Does this sound like an allergic reaction to peanuts?

[monkeybum]

DS (5 1/2) had peanut yesterday for the first time. I'm trying to figure out if bumps near his mouth could be related. He has about 7 small bumps, they almost look like tiny bites of some kind, they are clustered fairly close together yet are distinct (not joined), they are raised, skin color, not red, not itchy, barely noticeable (and you can barely feel them) but when he holds his head a certain way you can see the tiny raised bumps in the light. There are 3 in a line with one on either side, and then two more a little higher up. They are about an inch from the corner of his mouth, and down at about chin-level (but to the side). I hope I'm making sense!

What happened is that I gave him Oreo Sipsters without reading the label yesterday, which is unlike me (he's had oreos before that are not made with peanut oil, but to my surprise, the Sipsters are made with peanut oil!). We have allergies in our families so our doc advised waiting until he was 4 or 5 to try nuts for the first time, I just hadn't found a good time, so...I guess yesterday was it. Gulp.

I didn't realize they had peanut oil in them until about an hour after he'd eaten one (when I went to check if it had "trace" amounts of nut products to see if I could send it as a snack to camp).

He seemed fine and has had no reaction at all (yay!) but at his camp program (which I ended up watching most of as I was terrified he'd suddenly have some kind of reaction) he had his face painted. They had the face paint on for about an hour and they were running around (probably sweating). When the camp was over he wanted it off so I washed it off with water right away. When I washed it off I first noticed the little bumps on his face in this spot (this would have been about 4 1/2 hours after he'd had the peanut oil). I just kept an eye on them (but forgot to wash his face more thoroughly last night).

There seemed to be more today, but he says they don't itch. They are hard to notice unless you look in the light. I almost wonder if they are from the face paint. He'd also had ketchup at lunch and he sometimes gets red around the mouth from ketchup, bbq sauce, etc. (but it is different from this). He gets eczema from rice milk, but this is also different (and he's only ever had that on his torso).

Because they are only in one small patchy area, they don't "come and go" or "move around" and he had no other symptoms, would you consider the two related? I put a little calendula cream on them tonight before bed - hoping they'll lessen in the morning. I will wash his face more too.

Is it more likely to be from the greasy face paint?

I only noticed them because I was wiping his face delicately to get the face paint off while also studying his face for any kind of allergic reaction...in fact, they very well may have been there before he had the peanut oil and I didn't notice.

TIA!

[momofmine]

It's so hard to know. That was one of our first clues to our ds's peanut allergy. He had eaten one or two raisins out of a pack of Costco trail mix that also had peanuts in it, (he did not even eat any actual peanuts) and he broke out in a few bumps around his mouth. This happened within less than 10 minutes, and had faded by an hour or two later. I think you have to go with your gut. What do you think it was? To me, the way you describe it kind of sounds more like the face paint is the culprit. That stuff can definitely cause reactions like that even in non-sensitive folks. The other reason is that the actual peanut oil that would have been in that snack, the super highly processed kind, is actually probably the kind that doesn't even have any of the protein left in it. Some people with peanut allergies can actually eat peanut oil, because you are allergic to the protein and the super processed peanut oil has none of the protein left in it (usually, I think, don't quote me on this, but go look that up). But I personally wouldn't take the chance eating peanut oil with a known peanut allergy, especially with a child.