peanut reaction-what now

[littlealien01]

10 month old dd yesterday had a reaction to a tiny amount of peanut butter- hives/rash on her face and swelling around her lips.

It subsided pretty quickly and gp has prescribed antihistamine, referred to allergy clinic and told us to avoid all nuts, trace of nuts, may contain nuts for now.

Allergy clinic appt isnt till march!

Avoiding peanuts is fairly straightforward but avoiding all may contain trace of nuts is obv harder and seems slight overkill as includes things shes previously been fine with...but obviously we dont want to risk a more severe rection.

I guess im just looking for advice/experiences on how to proceed and what else we should be thinking about.

Hi Ive not got a great deal of advice only from my own experience with my son which havent had much support for so far.

He had a reaction like your daughter which included eye swelling when he was about 10 months from a easter biscuit, I studied the ingredients found that there was almond in it i thought it must be due to his young age so from then on checked his food for nut products then when he was 2 his older sister shared a piece of choc spred on toast with him without me knowing as she didnt realise, I had gone out the room and she gave him some I come back in the room and he had a reaction so it was virtually instant reaction.
He has had a skin prick test and tested positive for allergy to tree nuts.

Only thing can think is cooking oils as some of these have nut products in, some skin products do too and vegetarian foods. If you look on allergyuk they have good list of things to avoid and other names for nuts that are in ingredients lists that you may not realise eg-arachis oil

First of all, please don't panic . A peanut allergy is bad, but not impossible to live with. I have an anaphylactic reaction to peanuts. I always carry antihistamine with me. My personal method is to carry on eating everything I have eaten before without problems, and with things I haven't to check the ingredients Every Single Time. And to ask when eating out. May contain traces I ignore for the most part. The few reactions I have had in recent years have been when I didn't bother asking about ingredients.

Somy philosophy is always carry antihistamine, Be vigilant, BUT use common sense.

In eating out include friends' houses as well. And make sure to ask about groundnut oil as well as peanuts. Some people do not make the connection. While apparently peanut oil is often non allergenic because it has the proteins removed (or something) it is still not something I would ever eat by choice

Both DDs have peanut allergies but not tree nuts. So whilst dd2 is more severe (needs epipen due to previous reaction), we don't avoid the "may contain nuts" unless it specifically says peanuts. If your DD has a more severe reaction (anaphylaxis), give her piriton, and don't hesitate in calling 999.

Thanks everyone. Some reassuring comments. We'll just have to see how we get on :)

Does your daughter have asthma as was told by allergy consultant that this is the real red flag for anaphylaxis (although always possible without). My DS tested positive for peanuts but have never had a reaction. We were told probably OK with may contain nuts (and has been so far).