Peanut Allergies

Well, my 3 year old is allergic. She's never ingested peanuts but has reacted with huge hives on contact. We carry an epi-pen wherever we go, along with Benadryl. We haven't had to use the pen yet, thank God, but you have to call 911 after you do use it.

As for the peanut oil -- I've heard that it's very refined and doesn't usually cause a reaction. I haven't tested the theory though.

I am allergic to peanuts and the very smell nauseates me. I can't tolerate it any form, including peanut oil (long long ago, they made M&M's with peanut oil and I had an allergic reaction).

I thankfully do not experience anaphylactic shock (sp?) but my lips blow up like balloons and I have massive hives and itchy throat. Once my tongue swelled.

My cousin is deathly allergic and her throat closes up. She carries an epi pen wherever she goes.

While I'm not allergic to peanuts, I'm allergic to every other kind of nut (except cashews). I have very odd food allergies (obviously) and for me, with the other nuts, I'd have to injest them but I get hives in my throat when I eat them and it starts to swell. I do carry an Epi Pen not for that purpose but because I have such random food allergies that my doctor's afraid I could react to anything. She made me carry it when I was in England just as a precaution.

Some people are so allergic that they can't even eat non-peanut chocolate if it was made in the same factory. My wife has a student with such an allergy.

Storyteller5 said:

Jennifer, do you carry any kind of medication for yourself because of it?

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No, I don't carry a pen, never have. I probably should, but my reactions aren't life-threatening. Benadryl works fine to stave off the worst of it and I do carry a small bottle of that in my purse at all times.

Roger J Carlson said:

Some people are so allergic that they can't even eat non-peanut chocolate if it was made in the same factory. My wife has a student with such an allergy.

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Yes, because there's a risk that the machines (even if cleaned) may still carry traces of peanuts.

Sometimes the first exposure to an allergen is mild -- maybe hives or just a rash. Subsequent exposures could get progressively worse.

A just realized link between childhood allergies and cleanliness came about. We have created such a pseudo-sterile environment that kids aren't being exposed to the same thing that kids 10 or 20 years ago were. The less immunities a kid has, the sicker they are. Us anti-bacterializing everything is affecting people adversely.

My son is one of the few who was lucky enough to outgrow his peanut allergy. Got rashes and tested positive on a RAST test as a toddler. He ended up outgrowing all of his food allergies, now just has inhaled allergies. We did carry an epipen for a while. It was pretty scary.

Did you read about the girl who died after she kissed her boyfriend who'd eaten peanut butter? It can be really serious.

Maddog said:

Did you read about the girl who died after she kissed her boyfriend who'd eaten peanut butter? It can be really serious.

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That actually turned out to be false. She had reacted to something she had eaten, not from something he had eaten.

Storyteller5 said:

I'm looking to confirm a few details about peanut allergies from people who have allergies.

Do you have to be pretty sensitive about peanuts before peanut oil would bother you?

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My 7-year-olds friend has a peanut alergy. The parents don't take ANY chances. We were at a Fire Prevention event and their son wasn't allowed near the fake smoke because it was created with a peanut oil substance.

DonnaDuck said:

A just realized link between childhood allergies and cleanliness came about. We have created such a pseudo-sterile environment that kids aren't being exposed to the same thing that kids 10 or 20 years ago were. The less immunities a kid has, the sicker they are. Us anti-bacterializing everything is affecting people adversely.

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This has been happening in Japan for some time.

The lucky ones grow out of their allergies. I've actually grown into nut allergies then partially grew out of them and I've had fruit allergies my entire life with no signs of subsiding. Apparantly those are linked with seasonal allergies but I question that.

What would be interesting would be to see the occurance of food allergies 40 years ago in children compared to today.

Roger J Carlson said:

This has been happening in Japan for some time.

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Just one more reason for me NOT to use anti-bacterial hand gel! Aside from the fact that you use too much of it and your hands turn to claws.

DonnaDuck said:

Just one more reason for me NOT to use anti-bacterial hand gel! Aside from the fact that you use too much of it and your hands turn to claws.

