seafood allergies+ what's in fishfingers??

[marialuisa]

Have posted on the "food" forum before noticing this one!

DD (3.4y) has developed an allergy to prawns (real shame as she love them and they're so quick and easy!). Afew allergy sites have said not to eat fishfingers/processed fish as they may contain traces of crustacea. BUT the sites were all US/Oz based, so does anyone know what is allowed in EU fishfingers? They give them for school lunch every friday and i don't want to aggravate the allergy any further.

Are you sure that she is actually allergic to prawns? I thought for years that I was allergic to prawns/lobster/crab and then as an adult found out that the allergy was in fact to the sulfites that used to (still are sometimes, but much less now) be sprayed prodigiously on seafood as a preservative. I only found this out when I developed a serious allergy to squid/scallops around the age of 30 and got tested for all seafoods.

I don't think in general there are prawns in fish fingers. But not sure how much fish is in them either .

we've assumed it's prawns that are the problem rather than chemicals as the symptoms come on very quickly and have worsened with each recent exposure whereas she's still fine with scallops/squid/salmon and so on. Also she's had the reaction at home as well as after restaraunt food and we wash everything thoroughly.

The websites mentioned that they use crustacea to "bulk" out fishfingers (and chicken nuggets apparently!) and as fishfingers aren't exactly made from the finest fish I am a little worried.

Will keep an eye out when she has other seafood but don't want to go down the allergy testing route really. Thanks though.

Message withdrawn