DS might have nut allergy - did i give it to him?

[jimmyjammys]

I stupidly gave DS 15 months a tiny bit of walnut today which he spat out immediately. within 10 minutes he started to go blotchy and red and his face puffed up. I gave him some piriton which calmed it down slightly and then took him to the hospital. He is to be referred for allergy testing. He has been exposed to nuts in food though i have never given him a peanut or any other nut before directly. i feel really awful and guilty because of what I did. Did i give him the nut allergy by giving it to him so young? And what should I do now?

It's definitely not a death sentence and all the emotions you are currently feeling are absolutely normal so please try not to dwell on things or worry too much - easier said than done, I know!

Here's something to make you hopefully feel more reassured - my DS is nearly 4 and for the past 18 months or so can very clearly ask if the food he's been offered has nuts, seeds or eggs in it. When asked waht happens if he ate them, he asnwers they make him sick, so what I guess I am trying to say is that at an age when they're ready, children with allergies, with their parents support, can very quickly get used to the idea that some food is a no-go for them.

Just a thought - did the Anaphylaxis organisation / trust have any info on how to find the right testing company / private doctor?

I remember realising my DS had a nut allergy, I sobbed and blamed myself - didnt eat them when pregnant but did while breastfeeding...

We had the skin prick test and he came back slightly allergic to sesames and other nuts and significantly allergic to peanuts. A word of warning though: this is not an exact science - these results have no baring on the type of reaction. Ie: no way of predicting if the reaction will be a rash or full on anaphylaxis.
DS still has not had peanut (not that I know of) so I have no idea what level it would be, and carry an epipen just in case. He is 2 by the way, and I feel much more secure carrying it - just in case.

Apparently boys grow out of it much more than girls too, so hopefully you will get a happy outcome.

My dd's allergy specialist says that there is no merit in delaying introducing potential allergens and he actually recommends eating nuts and peanuts in pregnancy and bf. Something about the child then not recognising it as a foreign body. Im only telling you this to show that the guidance is so mixed, no-one really knows why certain people have allergies - its just one of those things.

thank you. could I just ask some questions about the tests? With the skin prick test - will they test for all manner of things or just walnut or a few select nuts? How will i find out exactly what nuts he is allergic to if at all? Also i know this is completely random but he had his first MMR jab on Wed afternoon - with the reaction on friday night - i don't suppose there would be any connection between the two, it would prob be too late to have a reaction to the jab by then?

JJ - who knows, that is why skin prick tests are so useful.

They will probably suggest testing for a range of tree nuts plus peanut. If they don't suggest this then ask them to.

For example, ds1 was tested for: almonds, walnut, brazil nut, cashew nuts, hazelnut and peanut. In his case all were negative except the peanut.

There is nothing wrong with hoping that it is a false alarm by the way, they do happen. But if it isn't, you will cope, honest.

Our DS was tested for all sorts of tree nuts (positive), sesame seeds (positive), peanuts, mould (called aspergillus - also positive), as well as cat dander, dog hair, dust mites, grass, pollen, dairy, egg yolk (positive), and egg white (positive).

There may well have been others they checked for which I've not remembered but often I think they do a wide ranging test so as to give an overall picture. They also test for normal, every day household things. Plus I gather they test for things like dust mites because everyone has them in their home and sometimes if you're an 'allergic' person, it increases chances of being allergic to other sorts of things.

I have been told that they will not now do the nuts one again as they don't like to introduce an allergen too many times as it only increases the problem / allergic reaction.

Funnily enough the egg allergies may well have disappeared as my DS has cancer and so the chemo may well have stripped his system of that allergen, but not the nut allergies!

Hope that helps. So don't be wary if they're testing all sorts of things as you're better off to know up front. My son had never even had eggs and I'd even planned scrambled egg for the day after the skin prick tests - just as well we found out!

