How Old for Peanut Challenge?

[ramama]

Does anyone know how old a child should be before trying a peanut challenge. DD2 (2 1/2 years) was diagnosed with a peanut allergy (through the prick test) when she was 9mo old, and she's never actually had a peanut. It's killing us not knowing what her reaction would be should she actually eat a peanut, and we feel so under-prepared (ie, we do not have an epi-pen). I would just like to know how severe it is...I would do a peanut challenge in the doctor's office just to clarify, not at home.

[nalo]

I would personally wait until at least age 3, although I do know of people who waited until age 5.

[JaneSmith1010]

not an answer for your question but perhaps a reason for you to avoid peanuts anyway. an anti-vax doc in ontario suggests that non-vaxers and others stay away from peanuts and their products b/c they always harbor aflotoxin which lowers your immune defenses. I always have an easier time avoiding something--even without allergy or intolerance-- if I know some adverse health effect it packs.

[Ruthla]

Do you have an allergist you can ask about this? Would he or she prescribe an epi-pen "just in case" or at the very least redo the test to see if she's outgrown the allergy?

[LauraLoo]

Doing a peanut challenge is different that doing a skin or blood test, so most allergists would suggest doing another skin and/or blood test first before doing a food challenge. Based on the results of that, it would be determined of whether or not a challenge would be in order. A food challenge is a serious test because of the potential complications; an anaphylatic reaction in a child would most likely result in an overnight hospital stay for monitoring. Thus, a food challenge is done when there is a strong reason to believe that an allergy is outgrown.

Most experts believe that the best chance of outgrowing an allergy is to avoid the allergen so as to not further stress out the immune system. So, to do an unnecessary food challenge when the body's immune system has not had a chance to mature could compromise the chance of outgrowing the allergy. Our allergist said he wouldn't consider doing a food challenge until the age of 5 to allow for that chance.

I don't know how severly your dd tested, but it might not be a bad thing for you to request another skin test to see where she stands. Based on the results, you would probably have a strong idea of whether or not a food challenge would be a good idea at this time.

[ramama]

Thanks for all the responses! I know that we should get an epi-pen, but we haven't been back to the allergist in about a year since her allergies, although strong, are pretty straightforward and fairly easy to control, but she is due for a check-in with them. When she was diagnosed, the allergist said that as a nearly exclusively breastfeed baby (9mo old at the time, eating a few solids, but mostly breastmilk) I had such exclusive control over her diet that we probably didn't need an epi-pen yet. So now, at age 2 1/2 I think he would be open to giving her one.

When she was diagnosed, she had a strong reaction to dairy, a moderate reaction to eggs, and a severe reaction to peanuts (but not an anaphylactic one, just a nice skin reaction). She seems to have outgrown the dairy and egg allergies to some extent, as her favorite things to eat now are pizza and eggs, but if dairy touches her skin (like if she's eating yogurt and it drips on her chest) she'll break out in hives. But eating it seems to pose no problems. (Is that normal at all?) She has a rather strong skin reaction if peanuts come in contact with her skin. Her sister was making peanut butter cracker sandwiches and I told her to wash her hands afterwards, and she apparently didn't use soap, so when she went to play with DD2, DD2 got quite a strong skin reaction from the peanut residue. Well, we didn't have to go to the hospital, so it wasn't THAT strong, but you know what I mean, right?

So, I'm fairly certain that she hasn't outgrown the peanut allergy totally, but was wondering if it would be like dairy and eggs for her, which she can eat but not have touch her skin. I'm all confused because I don't understand why she can apparently eat dairy but can't let it touch her skin. The allergist will probably think I'm crazy..