Nut Allergy?

[earthie_mama]

I was nursing DS2 (6 months old) and eatikng a peanut butter cracker snack. Some pb dropped onto ds and 15-20 minutes later he had hives all over his body! Could he be that severely allergic?

He has never been mesdicated/ vaxed, he has excema.

Any suggestions?

[goomjiji]

Aye yi yi! Could be. I would be pretty careful and cut it from my diet. I sort of tuned out my intuition on ds's food allergies for a few months and wished I hadn't when I realized that he actually did have food allergies. I would probably look into testing at some point in the next 6 mos. to a year--as he begins solids. It could save you tons of trouble to know up front.

[cat19]

Yes he could be *that* allergic.

I would get ALL your peanut products out of the house and call your pediatrician for 1) a prescription for epi-pen jrs and 2) a referral to an allergist who deals with kids with food allergies.

It sounds possible that your son's eczema may be among the 40-50% or so that's due to allergies; you may want to start keeping a food diary to see what he might be reacting to. You also should take all nuts (not just peanuts) out of your diet immediately as you're nursing, and make sure he is kept completely away from all nut products of any sort.

You got your lucky warning; any peanut allergy is potentially life-threatening and now you're lucky enough to KNOW and to be able to take steps to keep him safe.

Our lifeline when we began to deal with food allergies was the forums at http://www.kidswithfoodallergies.org

[earthie_mama]

What kinds of tests are avaiolble to findf out if he's allergic? I doubt I could just walk in and ask for an epi pen....

I eat lots of nuts (I'm a vegan transiting to raw foodist) I've only once noticed this problem. I am worried he could be exposed..... :

I wonder what else he could be allergic to.... theres no allergies in the family....

[cat19]

You can ask for an epi-pen script based on a demonstrated systemic reaction to peanuts. Tests are not reliable for all kids at this age; reactions ARE.

Unless you've been repeatedly touching him with peanut butter and usually it doesn't cause a reaction, it sounds like a pretty clear reaction to peanuts to me.

I know it sounds overwhelming; when it happened to us, we lost eggs dairy nuts fish and shellfish, and that eliminated almost 90% of my day-to-day protein choices (as I had been vegetarian for almost 15 years).

It does become more manageable and you find your own comfort zones. I am NOT a doctor and can't diagnose your child, but per our allergist, children who react to contact with an allergen tend to react even more strongly to ingestion, and reactions tend to become more seriously upon repeated exposures.

As a mom of a peanut-allergic (as well as multi-allergic in other ways) kid, I can only say, truly, even though it feels lousy and scary and overwhelming, this is MUCH better than finding out by your child's first peanut reaction being a more serious one upon ingestion.

If you don't want to listen to a random stranger on the internet (and why would you?), check out the site I mentioned above for resources.

[elmh23]

Get to a doctor! That's a scary reaction!

[earthie_mama]

Well.... we went to the doc yesterday. She doesn't think its a peanut allergy since he didn't ingest any, and hes so yoiung, and b/c theres no family history. She recommended benadryl and said that an epi-jr would probably kill him! We all got adjusted at the chiro after that. I'm going to have to go to a specialist... allergist....

[elmh23]

Yes get to an allergist. He's reacting via contact and that is not good! And stop eating peanuts just in case (when dd tested + I realized that all her fussiness and spitting up as a baby was probably caused by my daily pb&j.)

I'm not sure what weight the epi-pen jr. starts at, so I would worry about that in a baby so young. But Benadryl with the proper dosage would definatly help.

[cat19]

If the epi-pen jr is not possible due to weight, they can prescribe individual syringes with epinephrine. It depends on how much your child weighs. Our pediatrician had no trouble prescribing an epi-jr when my son was about 7-8 months old; admittedly he was a large child (10 pounds at birth).

But if he hadn't been big enough for the easy epi-pen jr route, we would've needed some sort of epi option when at a year old he had his ana episode. Until I saw my child go from happy and smiling to having his face swell so much that he didn't look like himself, I had no idea how fast and how scary an allergic reaction could be, and we were lucky; some ana episodes immediatley involve breathing issues; we caught this one in time before the swelling progressed into his airway. I thought we'd never need our epi-jr; I have never been so grateful for anything as I was to have it available when he needed it.

Per our allergist, Benadryl (or any anithistamine) on its own does NOT have lifesaving capability in the face of anaphylactic shock. Yes, Benadryl is helpful for non-life-threatening reactions. But for potentially life-threatening reactions, you need to have epinephrine immediately available (and then the ER and steroids, but that comes after).

I agree with you: your ped may be great with other stuff, but she is not expert with children and serious allergies. A systemic contact reaction is a sign of a potentially VERY severe allergy; the reaction would almost certainly be worse upon ingestion. I'd look for an allergist as soon as possible.

[cat19]

Oh--and he HAS most likely ingested peanuts through nursing if you've been BFing and eating them.

(One other thought: first, kids can be allergic without any family history of any allergy, and second, what can be inherited is the tendency to be allergic, not a particular allergy. So if ANYONE in your family has hay fever, insect sting allergies, allergy to pets, allergic eczema, food allergies, drug allergies, ANY of that, that counts as a family history of allergy.)

[Thystle]

There is NO history of peanut/tree nut allergy in my family.


My 14 month old son just GRABBED his brothers PB&J sandwich (he did not eat it). He broke out in hives too. He went to Chiildren's and they suspected it was a peanut allergy and told us to go to an allergist.