They might not do skin test, my son only had blood tests.
As for the MMR my son was due to have his preschool booster around the time his allergies showed up, but he didn't have it until after he started school for some reason. It is most likely a coincidence.
Retests at 12 showed he had grown out of peanut but still allergic to seseme, treenuts, hayfever and cat.

jimmyjammys they havent done skin prick tests on my dd. They took blood for RAST tests.

hsanders I just had to say all the best for your son's cancer treatment. He's had a time of it poor mite.

hsanders - i am so sorry to hear about you DS - i hope all the best for him, he sounds like a very brave little soldier indeed.

Thanks for your support about my DS - I've been writing a blog about his treatment if you'd like to follow his 'adventure!!'

Thanks again, but I only really mentioned it to illustrate that the body and things we introduce to it can change things - so with him the chemo will have stripped his body of the egg allergy but not the nuts etc - so the body works in a major way to cling on to some allergies.
I was advised that some kids do indeed grow out of peanut and nut allergies and 80% grow out of the egg allergy by the age of 5 anyway.

I wasn't trying to in any way overshadow your worries right now jimmyjammys as all mothers have horrid feelings about whether what we do or feed them, can have major impact on them beyond our wildest dreams. And so you fear that a nut allergy with your little one is absolute fear which alot of people never feel about their children.

It's not the same as them falling over and grazing their knees. You will have that fear for all times as long as you know they have an allergy because at some point they'll rebel or do something to annoy you, because theyre children! That's what they do once teenage years isn't it?

Motherhood eh? Great sometimes, isn't it!!??

PS. Blog address is leosteam.blogspot.com

hsanders - you are a wonderful woman - your post describes exactly how i feel including the bit about the rebelling!

jj-just to let you know dd's blood tests showed no allergy to treenuts,seeds or peanuts. And she's not allergic to any pets (although her daddy is) hope its the same for you.

That's wonderful news chips - that must be such a relief for you, i'm really pleased you won't have to worry so much now . how long did you have to wait for all the results? and did they say what caused the reaction? i passed the nuts in the supermarket today and it made me shudder - want to burn and eradicate all nuts from the planet!

Results took a week. They said it could've been a one-off incident unrelated to what she'd eaten. I'm always going to keep the piriton on me but its such a huge relief. Really hope you get the same news.

I have just gone through almost exactly the same experience - gave DS (2 yrs 3mths) some carrot cake containing brazil nuts and he went into anaphylactic shock.

Like you, I have been beating myself up ever since, felt complete failure as mum etc etc etc, have also worried about judgement from other mums etc.

But having just seen the NHS allergy clinic, I have asked the questions that you are asking i.e. if I had delayed giving him the nuts until later could we have avoided this?

The answer I got was an emphatic no and a very kind but firm "You have got to stop blaming yourself, you were doing the right thing in giving him a balanced diet and nuts are part of a balanced diet."

DS is allergic to brazil nuts and cashews - both of which I ate during pregnancy while avoiding peanuts. 20% of children will grow out of a nut allergy by 5 so we'll wait and see.

We now have an epipen and yes, life will get a bit more complicated, but we will all cope and you know what? The only person judging me is myself - everyone else has been nothing but sympathetic.

So big hug, and take pride in the fact that you reacted in just the right way - giving Piriton and taking him to hospital.

Hello, just wanted to give an update. DS went to the allergist today and he gave him a skin test. Turns out he is allergic to pretty much all tree nuts and borderline peanut.

He did the skin prick test only - he said that if they showed positive then there was no need to go and do a further blood test as it wouldn't tell us anything more then that he is allergic. He seemed to think that the result of the tests was not an indication of how severe a reaction was going to be.

He got between 5 -6 (is it in mm for the welts?) for the tree nuts and 2.5 for the peanut. He was ok for pine nuts. I thought that i had read on here that anything above 8 mm for the skin prick test was positive but the allergist said anything above 3 was positive. If anyone could offer anymore advice in this regard I would be grateful - though of course I will not be disregarding anything he says.

He has given me a prescription for epi pens which i will have to get from the GP now. Just wanted to say a big thanks to everyone for support and help, I was able to ask lots of questions and went in prepared - still completely devasted that my worst fears are confirmed as I like to think that I was just over reacting but I have to make sure that I don't give my son a complex and make him fearful so I have to remain calm and practical.

