to wonder if there really are a disproportionate amt of children who are allergic to ALL nuts?

[oldebaglady]

firstly, I do comply with the zero nut zone policies

secondly, happy to be corrected, am genuinely interested!

but no nuts... AT ALL?? nuts are ideal lunchbox energy/protein snacks and nut butters are great sandwich fillings, much healthier than a lot of the alternatives .

I understand that peanuts are highly allergenic, but
1: other highly allergenic things are allowed; strawberries, dairy, soya, kiwis..
2: they're lagumes aren't they? how are a few almonds gonna affect someone with a peanut allergy? or is it common to have a serious allergy to ALL nuts?

when a child has a serious allergy to a particular fruit, that fruit is banned, fruit in general isn't banned! and it's not banned unless there is actually someone attending who is allergic

the zero nuts policy don't include "may contain traces of nuts" products anyway

please understand that I don't think it's a huge sacrifice to make if some cashew butter or a few almonds in my kid's lunchbox might cause another child to be seriously ill

but exactly how likely is that? that

1. there is going to be a kid in school who is not yet diagnosed
   

and

1. they are allergic to ALL nuts
   

??

(am genuinely curious)

[oldebaglady]

sudaname that's interesting because I went off pretty much everything and had a very limited diet when pregnant with DS1, and couldn't bear the smell of ANYTHING and he has a lot of mild intollerances and a sensitive gut and excema that flairs up with all kinds of soaps and foods etc. With DS2 I didn't really have any pregnancy adversions and ate a wide diet and used normal skin products so it'll be interesting to see if DS2's system turns out to be less sensitive and a bit more hardy??

the IgG/IgE thing is to do with the type of antibodies. An allergy is when you produce lots of antibodies and your body fights you putting that into/on your body

one of the two causes things like excema and intollerances
the other causes the swellings and anaphalaxis

• they're two different processes

[FellowshipOfFineFellows]

I know they used to tell you not to give nuts or honey to young babies. I think the nuts one was because nut allergies were on the rise (we only found out in June last year that ds was severely allergic as per the picture I added on here, but knew about the fish and pea one when he was weaned). Honey iirc was because it can have toxins in it?

Ds has two differing allergies- anaphalatic, with the nuts (all of the buggers), peas and with cod and the like.
He also has tolerances (so wouldn't have the hives but it may affect him in other ways) to cooked egg, wheat and Tuna.

I had to fight tooth and nail for allergy testing due to an ignorant doctor. But now he has had the comprehensive blood tests, he now has his Jext (like an epi pen but new).

Not many Mums of prems know of the connection, and, of course, not all prems will have allergies. Ds was a 28 weeker so very early. Perhaps they don;t "hang around" long enough to build up enough antibodies to certain food groups?

[oldebaglady]

honey is something to do with spores IFAIK, and I think it's the only thing not recommended when weaning??? (or am I out of date?)

[oldebaglady]

AFAIK

[valiumredhead]

It's to do with the minute risk of botchilisum (sp)

[oldebaglady]

could a factor be that so many prems are also CSs, it would be hard to separate the two factors wouldn't it?

[FellowshipOfFineFellows]

I thought it was something like that.
Mind you there was 11 months between having dd and being pg with ds and the things not recommended to eat during pregnancy had changed. Coffee was a no no the first time, then fine again the second. Obviously raw egg and soft cheese was the same (hence why the raw egg allergy on ds now can't be attributed to what I ate lots of when carrying him)

[MerryCouthyMows]

Some people actually have a stronger, faster anaphylactic reaction to other things than nuts.

Nuts DON'T automatically cause a more severe reaction than any other allergen, and they are NOT the only allergen that can kill people.

My toddler DS reacts more severely to trace amounts of dairy - he doesn't even have to TOUCH the dairy himself, just touch a door handle that someone else has touched with, say, yoghurty hands, and it can kill him within 10-15 minutes.

Nut allergies are NOT 'more serious' than any other allergy that causes an anaphylactic reaction, there are just MORE people that are anaphylactic to nuts than to other allergens.

