Food Allergies Support Group

If your daughter was going to go into anaphylactic shock from the peanuts, it would not have stopped that kind of reaction. It could have stopped a less severe reaction like asthma or hives. If your daughter was found to have peanut allergy she should always have an epi pen and your day care sounds very irresponsible. If they fed a child that they know has peanut allergy a peanut butter sandwich what else are they doing. Also maybe she should be retested with a skin check because those blood tests are not always accurate and sometime people even can become desensitized/ grow out of even a serve food allergy.

I find that when I carefully avoid an allergen for a while, I can eat it once or twice without any noticeable symptoms. After that point, though, watch out.

The blood test is not always accurate; my husband tested ok to peanuts on the RAST which only measures IgE (immediate reactions; does not test for IgG (later reactions). The last time he ate peanuts a few days ago I thought I'd have to take him to the ER he was so bad. If your doctor is not an allergist, I would consult one & ask whether you should do a food challenge with peanuts or not. If he or she says yes, I would get a prescription for an Eppipen & have it ready or take the child to a hospital & plan to sit in the ER waiting room for at least a couple of hours after giving her the peanuts. A peanut allergy can be very serious as it is one of the allergens that can bring on analaphalytic shock. You definitely want to know if she is allergic to them as it is so hard to avoid as you just found out. You don't want to worry about exposure if she is not allergic to them. Because my husband likes peanuts and peanut butter so much, we will ask the allergist on next visit if we should expose him again or not after he stays off them at least 6 months (that is no exposure to peanuts, peanut butter, peanut oil, etc.) We have both been on our safe list according to the RAST tests for a week & just introduced our first food today - acorn squash. The RAST for me also said I was not allergic to wheat & I know that is one of my worst allergies - always react to it & quite badly. But do ask a doctor before you expose your daughter to peanuts again. My granddaughter is allergic to milk & son-in-law insists he can desenistize her by giving her cheese, ice cream, milk chocolate, etc. Not true; can't convince him he is doing harm.

I think I would look for a new provider...that is VERY disturbing.

Not every allergy is a lethal one, remember. Just because she didn't die on the spot doesn't mean she isn't allergic. All this may mean is that she's not terribly allergic, just somewhat. Or she may have been kept away from peanuts long enough that her system no longer reacts to it.

Allergists do not shoot you up with foods you are allergic to. For some reason, that is only done with pollen, mold and stuff like that. The way to resolve a food allergy in not to eat that food. Eating more of a food you are allergic to makes the allergy worse.

My niece and nephews no longer have their food allergies; my sister kept them away from the allergens for something like 4 solid years and that did the trick. They can eat anything now.

Cliffenstein, that is really good to hear about children that grew out of food allergies. So far, I haven't heard any of those stories. Do you mind me asking what foods they were allergic to? So far, my daugther is allergic to peanuts and egg and I am trying desperately to keep her away from them. She is only 11 months old, but I didn't realize how hard it would be to deal with other people who don't understand the severity of food allergies and how they can cross contaminate so easily. It's a full time job. Anway, it is good to hear that at least some kids can look forward to a food allergy free life. :)

They were allergic to dairy, gluten and I think some of the nuts.

Cliffenstein, I am not a doctor, and I may have misinterpreted what you meant when you wrote "All this may mean is that she's not terribly allergic, just somewhat. " But this statement worried me. If my understanding is correct, there is no way to determine how allergic someone is, or predict how severe any reaction will be.

This is because the severity of an allergic reaction can change dramatically from one exposure to the food to another. For example, a person who had nothing but hives for each exposure to peanut, could have a life-threatening reaction next. time they encounter it.

A very tragic case of this is Brian Hom, who had never reacted severely to peanut in his life - he had only had hives. Unfortunately he died from anaphylaxis after being accidently exposed to peanut. His parents and family were shocked, as they had thought he had a 'mild' peanut allergy. His family now speak of this extensively in the hope of avoiding another death such as their sons.

I agree that Zyrtec (or benadryl, or singulair, or allegra) is not a treatment for anaphylaxis, so it would not protect your child from a life threatening reaction.

The fact she was exposed to peanut and did not seem to have a reaction is promising as it may be your child is outgrowing her allergy. Please visit your allergist immediately and explain what happened, and they might decide to do additional testing and an in-office-food challenge!

I contacted my daughter's allergist after learning she consumed the peanut butter sandwich; however, he only advised for us to continue staying away from peanuts and nuts (what we, ourselves, had been doing all along). We recently took her back for a follow-up. I had to request for her to receive updated labs. We just got the results and I just about cried. Her peanut and egg levels almost trippled and her soybean (which was almost not existent) was at a 10. Besides, the peanut accident at daycare, we followed his instructions to "go ahead and give her food cooked with egg and soybeans, foods that say made on the same equipment that processes peanuts, and watch for any reactions", but her numbers are now way higher than they once were. She never reacted with any of the foods so we thought she was getting over her allergies. I am so PO'd. I'm thinking about pressing for another referral to see a doctor at UCLA (we have crappy HMO coverage). We only have 2 allergists in my city so the choices are minimal. Does his advice sound like the usual advice your allergists recommend? This is our first experience with allergist so we don't know which ones sound like quacks and which ones are more knowledgable.

I'm so sorry you are confused about the advice given to you by your doctor. I must admit, I have heard of other doctors give the same type of advice, but it is not advice I would be comfortable with.

To me it is contradictory.. avoid nuts, but eat food which is most likely contaminated with nuts? I can't remember the number exactly (I think it is on FAANs web site www.foodallergy.org), that at least 10% of foods that says 'may contains' do actually contain the allergen.

Also, although the IgE numbers are used by doctors as indicators of allergy (and likelihood of a reaction, but not the severity of reaction), I have read the only proof of whether an allergy really exists is whether the person reacts to the food. Unfortunately, IgE is not foolproof.. sometimes people with low IgE values (