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peanut allergy - how do you cope with the fear?

39 replies

robinw · 04/05/2002 06:26

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robinw · 17/05/2002 09:34

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jona · 27/07/2002 09:22

Does anyone know up to what age you should avoid giving kids with history of allergies in their family, peanuts and other ground nuts? I always thought it was three but someone swore to me the other day that you shouldn't give them any nuts until they are five.

Loobie · 27/07/2002 11:43

my first son is 6 and he is allergic to nuts,we have been advised to keep ds 2 away from them till he is SEVEN if this is any help.

WideWebWitch · 27/07/2002 16:30

Jona, off the top of my head I seem to think it's 5 too.

SueDonim · 27/07/2002 21:22

I was told 5, too.

robinw · 27/07/2002 23:08

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pob · 28/07/2002 06:01

Just to add three things to this discussion, after having a child in my class with severe peanut allergies. Re epipens, they should definately be in school with the child, and you should be sure that their teacher has been properly instructed how to use them - better still all the staff - get someone from the red cross/St Johns Ambulance to show them how, or do it yourself. Also, ask if the school can ban peanut butter from childrens packed lunches - just to be on the safe side. There is a website set up by parents of children with allergies, selling lunchboxes, t-shirts etc with 'I don't eat peanut' kind of messages - sorry, I don't have the address here and am supposed to be leaving for holiday now, but think it might have been on the mumsnet shopping list? hth

robinw · 28/07/2002 07:03

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robinw · 04/08/2002 22:07

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JJ · 04/08/2002 23:44

Robin, if they are doing food challenges, then it'll take many hours. The results of skin tests are obvious in less than an hour (they've always evaluated my son's after about 15 minutes). For RASTs (the blood tests) it's just a blood draw and then the time to diagnosis is dependant on the lab.

Do you want more info on the skin tests? My son just had this year's done a couple of months ago and had a food challenge done last month.

robinw · 06/08/2002 07:36

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mollipops · 06/08/2002 14:10

robinw my dd went to a paediatric allergist and he wouldn't do a skin prick for peanut since we already suspected it, as it can be dangerous for someone who is highly allergic to it. He did blood tests for dairy, peanut, dustmite and grasses; skin prick tests for beef, chicken, tuna, dog, cat and egg. The blood tests took about a week to come back but the skin prick results were almost instant - we waited about half an hour in the waiting room. She had big red welts for egg, dog and tuna! But nothing for the others (we had suspected cat).

There is a measurement they do in the blood test that indicates their sensitivity to allergens in general. The average level in a "normal" person is about 50 - dd was over 3000! She is highly allergic, and the peanut and dustmite came back positive, although surprisingly the dairy and grasses didn't. She now wears a medic alert bracelet for the peanut. He did say that some things are more accurately tested by ingestion and that skinprick tests aren't always 100% - things like tomato, citrus and wheat for example. All the best, hope it gives you some answers.

robinw · 06/08/2002 22:04

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robinw · 03/09/2002 19:09

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