DS3's dairy allergy is MORE serious than his nut allergy, despite him being anaphylactic to both.

I get very frustrated with his dairy allergy being discounted, and people only paying attention to his nut allergy.

Just because there is more awareness of nut allergies, it doesn't mean that dairy allergies, or pineapple allergies, or egg, or fish allergies are any less severe. It's such a common misconception!

[FellowshipOfFineFellows]

Very true Merry, ds' allergies to cod and peas are equal to that of nuts.

I get a lot of looks when I say he is allergic to peas. People expect nuts and fish, as well as dairy, but peas baffles them. And that included my ex-GP.

[NC78]

"NC78

"Someone can have a few moderate reactions that are dealt with with pirton and then go on to have a fatal one."

again, it depends on whether they have the type of antibodies that CAN be fatal, there are different kinds of allergy antibodies, one CAN be fatal, the other causes just local effects. They are different. I get hayfeverey from certain things, I'm not at risk of it ever being fatal because it is down to a different type of antibody.
A family member's lips may swell up from a trace of the food they're allergic to, or they can die from it, because they have the OTHER kids of antibody to what they are allergic to "

Yes, when I said DD had a moderate reaction, It involved swollen face an lips, hives and vomiting. I gave her a kinderhappy hippo and, luckily, was 5 minutes away from the GP, who gave her a piriton injection. She was then referred to the hospital where they took a note of her symptoms and did a skin prick test.

According to the anaphylaxis campaign:

Who is at risk from anaphylaxis?

If a patient has suffered a bad allergic reaction in the past ? whatever the cause ? then any future reaction is also likely to be severe. If a significant reaction to a tiny dose occurs, or a reaction has occurred on skin contact, this might also be a sign that a larger dose may trigger a severe reaction. It is particularly important that those with asthma as well as allergies are seen by an allergy specialist because asthma can put a patient in a higher risk category. Where foods such as nuts, seeds, shellfish and fish are concerned, even mild symptoms should not be ignored because future reactions may be severe

www.anaphylaxis.org.uk/what-is-anaphylaxis/signs-and-symptoms#3

[NC78]

I have dealt with two reactions with just piriton so far, but she has been prescribed an epi pen as she is at high risk of anaphylactic shock if she has future exposure. And the advice was to avoid ALL nuts and sesame on the basis of the skin prick tests.

And, just to top it all off, she has started reacting to fish...

[lljkk]

does the 1-1.5 include BOTH IgG an IgE reactions though?,

I don't know about that, there are 3 or 4 jext/epipens for named individuals, plus another 2-4 children with suspected allergies but no epipens. 7 children would make it up to 2% of school population. I can't think of 2% as a big %. Eggs might have been 2nd most common problem.

We were told is that reactions can be delayed by HOURS, so unless you're involved with forensics of finding out what they reacted to and how they were exposed, it's only helpful to know which child has which epipen and to be generally aware of likely signs in any child. Like someone said, there's always a first-time reaction.

[lljkk]

Actually, I should say, we were told to look for very specific signs in specific children; to understand how those individuals usually reacted. I get the logic of that, but to be honest, it's very hard to remember so much detail and even among those children with known usual symptoms, they could still present with new symptoms or with usual past symptoms absent, so basically... we are screwed if we rely too heavily on their usual reaction history.

[oldebaglady]

"I can't think of 2% as a big %"

I think it can be depending on size of school, in some very large primaries that could be one per year group and then some, also layout should be considered. My local ginormous primary is all in one building, the all use the same hall (at different times) and pass through the same door etc, so IMO a blanket ban there would make perfect sense (dunno if they have one)

whereas DS's school has tiny classes, and younger year groups and older year groups only mix if there is some planned activity to mix them. They have different entrances, different playground, and a different hall. Yet that one does have a rolling blanket ban.

[MerryCouthyMows]

In my local primary school, at least in the years I know about there are :

In Y3, with 60 pupils, I know of 2 with severe nut allergies, and one with a severe egg allergy.

