To ask if you have had a toddler who was allergic to nuts but outgrew it later in life

[5lilducks]

Sorry, posting here for traffic.

I gave DD 2yrs and 8 mnths the tiniest bit of a cashew nut and she had an allergic reaction. She vomited and had a rash all around her eyes and was quite limp in my arms. The paramedics arrived and with piriton , calpol and monitoring she was sorted out. I am now worried she will have a lifelong allergy to nuts. Neither myself or DH or any of our close relatives have nut allergies. I can now see on NHS website they say to introduce nuts when child is between 6 -12 months. Given that she has eczema I was worried about introducing nuts to her but now having read the NHS guidance I am worried that I have failed as a mum in this respect and my DD will have a lifelong allergy to nuts. So, lovely mumsnetters, I would like to know if any of you have had a toddler who had nut allergies which they eventually grew out of, or any experiences of nut allergies in toddlers.

I’m a bit late to this thread but my ds was allergic to peanuts, all tree nuts, lentils, eggs and all dairy. Would also vomit if he had peas and beans for a while. Anaphylactic reaction to dairy at 6 months and various reactions subsequently.

Paediatrician didn’t believe you could have a reaction to lentils, I look a cooked pot to his appointment, they used it to skin prick test and who do you think had to admit they were wrong when a huge hive appeared. That’s when I decided to see another consultant.

We saw Dr Adam Fox at the Portland (def recommend) and he asked us to go on the LEAP study. We avoided peanuts for the trial. As part of the trial we saw Gideon Lack but mainly were under the care of George Du Toit who was fantastic, I would highly recommend him and he takes private consultations. He was so nice with my ds, I may have had a little crush on him but that’s not the reason I recommend him!!

Ds is now 14 and has outgrown all but the dairy allergy. He is still an allergic child, asthmatic and has eczema but I have worked really hard to improve his gut health.

We were given piriton on prescription from 6 months. It’s not licensed to buy over the counter for under 2 I think (I might be wrong) but I’d get some anyway. It is scary having a child with allergies.

Please pm me if I can help at all.

@iamoptimisprime Thank you for sharing. Your son had the exact allergies my 10mo has exact swap the peanut for sesame! Dairy seems to be his worst (IGE 75 and extreme reactions from skin contact).
Would you mind discussing a little about what you did for gut health? We currently use a probiotic and vitamin D but any other suggestions would be very much appreciated!

@Iamoptimusprime sorry, tagged you wrong in the PP

Hi @Lisa78Lemon this is what I did all those years back!

Stopped using bleach where possible and anti bacterial stuff like dettol. I know at the moment that may not be something you want to do. I dusted with a damp cloth, cleaned floors with soapy hot water. I use ecover kitchen spray. Basically to stop the house being so sterile. This was something that had been looked in to prior to the LEAP study. They compared children in another country (can’t remember which) that didn’t live in sanitised, unventilated, double glazed houses to children in the U.K. and we had a much higher rate of peanut allergies.

I used biocare probiotic powder when he was about 2, I can’t remember the exact one but it was for toddlers/children and a good quality vitamin D3 supplement. I also now try to get my ds to take flaxseed oil for his skin. I buy solgar. Up until then I didn’t realise how important gut health was. I wish I’d done it earlier because he had stopped growing for a year at 3 ish and that’s growth he will never get back. Consultant put it down to allergies and sleep apnoea due to enlarged adenoids, glue ear again due to allergies. Make me sad that I didn’t know and I let him down.

I let him get muddy, took walks in forests basically ingest a bit of soil which may sound odd but years back there was an amazing bbc program that looked at gut health and allergies. Because we live in such sterile houses and wipe our kids to within an inch of their lives they’re not ingesting things that strengthen their immune system and build good gut bacteria. A scientist said they need to get dirty and we’re not ingesting enough animal poo through soil, not animals like dogs or cats but wild ones like deer. I know that sounds completely bonkers and I’m going to see if I can track the program down.

Also how antibiotics in the first few years can be very detrimental to gut health and therefore allergies. My was treated for meningitis at 11 weeks old, had a huge dose of antibiotics and I swear that’s where a lot of his problems started. Of course I would not have done anything differently because they potentially saved him but it’s part of a picture and as his gut health has improved so have his allergies. But he didn’t grow out of them until at least 7 when he could eat peas, lentils and beans again.

