Silly ? re Peanut Butter

[MissWooWoo]

Hi

and apologies in advance to all of you that do have children with nut allergies, I don't mean to offend anyone with me sillyness.

Here's the thing, when dd was a little over one she had a small bite of a piece of toast with peanut butter. A minute or so later a small red patch appeared on her face, hear her mouth. Since then I have not given her peanut butter. Am I being silly? Was the red patch just a coincidence? dd is 2.7 now and has no known allergies/skin problems.

I ate peanuts (well chocolate coated ones!) througout pregnancy and breastfeeding (excl for 6 months).

Is it safe to try her with peanut butter?

near her mouth, throughout my pregnancy

It might be a coincidence, it might not . Not all peanut allergies are serious life threatening reactions. You can be allergic and get mild symptoms.

You can get a referral for allergy testing from your GP. Some people think that putting potential allergic stuff on there skin is not a good idea and could trigger an allergy and allergens should be introduced orally. Our allergist says that peanut allergies don't get worse over time and subsequent reactions will be similar to the first but proportional to the amount of allergen they ingest. Unfortunately with allergies its the blind leading the blind.

There doesn't appear to be a link between pg and breastfeeding and subsequent allergies.

thanks lucky jim, I suppose the easiest way would be to get her to eat a tiny amount on a bit of toast and see how we go from there? Am sure my hysterical thinking is unjustified!

I'm not bursting for her to eat peanut butter, it's just that she's going through a "phase" with her eating and I'm looking for alternatives

I did hear of a mother driving her child to an A&E carpark where they had an in-car picnic of peanut butter sandwiches, just so they were in the right place if the child reacted. It was meant to be a 'hilariously neurotic mum' piece in a magazine. I just thought 'what a good idea'.

it is a good idea isn't it and I know to others it must sound silly.

Could go to a nearby cafe though! nowt wrong with that. Just going about our day having a snack.

Just make sure you give it to her early in the morning not near to bed/nap time so you can observe her over a period of time.

thanks for that tip AngryPixie. would it be fair to say that if something was going to happen it would happen reasonably quickly?

fimble - yes Nigella wrote in How to Eat that she tested both her kids out with peanut butter sarnies in the gp's waiting room. I followed suit. Neither of mine like it.

Not a silly question at all!

DD 1 was almost 2 when she had a bite of cousins toast with peanut butter, a tiny bite. She coughed a bit afterwards, got a couple of red blotches on her face and said that she felt sick immediately afterwards. I gave her some water, she was back to her normal self quickly so we decided not to freak out but to avoid peanuts.

Before going on holiday I decided to check it out properly. DD was by this point 5 and had never had an obvious allergic reaction. GP took it seriously and we went to local hospital for blood tests.

Results have come back - significant allergy to peanuts and some tree nuts. We now carry adrenalin and piriton everywhere we go.

I hope your DD is all clear, but it definitely is the best idea to get checked out. I was completely shocked at our results, but thank God I'm now prepared!

i am not a fan of doing a 'nigella' and waiting outside a hospital A&E doesnt always help when things go wrong instantly.

if you suspect a allergy, see your gp and get help with a way forward.

...what I meant to add was that I think you should get the testing done by doc (blood tests) rather than doing it yourself. There is a chance that you might need medical help, so I wouldn't risk it...

how did those of you with children who have nut allergies find out?

my son was 12 months old when we discovered the peanut problem.

he was on a daily dose of piriton to control his ezcema at the time, which is pretty stong so perhaps this lessoned the reaction.? (shrug)

was given peanut butter on toast , and had hives from contact, flushing on hands, face and neck.
hubby said he didnt eat any but panicked and flapped hands around after holding it.

took to gp, who at the time declared it a mild allergy, as he grew we discovered more allergies, pushed for a refferal, and discoverd after testing a range of severe allergies.

Hi there

We discovered ds's brazil nut allergy after he had a piece of fruit cake with a huge brazil nut in the middle. He almost immediately said his throat felt spiky (he was only 3 at the time so I didn't take a great deal of notice right then). However over about a half hour period he went very red in the face, had a tiny nose bleed and then his eye very slightly swelled. No wheezing, swelling round the mouth or breathing issues. Piriton brought it down immediately and he has had no further reactions. However, after skin prick testing at the docs, brazil nut allergy was confirmed and we now have adrenaline and piriton with us at all times.

I have heard that reaction can be quite delayed, by something like 6 hours, but that wasn't our experience.

DS reported throat itchiness immediately after eating almonds.

"Our allergist says that peanut allergies don't get worse over time and subsequent reactions will be similar to the first but proportional to the amount of allergen they ingest."

This is dangerous rubbish, I'm afraid. I have first hand experience that this is NOT true because I have a nut allergic child whose first reactions were mild and has since had anaphylactic reactions. The deaths from food allergy are often in people who have been misled in this way. I get tired of posting the links to them and it's depressing for those of us whose children have severe allergies.

MissWooWoo your child may have outgrown their problem but if not and you give them peanut butter you could be in anaphylactic reaction/ rush to hospital in an ambulance territory. You probably wouldn't be because even those who have anaphylactic reactions one time don't necessarily get them every time they are exposed to a trace. However the only safe advice (and the government advice) for anyone with reason to suspect a reaction to nut is to see a specialist for allergy testing in a hospital that has resus facilities.

I myself have progressed from mild reactions to avocado to having severe symptoms, in the course of about two years.

I can't imagine where that allergist got his/her notions from.

Crikey. I have nut allergies and therefore suspect my DDs to have them too - especially DD2, who has eczema and an egg allergy. When I talked to the GP about my worries they said they wouldn't refer for testing re. nut allergy unless the child had already had a reaction to nuts? Well, what if the first reaction is a very bad one - I don't want to put my DDs under that risk! Do you think I need to go back and push for testing and if necessary, have it done privately?