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?

Hi Blue, sorry for delay in replying wanted to see what GP said. Anyway I asked the GP to refer DS for blood testing and he was of the opinion that it was not worthwhile to take blood from DS as it would not tell us anything more then that he is allergic and not how bad the reaction was going to be.

I could go back to the private consultant and insist on a blood test I guess but when he did the skin prick tests he did say the same thing and that it would be traumatic for DS to have blood taken and that he would only take blood if the skin prick tests remained inconclusive. I think he diagnosed Ds on the basis of the reaction he had as it was quite bad and the size of the welts on the skin prick.

However I thought it might be good to get the bloods done so that we can monitor the allergies each year - would have thought you can compare the figures from the RAST easier then the size of welts from the skin prick.

He also said that he thought that the skin prick test was more sensitive then the RAST test.

Anyway i have decided to leave it for now. i got some great books from the Anaphylaxis Campaign website. Had to hold back the tears when I read Cyril the Squirrel book!

have to agree that the blood tests are traumatic and are probably not going to tell you anything new. The bigger the wheal the less likely an allergy will be outgrown. 2.5 mm is really pretty low for peanut and they usually quote 20% of children outgrow it. So wouldn't give up hope yet.