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Just a point. This is NOT true of Instant Hand Antiseptic hand gels, that is, the kind with ethyl alcohol in them. (Hospitals use this kind pretty much everywhere.) There has been no evidence that these promote resistant bacteria. It is the "antibacterial" type hand creams and soaps that are at issue.

Roger J Carlson said:

Just a point. This is NOT true of Instant Hand Antiseptic hand gels, that is, the kind with ethyl alcohol in them. (Hospitals use this kind pretty much everywhere.) There has been no evidence that these promote resistant bacteria. It is the "antibacterial" type hand creams and soaps that are at issue.

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Don't use those either! What companies like Proctor and Gamble should do is come up with something anti-bacterial that targets the bacteria that we shouldn't be exposed to instead of massacring everything, good and bad. I'm sure it can be done but the marketablility of killing only some bacteria, I wouldn't think, isn't a good thing.

DonnaDuck said:

Aside from the fact that you use too much of it and your hands turn to claws.

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Now there's an idea for passing out trick or treats tomorrow evening - the claw hand look would be really scary for the tots!

I consider myself as having a peanut allergy, but it probably won't show up in a skin prick test. My mother is the same way, and hers didn't show up. We were told it was because we have Lupus, an autoimmune disease, and it could be acting differently.

Anyway! I have what's called a Food Pollen Reaction. (One doctor said it wouldn't kill me, the other said I shouldn't ever risk it. They said it's still being studied.) I can't smell peanuts... The dust from them, the smell of hot peanut oil, anything like that sets me off. I can't breathe. I have to use my inhaler and get away. It takes me a second to realize what's going on because first my head starts getting fuzzy and then I realize I can't breathe. The one time I did eat a peanut I had an anaphylatic reaction. The candy wasn't supposed to have peanuts, but had been processed in a plant with them.

I do have to carry an epi-pen and an Albuterol inhaler with me everywhere. I also carry a bottle of Pepsi, because the caffiene and carbination help when I'm just having a mild reaction.

I haven't been in the hospital, but I was checked out in the ER after I ate the tainted candy, they kept me a bit to make sure I would recover then let me go. I got there about 15 minutes after my reaction, an inhaler, and lots of caffiene. I really didn't want to use the epipen... I hate needles. Stupid move. My mom made me promise to use the epipen next time that happened.
I'm really careful now, so hopefully there won't be a next time. Just in case I still carry my epipen with me.

My son has a tree-nut allergy (he can eat peanuts, though). In his school, they had a party in the auditorium one evening. The next day, he was sitting on the floor for assembly, and had an allergic reaction--to the floor. I was the school secretary, so he was brought straight into my office. All he did was wipe his eye with his finger. From what we figure, someone must have dropped a nut, part of granola bar, etc on the floor at the party. Although the floor had been dry-and-wet-mopped, some fragment of the nut remained. He'd been sitting with his hands on the floor, wiped his eye, transferred the allergen from the floor to his eye, and half his face swelled up like a balloon. Fortunately, an anti-histimine took care of it; no epipen required. He's never actually had to use his epi; we just throw two of them out every year. (He's 20 now)

And speaking of epipens: when they first came out in England, Justin was about five, I guess. Anyway, the doctor didn't want to prescribe one for us because of the expense. (UK doctors offices get charged for the NHS prescriptions they write. At that time an epi was about 100 pounds.) She asked how far we lived from the hospital. When I replied "six miles", she said there was no need for an epipen, we could make it to the hospital in time! I pointed out that although it's six miles, part of that was the Catford one-way system, which can take 30 minutes to negotiate. Still wouldn't give me one. I really had to put up a fight.

Maddog, that's great your son outgrew his allergy. I'm hoping my kid will. Does he regularly eat peanuts (i.e., once a week) now? I've been told that kids who do outgrow the allergy need to be exposed to the allergen on a regular basis. Is that true?

I've heard the sterile environment theory. We don't use any of those antibacterial cleansers. I've also heard that delaying solids will decrease the chance of allergy (though I don't see how this is true; the incidence of food allergy has risen since the seventies, when kids got food as early at 2 weeks!). Personally, I believe it has something to do with food additives (too many packaged, convenience foods, rather than natural meals from scratch).

