Cashew nut allergy

[BuffaloFeathers]

My almost two year old ds had a severe allergic reaction today probably to cashew though I can't be entirely sure. He was fully covered in hives, facial swelling, vomitting, etc. Acc to the doctor halfway between allergic reaction and anaphylaxis. It's totally come out of the blue. He's been having peanut products with no problems whatsoever. In fact he almost daily has peanut butter but I am not actually sure if he's ever had other nuts

Does anyone have any experience with cashew allergy? I've googled it a bit and it doesn't look promising. Apparently cashew allergies tend to be severe, are more commonly associated with anaphylaxis and kids rarely grow out of them. For those with personal experience has this been true for you?

Should we avoid all tree nuts?

Also, is there a link between asthma and cashew allergy? (There might be acc to some studies but I'd like to know avout people's experience.) He has a lot of episodes of viral induced wheezing and also gets wheezy with dust or other small particles. We've been told there is a good possibility he will turn out to have asthma but he's too young to be tested.

I have a cashew and pistachio allergy too (didn’t know that was a thing!), also pine nuts and psyllium husks. You do have to check ingredients of Indian/Thai food very carefully and I tend to avoid these places eating out. My reaction is not anaphylactic, but I was told to avoid nuts generally as often the reaction can change as you get older. I can eat peanuts no problem (never eat the nuts but don’t have to avoid it as an ingredient). One benefit of my allergy is that I can tell immediately if it’s present as soon as I eat as my mouth starts to tingle- this means you can avoid eating very much of the allergen. My GP refused me epipens as he said the allergy wasn’t serious enough,(being violently sick and in pain is just dandy!) but I would hope with child they would be more accommodating, it would be good to have as back up. Good luck!

Thank you so much everyone for your replies. They have really driven home that I am not over reacting and that we need to deal with this now (and not see our GP after several episodes of allergic reactions as the A n E doctor had suggested). In all fairness to her by the time we saw her the hives had gone down, BP, heart rate and all other vital statistics were fine and his airways were clear, so she could only go by my description of what had happened. This is why I'm questioning whether i.imagined the wheezing, low voice, swollen eye brows, etc. But then I didn't even know that an allergic reaction can affect your ability to speak (I mean when you are not obviously struggling for every breath) and it was.my husband and friends who noticed the swollen eye brows.

Omg. What fresh hell is this? Tangerine and water melon seeds? I know he's had water melon (with seeds) at least once but then that doesn't say anything, right? It's the subsequent exposures that will cause the allergic reaction, isn't it? He might have had citrus fruit seeds as well but I can't be sure.

Thanks so much for the very timely reminder (with summer coming up) about water melon. That is something he surely would have had (with seeds, I rarely bother to remove them) in the next few weeks. I'll definitely avoid water melon till we've had the test.

Ds has peanut butter almost every second day so we should be good with peanuts, right?

Can I also ask, about a month ago, he violently threw up. We thought it's food poisoning from eating a spoilt cake but now I wonder if the cake had pistacchios or some other nuts in it. This was on the plane and I thought on a plane they would avoid nuts in general. He had all kinds of unknown crap on the plane so it could have been anything. Anyway, for the next week he had an upset stomach (diarrhoea) on and off. Since he had a few days here and there without diarrhea the GP said it can't be an infection and is probably something about the change of location he is reacting to (we had been on holiday for two weeks). Could it have been an allergic reaction to some nut? Would that cause diarrhea on and off over a week (as opposed to being continuous)

We are originally Indian. I don't use nuts in cooking (apart from peanut butter) but all our family and friends do so I can't imagine he's not had cashew several times since he's been six months. I can't be sure though. I'm a bit worried it might be something else he reacted to but because we know that cashew is a common allergen we are focussing on that. If the allergy test returns negative for all the different things that are tested will they still give us an epi pen just in case? Since we don't know what caused it? Wouldn't that mean that we need the epi pen even more as we can't avoid what we don't know?

Me and dh also eat cashews all the time. Just the nuts. As part of trail mix. I don't give them to him obviously because they are a choking hazard but it's likely he has come in contact with some sort of cashew nut dust and pistachios as well. But again we can't be sure. Apologies I'm just thinking out loud.