I breastfed him for a year but that clearly didn’t help as much as people say. My family does have a history of asthma and eczema but never food allergies but he was probably predisposed to this.

Phew that was long but I hope it’s helpful.

@Lisa78Lemon I also have anti allergy duvets, pillows etc. I wash bedding at 60 degrees as house dust mites set him off too. I tried to keep soft toys to a minimum (almost impossible!) but if I thought they were getting dusty they’d take a lovely holiday to the freezer for 24 hrs.

I try hard not to dust or hover if he’s around even now, if I do I know it has to be done a good hr or two before he’s in the house. Now that’s hard to stick to but he gets wheezy if I don’t

At the age your dc is now he wasn’t asthmatic but we were given an inhaler and spacer by our consultant because it can be used if they get wheezy with a reaction and we have had to use it for dairy reactions. At 2 he then started with the classic asthma signs. I am not suggesting this will happen with your dc but knowledge is power and all that!

The worst dairy he reacts to even now is milk powder in things. I don’t know if it’s more concentrated. When he was teething or had a cold, really tired or anything that his immune system was already busy with his reactions would be worse. I even find now that on good days he can eat a particular biscuit with a little bit of cooked butter but on a run down day his body rejects it and it goes straight through him.

To give you hope he hasn’t had an awful reaction for years, the most recent he had was 4 months ago and he knew within 5 mins because his throat felt itchy. No closing of the airways or swelling around his mouth. Piriton sorted it but I’m still vigilant and we still carry epi pens because allergies can be unpredictable.

My eldest DD had all the skin prick tests numerous times over her childhood due to multiple allergies. As a small child she had mild allergy to sesame, almond and hazelnut, moderate allergy to cashew, walnut, brazil and pistachio, and severe allergy to peanuts. She has multiple other allergies too. As an adult she can now eat almonds and hazelnuts but has to avoid all other nuts, and peanuts still give her extreme reactions.

Toddler DD ate some peanut butter and had a mild/moderate reaction (hives, swollen face). GP advised that next time might be the anaphylactic reaction so we avoided all nuts, had epipens everywhere etc until she was about 8 when we had blood tests done which showed she was not in fact allergic. She doesn’t like any form of nut now!

Your GP told you to avoid all nuts because your child had a reaction to a legume and prescribed adrenaline without testing VanCleef? Crikey, some of the posts on these threads are scary. It is no wonder parents have such a hard time when so many HCPs seem to be lacking in basic knowledge around allergies. We've been lucky it seems, apart from one stupid HV who tried to insist that I gave my CMPA son lactose free cows milk, everyone we have seen has been very sensible, but it really does seem to be a lottery. I know you can't expect GPs to be expert on everything but I don't think it is unreasonable to expect them to know the basics about a fairly common problem, and to follow NICE guidance. But if the threads in this section are anything to go by, there are plenty just making it up as they go along!
The big charities like Allergy UK and the Anaphylaxis Campaign seem to be far more reliable sources of information which is shocking really.

Ds 25 has grown out of peanut allergy but not treenuts or sesame. His allergies started at 4 and he had been eating nuts etc before that. I do think the peanut allergy came because he had 2 reactions (sesame and pecan) in one weekend and it made him over sensitive. He did test positive to peanut but got tested again when he was about 12 and peanuts seemed ok and he eats them regularly now
He did have a reaction to houmous (sesame) recently because the cafe changed their recipe and had added houmous and he ended up in hospital.
he has also tested positive to coconut but never had a reaction

Allergies are so bizarre and don’t follow the same pattern for all.
Our consultant said the size of the hive that comes up on a skin prick test doesn’t indicate the size of the reaction. So ds skin prick test to grass is always huge compared to the one for milk but it is milk that has ended up with him in hospital with serious reactions when he was younger.

I’ve had similar experiences @MrsAvocet they don’t seem to understand it’s the milk protein not the lactose that’s the issue. which always leads to the question of sheep or goats milk, err no because it has a milk protein in it. And don’t get me started on people who think he’s just being fussy and what harm can it do 🤦🏻‍♀️

I've been allergic to peanut (and some seeds) all my life with no change in the allergy. However I can eat tree nuts with no problem.

