Son allergic - my toileties?

[podsquash]

Hi,

4 year old son is allergic to nuts (esp Brazils). Obviously I wouldn't buy him any toiletries with nut oils in, but I am wondering whether others try to avoid nut oils in their own grown-up cosmetics and toiletries?

Thanks!

Yes we do (or did - DD has been desensitized). I was always scared DD would use something out of pure curiosity or by accident and she would have a reaction to it. It just seemed like the best thing to do. Also, DD has been known to react on skin-to-skin contact, once she held hands with me after I had used a nut oil based handcream (totally did not check the packaging) and then she touched her own face and she did come up in a rash (how bad did I feel!). She also had reaction from industrial cleaning products from the school hall floor once do goodness only knows what was in those!

Kids have a habit of touching their faces a lot so DD would react very easily.

If you are going to have 'special' product that you really really like (like a bath oil etc) just make sure they are out of reach from DS and perhaps only use them once he is in bed and make sure the bath/shower is really well rinsed afterward.

My inclination is to avoid them too. There are a couple of things we have used for ages that have nut oils ... but I think I will just use them up and then buy nut free! Manufacturers of the brands I like (hippy stuff) have been a bit unhelpful when I Ask for their nut free products. They just say that ingredients are listed on their websites of packages...which is true but makes for more label reading. I guess there is no escaping that!

You may also want to avoid product with soya (sorry!) DD cannot take one of the suncare brands (cannot remember which one and don't want to be sued!) - it makes her face swell.

I find lots of companies unhelpful, I am with you on that one! Also the print on cosmetics is usually tiny and often not in English, it makes for hard researching!

if you want to check out www.peanutallergyuk.co.uk there are threads on cosmetics. Refined nut oils aren't a problem for most people but I wouldn't buy anything that mentioned nut.

where to find the article

adc.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/92/7/654

Have just looked at your link to peanut allergy uk, tatt.

I am by the number of products that I could potentially be using (or more importantly, expecting ds to use) that contain nuts.

Clarins?

Am off to check all our toiletries.

Am also thinking about our acacia tree in the garden and wondering if that is setting ds off

Thank you so much everyone. I'm really amazed at some of the crap labelling! The link you sent, Tatt, was really helpful. Onviously this is a problem ... maybe the Anaphylaxis Campaign could help with it too...