peanut allergy help!

[inky leeuhhh]

so this is what happened. dd had peanutbutter for the second time not long ago. she is 16 mos. i gave her a little bit on some toast. within 5-10 minutes, she broke out all over in hives- starting on her thighs and they ended up going all up her torso. no facial swelling or breathing issues. i took her in to the dr to have her tested (blood test), and the results came back neg. could i have gotten a false negative?? she has never gotten hives before, and there was nothing different in her routine that stands out as something that could have done it. the dr gave us an epi pen just in case, which makes me feel a little better. anyone have any btdt advice or info for me??

[wednesday2004]

I wouldn't trust the testing methods completely. I'm anaphylactic to shellfish. They did a blood test and it came back negative, this was after I had my throat almost close up on me a few times from it. The allergist told me that a blood test just shows that my blood has no problems with shellfish but my airway does (there is probably a more scientific way to explain that but, in a nutshell, that's what the issue was). They say a reaction trumps a blood test.
Keep that epipen with you, and avoid peanuts.

[Ellp]

I gave Dd#2 peanut butter roundabout a year old and she broke out in a single facial hive. I just thought it was weird and put off introducing it again till she was 18 mo. That time she got a handful of facial hives and we got her into to see an pediatic allergist. He did numerous skin tests on her (various nuts, shellfish, etc.) and the only thing she reacted to was to peanuts.

His advice was for us to avoid giving her anything peanut related to avoid repeat reactions (the allergy gets worse), and to have her retested when she's 5 years old. He also advised us to get an epi-pen, and especially to keep it handy if we're going out of town.

Dd is now 3 and has not had any issues since. Her allergist and we hope that by the time she's 5, she will have outgrown her allergy with peanuts. (Oddly enough she had problems with eggs too (white and yolk) at age 9mo, but was ok with them at 14mo. I wonder if its related or coincidence?)

[inky leeuhhh]

thanks all. i have a funny feeling about the peanuts, and i am not usually one who is paranoid of allergies, so we are going to go ahead and just assume that she is allergic for now. i feel like i need to trust my gut on this one. thanks for all the input! more is always welcome .

[Biscuits & Gravy]

Our family doctor won't even do allergy testing until after 2 because the results can be unreliable. When my DS reacted to peanuts he broke out in hives all over, then vomited. Lots. We have not had him tested but we just assume he is allergic based on reaction. Same goes for his dairy allergy. We have lots of epi pens, I keep them in my diaper bags, purse, and in different places in our house. I would also advise you to stock up on benadryl and keep that with you as well.

[inky leeuhhh]

thanks biscuits! i thought i remembered hearing this somewhere. i need to do some more research. we keep one epi next to her high chair, one at daycare, and one in the diaper bag.