Yesterday we found out from the allergist's he IS VERY allergic to peanuts (and several other things). He now has an Epi-pen and Benedryl is not enough in a serious reaction. Each reaction tends to get worse. And it comes down to that a peanut allergy is LIFE THREATENING! Don't take the chance! Go get the skin testing done!


Get yourself to an allergist ASAP and IGNORE what your doctor said.



And yes I now have to avoid EVERYTHING he is allergic too as it does pass through your breastmilk! I cannot eat anything on his list. Period.




{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{hugs}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

[Thystle]

Oh and my allergist also told me that most pediatricians do NOT know what they are talking about in reguards to food allergies... that is why it is best to get to a doctor specializing in it!


My son had been having hives since he was 3/4 months old....... and my ped blew it off. If we had been out somewhere (like camping) where a hospital or services were hours away... my little guy could have died from a reaction.

If I had listened to my ped.....

[tysmamaca]

a note about skin testing. If your ds broke out in hives all over his body because peanut butter just TOUCHED his skin, it might not be the best idea to prick his skin with peanut protein. I would go for the blood test. I know that a lot of allergist will not do skin testing when a nut allergy is suspected because it could be too dangerous.

I have a friend whose 16 month dd kept breaking out in random hives so she went to get her skin tested. Turns out she is really allergic to peanuts (with NO family history at all) and for the rest of the day, she kept breaking out in hives all over her body from having that one little prick of peanut.

I know that blood testing is not super accurate at such a young age but it can be helpful. My dd had the RAST at 6 months for other foods and then was skin tested at 19 months with the same exact results. So for her, the blood test was pretty accurate.

[Britishmum]

Originally Posted by earthie_mama

Well.... we went to the doc yesterday. She doesn't think its a peanut allergy since he didn't ingest any, and hes so yoiung, and b/c theres no family history. She recommended benadryl and said that an epi-jr would probably kill him! We all got adjusted at the chiro after that. I'm going to have to go to a specialist... allergist....

I'd get an opinion from an allergist. It doesnt matter if he didnt ingest any - thank goodness he didn't!! My ds had a similar reaction to a smear of PB, and I took him immediately to be tested. His scores were so high that we were told that ingesting half a peanut would most likely be fatal.

As for it not running in the family, we are the most non-allergic family you could meet. But ds has multiple anaphylactic allergies. Unfortunately you can do all the 'right' things, like non-vax, eat a great diet, breastfeed, etc but your kid can still get these allergies.

I'd cut all allergens from your diet immediately. If you do that, you can increase the chances that he will outgrow this in time.

It's overwhelming at first, but it sure as heck feels better once you have that epipen in your bag.

HTH

[Thystle]

I can say we chose the skin testing as to have the most accurate test. We NEEDED to know for sure.

He did get some hives and they gave him a double dose of Benedryl and we stayed in the allergists office for 3 hours to be safe.

I also got my Epi-pens that day.






I honestly would rather risk the reaction at the docs with the doctor right there to help my child.... than to have a blood test that may come back false negative and lull me into a possible false confidence. Not knocking the blood tests... my older two had them done years ago when I also was told by a ped that the skin tests were too dangerous. But upon hearing many stories with friends whose kids have fatal peanut allergies... I decided that we needed to know for sure, in the "safest" enviroment for testing.


Just my experiance... not knocking anyone on here!






.

[Thystle]

And honestly if she is eating alot of nuts and does not want to give them up and does not want to wean... I think she needs to REALLY know ASAP!!!!

[cat19]

On testing: reactions trump results. Testing can be useful, but ANY good allergist would absolutely advise that a child with a contact reaction to peanuts NOT ingest or touch them, no matter what the test results show. IIRC, anywhere from 10% to 50% of test results can be false negatives or false positives for children being tested. An allergy can be diagnosed without any positive test results on the basis of the child's history of reactions.

I too would avoid skin tests; I would want the allergist for the epis and advise and ongoing care, not because I had any thought that a negative test result would allow me to trial peanuts with a child with a contact reaction to peanuts.

[urmysunshyn]

I'd suggest stop eating peanuts immediately and all tree nuts as well since the proteins are similar. Moms intuition is best! You knew a reaction to peanut butter occurred. Don't take any chances. Get to the allergist to get an epi-pen and for blood testing.

[WC_hapamama]

Originally Posted by cat19

Oh--and he HAS most likely ingested peanuts through nursing if you've been BFing and eating them.

(One other thought: first, kids can be allergic without any family history of any allergy, and second, what can be inherited is the tendency to be allergic, not a particular allergy. So if ANYONE in your family has hay fever, insect sting allergies, allergy to pets, allergic eczema, food allergies, drug allergies, ANY of that, that counts as a family history of allergy.)

I agree with this.

The fact that your 6 month old has eczema puts him at extremely high risk of developing allergies of any kind... food, drug, pollen, dander or otherwise.

I'd ignore what your doctor said, and get him to an allergist.

You may not have to give up tree nuts if you can find a peanut free source of tree nuts. Peanuts are legumes, not related to the true nuts or drupes. With a peanut allergy, legumes like soybean and peas are higher risk than say, almonds or cashews. A lot of peanut allergic people are also allergic to tree nuts, but it's not a definite thing.

You may want to check out kidswithfoodallergies.org. There are a few mamas over there who are vegan and vegetarian who may be able to give you nutritional advice so YOU don't get malnourished while nursing your kiddo.

[earthie_mama]

Wewll, i made an appt with an allergist, but before we go I have an appointment with a kinestethitic chiro, whivch is the type of care i had growing up, and I find it very effective. So btwn the two, we should be covered.