Some people do grow out of allergies - my DD grew out of her milk allergy and more recently (and more unusually) she appears to have grown out of allergies to cats and dogs. But nut allergies seem to be among the more persistant ones unfortunately.

My DS is allergic to tree nuts, peanuts, lentils, peas, beans, sesame seeds - he has a skin prick test every couple of years and is still allergic. He was allergic to dairy but now outgrown which he’s really pleased about. He had asthma and eczema as a young child but has also outgrown those - he is prescribed Epipens. I don’t think he’ll ever be able to have nuts or legumes though. He’s been handed over to the adult services in NHS now.

@MrsAvocet we did in fact discuss the nut/legume difference at the time and decided to cut all relevant things out of her diet out of an abundance of caution. She was born very premature and I didn’t want to put her in for lots of testing when avoidance wasn't in fact difficult. When she was older we did have all the testing and it turns out she doesn't have any allergies except good old hay fever. I was really pleased with the medical advice we had at the time

@Iamoptimusprime
That advice Re the soil may have seemed bonkers to me before I became an allergy mum, but I genuinely see the sense in it. I'm willing to consider both 'traditional' and other treatment options because it is abundantly clear that science doesn't have the answers just yet. Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a thorough answer, it's very helpful.

My 17yo has become increasingly allergic to peanuts I’m afraid. Epipen and trip to the ER is the almost immediate result these days. She’s never had a reaction to a product that says May Contain Nuts but she has had reactions in restaurants to dishes that the chefs insisted were peanut free.

Well, I know of several teenagers who are apparently allergic to nuts that were happily sharing around assorted nut, seed and peanut based snacks in their breaktimes last year.

I’m allergic to raw nuts but ok with cooked nuts. I thought it was just an oral allergy but it’s got worse with time and I’ve had one ambulance trip after eating out. It’s easier just to tell people who are cooking for me that I’m allergic to nuts.

@IAmOptimusPrime

Hi *@Lisa78Lemon* this is what I did all those years back!

Stopped using bleach where possible and anti bacterial stuff like dettol. I know at the moment that may not be something you want to do. I dusted with a damp cloth, cleaned floors with soapy hot water. I use ecover kitchen spray. Basically to stop the house being so sterile. This was something that had been looked in to prior to the LEAP study. They compared children in another country (can’t remember which) that didn’t live in sanitised, unventilated, double glazed houses to children in the U.K. and we had a much higher rate of peanut allergies.

I used biocare probiotic powder when he was about 2, I can’t remember the exact one but it was for toddlers/children and a good quality vitamin D3 supplement. I also now try to get my ds to take flaxseed oil for his skin. I buy solgar. Up until then I didn’t realise how important gut health was. I wish I’d done it earlier because he had stopped growing for a year at 3 ish and that’s growth he will never get back. Consultant put it down to allergies and sleep apnoea due to enlarged adenoids, glue ear again due to allergies. Make me sad that I didn’t know and I let him down.

I let him get muddy, took walks in forests basically ingest a bit of soil which may sound odd but years back there was an amazing bbc program that looked at gut health and allergies. Because we live in such sterile houses and wipe our kids to within an inch of their lives they’re not ingesting things that strengthen their immune system and build good gut bacteria. A scientist said they need to get dirty and we’re not ingesting enough animal poo through soil, not animals like dogs or cats but wild ones like deer. I know that sounds completely bonkers and I’m going to see if I can track the program down.

Also how antibiotics in the first few years can be very detrimental to gut health and therefore allergies. My was treated for meningitis at 11 weeks old, had a huge dose of antibiotics and I swear that’s where a lot of his problems started. Of course I would not have done anything differently because they potentially saved him but it’s part of a picture and as his gut health has improved so have his allergies. But he didn’t grow out of them until at least 7 when he could eat peas, lentils and beans again.

I breastfed him for a year but that clearly didn’t help as much as people say. My family does have a history of asthma and eczema but never food allergies but he was probably predisposed to this.

Phew that was long but I hope it’s helpful.

I remember that program. It didn’t help me much as my very allergic DD hadn’t had any antibiotics, and we’ve never had anything approaching a sterile house. It would have been fascinating though to compare her gut bacteria with her older sister to see if there was a difference. I remember in the program they looked at that very carefully and the kids with terrible asthma and allergies were missing lots of bacteria.