Nut Allergy

[RumbleTummy]

My daughter who is 17months old has just been diagnosed with a severe nut allergy. I have been surfing all sorts of websites today to see if there is a message board for parents, who can add food products to one big list, so that we all know what to avoid. Anybody else have a child with nut allergies, if so what sort of foods do you avoid that aren't the obvious - if it helps I have discovered today that Milky Way's have nut traces.

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There's a little girl at my childrens' school who has a severe nut allery. I'll ask her mum if she knows of any websites and for tips for you. By the way I found out that M & S make playdough that does not contain nut products. In particular their "summer beach themed" playdough. I know (or at least I've seen child X eating them) that Smarties are okay.

If you ring the big supermarkets I suspect they will each provide a list of nut free food. My son is on a gluten free diet (and used to be milk free) and they will do that for gluten and milk so I'm sure they will do it for nuts.

Also ring the manufacturers direct.

I have found that the biggest problems (for us anyway) are chocolate,bread,cakes and biscuits.On the milky way thread so do rolos and mars bars.

Not much use to you, but here in NZ we have a database of manufactured foods free of common allergens and you can do a search if you are allergic to multiple things. It is updated each week and when things change formulation you get an email to tell you. You can then annoy the manufacturers by ringing them up daily on their freephone customer care line until they change it back! I am surprised that the UK doesn't have a similar database - perhaps its just the sheer size of the country and all the different products available. You still have to read the packets of what you do buy, just in case its old stock or whatever, but at least you don't waste time reading the ones you know you can't have. If anyone fancies a look it's here but remember that our food will be completely different.

Hi RumbleTummy. I have a severe nut allergy and belong to the Analphylaxis Campaign. They are brilliant and I know they do a lot for children and parents of children with allergies. Their site is: The Campaign

Their site is good and they send out information regularly including alerts should a product need it. One of the worst offenders unfortunately is Cadburys where whole nuts are regularly found in supposedly nut free products. Because of my allergy (brazil nuts) I have to keep both my dds nut free as well and its hard work but possible. I do feel for you. My dd2 is only 3 months and although she's not been officially diagnosed with allergies and asthma my gp has pretty much stated that it looks like she's going to have both. Its hard to listen to her wheezing at night so that coupled with my own nut allergy does give me some insight as to how you're feeling. Good luck.

By the way Milky Ways have peanuts as a major component, not just as a trace.