Hi Jimmyjammys - thanks for that update. At least you now know where you stand altough I am sorry you guys are having to go through all of this.

Calling WB - wb knows loads about test results and always gives really good advise.

WB - are you out there???

Please also keep in mind that a lot is being down on the medical immonotherapy front. As people are bored of me harping on, DD2 has had immunotherapy for all nuts. Her RAST test was over 100. She now is only allergic to cashew nuts and has 5 peanuts a day as a prophylactic dose to try to keep the allergy at bay. We will know if April when she has her next set of bloods taken if her allergy has in fact been 'cured'.

Good luck hon and keep you and your DS safe. It is very possible to avoid nuts, we have been doing it for 10 years. As long as you are organised then anything can be overcome. Your DS will get used to what he can and cannot eat and learn to act responsibly. In the meantime keep your fingers crossed that the medical progress we are making at the moment goes from strength to strength.

thank you Blue - i have been following your posts with great interest and actually asked the consultant about your programme and desensitisation in general. He said that he was going to Cambridge I think tomorrow for some kind of conference and i mentioned Andrew Clark and he said he would be meeting him and would ask him for the latest developments and get back to me.

Anyway he seemed positive about desensitisation in general - he said that you could get commercially available tablets now to treat grass pollen and he thought that the same thing would be available for nut sufferers within the next 5-10 years so I am keeping my fingers crossed for medical development.

He did also say that the likelihood of DS growing out if the allergies were very small, apparently the number in the UK is only 1-2% in small children.

Also that it makes no difference whether you eat nuts in pregnancy or not and that the advice to avoid nuts in pregnancy is changing.

Oh JimmyJ - I am so so happy to hear that your consultant is showing a possitive approach to the desensitization. It is a real hot potato and this is great news. Dr Clark is amazing. I am blown away by his knowledge, medical expertise and his general loveliness with the kids.

A commercially available treatment withing 5-10 years would be wonderful, think of all the families that would benefit.

Can you post again when you hear back from your consultant? I would be very interested.

In the meantime I will keep giving the peanuts, it is very very strange you know!!

He is treating a boy with allergy to grass pollen at the moment and he is giving him tablets that you place under the tongue to densensitise him. he said that 5 years ago it was thought that this kind of treatment was useless but now it's commercially accepted and he genuinely thought there would be some kind of treatment like the tablet for nut sufferers.

Blue can i ask you - your DD was also allergic to tree nuts - did she have to eat the tree nuts as well or did the desensitisation with the peanut cure the tree nut allergy automatically?

JJ - she was allergic to tree nuts but the peanut work seemed to 'cure' the tree nuts. We had some blood work done mid-study and her tree nuts were all clear apart from cashew nuts.

OMG JJ, it is amazing, life changing for DD. I know it as not all about food and she cannot gorge on chocolate now but my goodness, she had a Thorntons chocolate the other day a Fab lolly, all the things she could never have. We cannot give her items with actual nuts in but we can ignore trace warnings now. Dr C said that as DD has tollerated 12 peanuts we can be fairly relaxed with trace nuts as she only actually had 5 nuts a day, thus we have a 7 nut buffer. She is never going to eat a snickers bar but she can go into a restaurant or party and not be scared anymore.

Good luck, your doctor sounds really great.

Blue - i read in another post of yours that the blood test was the better then the skin prick test - do you think i should get a blood test for him? I don't really know if it will help my situation as the skin prick tests all showed up positive, i'm not sure what i am hoping to achieve but I would like to have the full picture in relation to his condition.

hi jj, on my iPhone working so apologies for spelling etc. All I go on is what dr Clark at addenbrookes said which was 'blood shows us the whole picture'. You are entitled to a full set of tests, in my limited experience a blood test is the way to go to gauge the level of the allergy as opposed to a simple positive or negative. With dd we only desk in blood tests now. Dd3 was tested for wheat with a skin prick which came up as a negative but bloods show a very low positive, however, duram wheat gives her eczema so I know what to avoid now.

Do you think your allergist will do bloods?