Testing For A Peanut Allergy
It’s not uncommon for kids with a food allergy to have multiple food allergies. Since I substitute teacher I have access to certain student information, such as medical conditions, while I am at the schools. Having seen many of these reports I know that there aren’t a lot of school age kids that have just an egg allergy. Due to this I have been scared to try any new allergy possible foods with Nick. When we saw the allergist last year I asked him to test Nick for the nut allergies (tree nut and peanut) when he tested him for egg. The doctor wouldn’t do it though because he said there are too many false positives. His advice was to hold off until after Nick was two to try them so Nick would be able to communicate with us if he was having any type of reaction.
What We Knew
After observing Nick’s terrible reaction to eggs I was terrified of testing either type of nut allergy. You may remember that I accidently gave Nick some Honey Nut Cheerios on our vacation in the fall. Far from the smartest thing I could have done, but it happened. Luckily he did not have any type of reaction, and usually if you’re allergic to one type of tree nut than you’re allergic to most all types of tree nuts, so that situation told us that tree nuts were safe.
Peanuts were another story though. One of my worst fears was that I would have a child with a peanut allergy. In my opinion it is by far the scariest food allergy because just being around it can cause a life threatening reaction. Now I already knew that if Nick was allergic to peanuts that he wasn’t severly allergic because over the course of his life he had been around peanuts and had never had a reaction. Still that didn’t mean that he could eat them.
Testing
Next week we go back to see the allergist, so I knew that I needed to test for the peanut allergy because then they could officially test him for it and document it at his appointment. Still I was petrified by what could happen. I NEVER EVER want to have a reason to use an Epi Pen. I also didn’t want to test it when I was by myself. I was the only one home with Nick when I fed him the egg, and I didn’t want to go through that again.
Last week on Wednesday morning I was having Peanut Butter Cheerios and Nick wanted some. Usually I tell him no that he can’t eat them, but I realized that it was the perfect time to test it. Jason was home, so there was someone to help in an emergency. Plus I was going to be home all day, and it was early in the day so I could keep my eye on how things were going. I had planned on having Benadryl next me and ready to go, but I decided to just go for it.
First I gave Nick three Cheerio pieces. It was of course his first time tasting peanut butter and he really liked it. As soon as they were gone he asked for more, but I told him we had to wait. After about ten minutes, when Nick wasn’t showing anything close to a reaction, I let him have three more pieces. I was watching him like a Hawk. When I gave him the scrambled egg his throat started to close up so he coughed, and he cried and screamed. He was an absolute mess, and later he broke out in hives, but nothing was happening from the Cheerios. There wasn’t the smallest spot on him, and he was as happy as could be. After some time I let him have a lot of the Cheerios, and he loved them. Still there was no sign of a reaction and I felt that things were looking positive.  If you are allergic to food than usually every reaction is worse than the one before, no matter what food it is. Meaning that if Nick did have a peanut allergy than he likely would have easily had a reaction after having such a bad one to eggs. Still I wasn’t sure how much of the allergin was actually in the cereal, so later that day I pulled out all the stops and gave Nick a spoonful of peanut butter. I was a bit worried, but by that point I was feeling pretty confident. I am happy to report that while Nick wasn’t too sure about eating the actual peanut butter (he made quite a face) he did not have any type of reaction to it what so ever.
What This All Means
Today I am feeling very confident over our allergy findings. An egg allergy is an easier one to outgrow, and I feel that the fact that Nick doesn’t have any other food allergies will improve his chances of outgrowing it. Now I have no clue if this will hold true, and I know there is still a chance that he won’t ever outgrow it, but I think things are looking good. Whether he outgrows his egg allergy or not I am still grateful, and very relieved, that we no longer have to worry about any other foods causing him problems. Bring on the PB&J!
My oldest son Jason (10) has allergies to tree nuts, peanuts and seeds. We actually did a peanut challenge with him a few years ago and he passed, but he was so set in his mind to never ever have nuts, that he wouldn’t eat anything with peanuts after that. And apparently, you need to eat a little bit or else your allergy could come back. Which it did.
So glad your little guy doesn’t have nut allergies and I really hope he outgrows the egg one!
WHEW!!! SO glad he doesn’t have a peanut allergy!
My little guy has soy and sesame food allergies – they aren’t HORRIBLE – but they do make his eczema flair. He also has a KAZILLION airborne allergies.
I’m so glad he isn’t allergic to peanuts- that really is a scary condition. &I really hope he outgrows his egg allergy!
Wonderful news that he isn’t allergic to nuts.
I know. I’m still over the moon about it.
Allergies can be scary! I’m glad peanuts aren’t a problem.
Me too. I’ve been worrying about it for a long time.
I am glad that Nick’s allergies seem to be confined mainly to eggs. I thought that it was a fairly common allergy and that a lot of kids outgrow it. My 2-year-old got hives when he first ate eggs, but he has outgrown that.
Thankfully, my kids do not have life-threatening allergies. They do have plenty of allergies, though. Both boys take regular allergy medications and have inhalers for the days when the OTC stuff isn’t enough.
I have been wary of allergy testing, but I know that I will have to take them in soon – however, I have no plans to do testing for food allergies. Years ago, I had an allergist tell me that allergy testing for foods was a waste of time (too many false positives AND false negatives) – he told me to do an elimination diet if I really wanted to know what I was allergic to.
The egg allergy is easier to outgrow than others. Last year his doctor told us though that they’re seeing a trend where fewer kids are outgrowing food allergies and they don’t know why. I’ve got everything crossed that his appointment on Friday that we at least see some signs that he’s outgrowing it.
allergies are very scary. We need to be asking why our children are developing these autoimmune issues. This is not normal and we should not just accept it as such. Instead we need to realize there is something seriously wrong and demand more to fix it.
Some time back I read that they think that part of the problem is we’re too clean. So much is disinfected that more things seem foreign to the body, so it fights things more. Right before Nick was born I read that babies that come home to homes with cats, and homes that are not crazy clean, develop far fewer allergies. My family has a lot of people allergic to allergies, and I realized that not one of them had a cat as a kid. Jason is allergic to cats, but he let me get some when we got our first place, and now I’m grateful for it because cats don’t seem to bother Nick.
I had a bad intolerance to dairy growing up. I was able to outgrow it for the most part, I still don’t do well with ice cream or cheese cake, but nothing else bothers me. Of course now I have a gluten intolerance as an adult so go figure 🙂 I’m glad that he is okay with peanuts, that is always the allergy I worried about with my kids. There are shell fish and strawberry allergies on my side so I was always slow to introduce those to my boys, but luckily they were fine.
It is scary when you know they could have something. I don’t do well with ice cream either, but my dairy issues stem from my IBS. Sad that food can cause so many issues.
So happy that I will be able to give Nick PBJ this summer.
I’m so glad he is not allergic to peanuts! My son’s friend was and I was always afraid to feed him!
I don’t blame you! You certainly don’t want to be responsible for any problems. It is a stressful situation for everyone.