I think there's a link between food allergies and other allergies, for sure. When our allergist asked if there was a history of allergy in the family, he was interested in the fact that I have both seasonal allergies and asthma. My daughter has everything -- seasonal allergies (I think), asthma, eczema, and a nut allergy.

I'm now avoiding all nut products and hoping my 6 month old doesn't have an allergy too. It's pretty easy to keep the young kids away from nuts (all our preschools/daycares are nut-free). It gets much more difficult when they start regular school.

We have a second grader at my kids' school whose allergies are so severe that he has to sit at a special desk in the lunchroom. It gets sanitized every day before he comes in, as does his chair, and has to remain a certain number of feet from the main tables. Other kids may go sit with him, but they can't bring food and they have to wash their hands before they join him. He's not only allergic to peanuts but also milk, wheat, and a number of other food items.

Allergies are like every other medical condition, there is a wide range of possible reactions. Mild reactions might be manageable with avoidance of further exposure and trying to remain calm, drinking cold liquid to slow the swelling in the throat. The next worse reaction might require antihistamines, the next, steroids, then IV fluids to maintain blood pressure, then epinephrine and finally call the mortuary. for some people it only takes a few molecules and others it would take a peanutbutter sandwich

The trend is that allergic reactions get worse with time and worse with increased exposure burden, so that if you are allergic to ragweed and it is during the autumn and you eat something you are allergic to, you might have a worse reaction than you would during the winter.

For unknown reasons puberty can sort of deactivate some allergies. Also people might be taking antihistamines for other reasons and it can temporize a mild reaction so that they think they didn't react, when really the reaction was masked.

Skin testing for food allergies is unreliable at best and padding the bill at worst. People with immunologic disorders have particularly unreliable results, with both false negatives and false positives. Food allergies are activating Immunoglobulin A whereas skin Testing is activating Imunoglobulins G and or M. If you know you react to something, simply avoid it. If you aren't sure what it was, there is a hypoallergenic diet to follow and slowly reintroduce things to see what you react to.

DonnaDuck said:

The lucky ones grow out of their allergies.
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Maddog said:

My son is one of the few who was lucky enough to outgrow his peanut allergy.
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I hope I can make a small usurp of this thread to ask about growing out of an allergy.

As a child I was often in the forest and brush behind our house. Several times I got poison ivy/oak when I was about age 5 through 12 or so (though I continued to go through the woods as a teen and didn't have a problem), but no one else I knew got it (am I right that only some are allergic to it?). In the past five years or so (in my forties) I've been out in the brush and woods a good bit, and haven't had a problem with it, and haven't been looking for it to avoid it or anything. Did I grow out of my allergy to poison ivy/oak?

ETA:

GeorgeK said:

...
For unknown reasons puberty can sort of deactivate some allergies.
...

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Uh huh, well that jibes with what I wrote, and it ending about age 12...

benbradley said:

I hope I can make a small usurp of this thread to ask about growing out of an allergy.

As a child I was often in the forest and brush behind our house. Several times I got poison ivy/oak when I was about age 5 through 12 or so (though I continued to go through the woods as a teen and didn't have a problem), but no one else I knew got it (am I right that only some are allergic to it?). In the past five years or so (in my forties) I've been out in the brush and woods a good bit, and haven't had a problem with it, and haven't been looking for it to avoid it or anything. Did I grow out of my allergy to poison ivy/oak?

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I had the same issue. I was severely allergic to poison ivy when I was younger, got it everywhere, internal and external. I don't remember when but it just stopped. I can roll around in it now and I won't get so much as a dot. My dad grew out of his melon allergies and it sounds like you did grow out of your allergy. People can also grow into allergies as well. I suspect that I have a white wheat allergy myself so I avoid it because the pain is intense. That's something fairly new with me. The body cycles every seven years or so so you get new things cropping up, old things fading and so on. My body shifted how it carried weight when I was about 22, well beyond puberty but it fits in the 7 year cycle, one of the reasons why puberty is around 12 to 14 although all the chemical crap in food is kicking that to the curb.