In Y4, with 90 pupils, 4 pupils with severe nut allergies and 1 with a moderate nut allergy. Also one girl severely allergic to fish, shellfish and moderately allergic to dairy.

In Y5, with 60 pupils, I know of 1 child with a severe nut allergy.

In Y6, with 30 pupils, I know of two with severe nut allergy and 1 with a very severe seed allergy.

And there may be more - these are just the people that I know of.

It works out to 10 out of 240 pupils that have strong reactions to nuts and or peanuts, just in the juniors alone. (I don't know that many in the infants now, my DC's are junior / secondary age or toddler)

[MerryCouthyMows]

All of the nut allergic DC's, severe and moderate, have either epi pens or Jext pens.

[sudaname]

Are aversions during pregnancy linked in any way to the resulting childs allergies? If so is the aversion natures way of protecting the unborn child or is the allergy caused by the aversion rendering the food product alien to the childs system ?

[lljkk]

I don't think anyone knows for sure, Sudaname.
I had strong aversions to most foods in all my pregnancies, all DC are allergy free and even quite like foods I especially couldn't stand.

[bruffin]

I had peanut butter on toast for both pregnancies so ate it every day. Ds ended up with a peanut allergy and treenut and seed allergies as well as enviromental allergies. He did outgrow peanuts but not others. DD has no allergies at all.

[MerryCouthyMows]

I am allergic to kiwi, therefore didn't eat it when pregnant (or ever!), three of my four DC's are allergic to kiwi, one isn't. I don't like nuts (not allergic, just don't like the taste except pistachios and cashews), so rarely if ever ate them when pg, only one of my four DC's is allergic to nuts.

IME, what you eat or don't eat during pg has absolutely no bearing on allergies.

However, if one or both parents have 'atopic' problems themselves - hayfever, excema, asthma or allergies of their own, then their DC's are more likely to be susceptible to developing allergies.

If both parents have 'atopic' problems, then there is an even greater risk of their DC's developing allergies.

Problem is, I can't remember which study it was that found this.

[oldebaglady]

possibly both over and underexposure are factors??

[sudaname]

Very interesting, all of you who answered my ponderings .
So from your individual stories there doesnt seem to be a hard and fast connection.
I'm quite disappointed was going for a nobel prize for cracking this really because l ve always thought everything in nature has a purpose or reason, even pregnant womens cravings/aversions. Especially convinced me of a connection when l had a terrible aversion to eggs carrying DS and then he had a bad allergy to eggs.

But it was just ime so maybe it was all just a boring old coincidence.





Incidentally what do any of you think of my GPs method of dealing at the time (in the late 70's early 80's of just giving my son a tiny bit of egg every so often and if l got away with that then a bit more and a bit more and so on. It did seem to do the trick l must say but do they still recommend this today (obviously not with anaphylywotsit type allergies) or is it seen as a bit risky.

[oldebaglady]

you could only do the little bit of it technique for intollerances rather than full allergies

which would go against what I understand of intollerances, which is that by over exposure to something you can develop an intollerance, and if you give yourself a proper full break from it, like zero!, then you can come back to it and try it later and not react?

[IThinkOfHappyWhenIThinkOfYou]

there is research into desensitisation for peanuts here . A poster on here's dsd was on it and she (and everyone else) could eat peanuts and iirc she could also eat treenuts which she had previously been allergic too.

In terms of pregnancy cravings etc, my only craving was chicken, and tbh it was more 'I really fancy some chicken' than a real craving. DS is allergic to peanuts. He doesn't have any typical 'risk factors' apart from being a pfb.

He was slightly late, vaginal birth, bf for over a year, no eczema, no family history of allergy, dirty house, lots of pets. Total mystery.

[florry88]

Its tricky I dont fully understand the banning of all nuts, my thoughts are that in some respects its the school covering themselves completly.

I understand how dangerous nut allergy can be and other allergies but banning them doesnt prepare children for the real world.