitrose.
Hope that helps

hi thanks polly28, unfortunately we are in New Zealand and we don't have M&S and waitrose (have stopped looking at the websites, happy shopping memories brings tears to my eyes!!). Choice is limited here. But will try to find a white chocolate egg - hadn't thought of that - thanks.
Am sure the bag of sweets I have wrapped will go someway to getting him over the trauma!!!! have also made the same up for his brother and the other 2 children we are going away with so hopefully it won't feel different. Am now off to write a letter from the easter bunny, have been practising bunny paw prints in paint and think I have perfected it!!!

thanks for all your advice on nuts. WIth regard to the rash it comes on very suddenly and looks like a nettle rash, and disapears in about 4 hours. very odd, and really hard to identify what is causing it. A friend of my mothers had said that ivy and bulbs can cause a rash - ever heard of this? I

Whatever you do, DO NOT GIVE peanuts to small children, even though you know for a fact that they are not allergic to it. Because should they choke and the peanut pieces go to the windpipe it is really dangerous. It happened to my niece, at the age of 15 mnth I think, she spent several days in hospital, had 2 ops, but thankfully she is now OK. the reason is peanut is the only nut that does not dissolve so to speak, and just rots causing respiratory problems.

Sorry to be bearing such miserable info, but I share that with every mum I meet, just in case they were like me (i.e. prior to knowing this, feeding her children with all kinds of nuts!!!)

Happy and healty days to everyone...

message withdrawn

message withdrawn

I never gave my DS1 who is almost 4 nuts as I am atopic and he had excema as a baby and was allergic to egg white. However, he accidently touched some of DH peanut butter on toast, touched his face ad had a swollen eye and hives within minutes. It was after this I insisted to the GP he was tested for major food allergies and obviously came back postive for peanuts.