I just thought of Something completely crazy and I'm not even sure if gp or pediatrician will consider talking about it but I'm wondering if someone by any chance has seen this in their kids:

Our older DD has no known food allergies but has always had very poor weight gain. She was born on the 75th centile and has now been consistently for the last few years below the 2nd. She is also surprisingly (compared to dh, ds and me) very short. We have done all kinds of tests (but no allergy test except testing for gluten intolerance) and everything seems to be normal. She just doesn't like eating. We haven't been able to figure out why. We thought it's behavioural but is there a tiny little chance that maybe she has food allergies too (if they run in the family) that cause bloating or something? She has never complained of bloating but in the past year she has been getting unexplained abdominal cramps once every few weeks or months and she just never wants to eat. Maybe the best would be to do a food diary for both kids for the next few months.

Lots of your questions are getting too complex for my little knowledge and I'm sure someone else can answer them better than me but re peanuts if it (or any food) is being eaten regularly with no issues then keep it in the diet, don't take it out and make sure it's consumed a couple of times a week. Peanuts aren't actually a tree nut, they are a legume so they are not treated in the same tree nut risk grouping.

Peanuts are legumes.

I have family members who are allergic - so some have and need epipens- to peanuts but they are fine with tree nuts e.g. cashews, almonds.

I have a mild cashew nut allergy and oddly always disliked pistachio so avoided it. It helped that other people I'm around are allergic to tree nuts.

In regards to your DD keep a food dairy as lots of people e.g. 75% of the world are lactose intolerant. There are also people who are intolerant to certain fruits e.g. apples, grapes, watermelon as they have fructose intolerance. However an intolerance is completely different to an allergy. An allergy can kill you very quickly there as an intolerance causes discomfort. The advice with an intolerance is to limit the food that causes the intolerance, while with an allergy you need to avoid it.

I have a mild cashew nut allergy and oddly always disliked pistachio so avoided them. It helped that other people I'm around are allergic to tree nuts.

Some people are allergic to all trese nuts plus peanuts so they need to avoid hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, etc and peanuts. Some people are only allergic to specific families of nuts and some are just allergic to peanuts.

On top of that there are people who are allergic to nuts plus other things like egg, cows milk.

In regards to your DD keep a food dairy as lots of people e.g. 75% of the world are lactose intolerant. There are also people who are intolerant to certain fruits e.g. apples, grapes, watermelon as they have fructose intolerance.

However an intolerance is completely different to an allergy. An allergy can kill you very quickly there as an intolerance causes discomfort.

The advice with an intolerance is to limit the food that causes the intolerance, while with an allergy you need to avoid it completely.

And yes you can be allergic to things plus have an intolerance.

Oh and I would avoid having nuts in your house completely. My DP likes eating nuts but I've reacted to him touching me after eating trail mix so he only eats it at work.

You also talk about the cashew as being 'a cashew sweet thing.' You need to get a list of every ingredient that was in it. that'll leave you with a short list of possible trigger foods

Thank you and, yes, that's exactly what he had. Four pieces of it and he kept asking for more. The little glutton. :-)

Can I ask how severe his allergic reaction was? Did he react immediately after having kaju katli? Was he referred for an allergy test? He hasn't grown out of it by any chance, has he?

I always thought that tree nut and peanut allergies are very rare in India as we have them so frequently in our diet so this has blindsided us a bit.

Is your son allergic to any other tree nuts?

It just has cashew paste, ghee (clarified butter) and sugar. Maybe it wasn't the sweet at all but if it was I think it's unlikely to be ghee, which he has regularly and I can't imagine it's sugar.

Oh I just remember that he did have a piece of a hot cross bun after the cashew sweet. Off to google the ingredients..

Two be aware of cashews are often used to make vegan cheese / cream sauce etc ...

Haha I know. I'm just throwing them out here on the off chance that someone has encountered a similar scenario. I think some of my questions will also be too complex / far fetched / irrelevant for the GP or pediatrician to discuss.

Don't stop asking them! Someone might know :) I just knew I was at my limit of giving sensible advice! There are some very switched on people on here re allergies. It can be a fantastic resource

It is more likely that nut allergies are lifelong unfortunately. That can change though. My daughter is allergic to a multitude of things including dairy soy and egg, where the chances are she could grow out of them, and various nuts/peanut where it’s less likely. However a good allergy team will keep testing their reactions yearly to see if there’s any change - and if there is they can help with either reintroduction or treatment to lessen the reaction. So fingers crossed.

OP I wouldn't have nuts at home until you know. They are oily so traces can spread easily. With regards to your daughter a dietitian told us that kids will often just refuse stuff they're allergic to instinctively- obvs not all - but this helped me cut my son some slack with his limited repertoire of food choices.

Hi all. Thanks very much for your inputs.

I saw the GP today. He will do a referral to see a pediatrician privately and has also prescribed two epipens. Phew...that's a bit of a relief.