Advice from Moms with Kids W/ Peanut Allergies

My son was diagnosed with peanut, egg and milk allergies at 12 months. It really changes how you look at everything! A few things we did when he was young: When we are in a group of people (potluck, party, etc), we would stick an allergy sticker on his front and back. You can buy them online, it says something like "Ask my parents before you feed me, severe allergies". I began to HATE potlucks, because my son would pick food up off the floor. I think the easiest thing is to make your home a peanut-free zone when your kid is that age. Otherwise, any little crumb, etc that falls on the floor could be harmful since they will eat anything they find. We had a PB stash in the garage on a shelf and sometimes late at night one of us would indulge ourselves, wash the dishes involved and put everything away. In general, I only allow in-home babysitters. It's so much easier to say "this house is peanut-free", rather than take your kids to someone else's house and wonder. Also, I don't know how you feel about this, but we always had older babysitters - no younger than 17, unless they were very mature. They had to have taken first aid. I just couldn't see handing a 13 year old an epi-pen and putting that responsibility on them. They could freeze up. Another mom commented on seeing an allergist sooner, has your daughter seen one yet? If not, I would also recommend that, for the sake of finding other common allergies. We took our son to the allergist because we noticed a milk allergy and had no idea about the other two. The sooner you know about allerigies, (even the mild ones) the sooner you can avoid those foods, which gives you the greatest chance of outgrowing them. If you've already been to an allergist, by all means wait to go back. Glad you have a doctor that your like. Hopefully as time passes, things will change. My son is now 5 and has outgrown the milk and egg allergies. I am hoping by the time he is in his teens, that the whole "immunotherapy" thing for food allergies will be run-of-the-mill and covered by insurance. It is a scary thing. He is now in Kindergarten and I often butt heads with the teacher's aide in his classroom. When they have a field trip, etc. and I ask about them taking the epi along, she will say "oh, he'll be fine". Oh, really? And how do you know that? Thankfully, the school receptionist (who is also a certified "medication giver") is always on my side and treats my son as her own, insisting that every precaution be taken. Some people, especially older generations, think we make this stuff up and the truth is, our kids can DIE from this! I once had a neighbor that attempted to give my son "just a little" Resee's because she saw on the news that people can have just a little and work themselves up to it. You know your child and never go along with any situation that makes you uncomfortable. The risk is never, ever worth it.

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I don't have a child who is allergic to peanuts, but my husband is allergic. It was discovered when he was a baby as well. The trickiest parts that he has had to deal with is either peanut oil or mere contamination. He is not allergic to nuts (peanuts are part of the legume family and is technically not a nut), but I always feel better when he stays away from any nuts because it is so easy for them to get contaminated with peanuts. All it takes is a little peanut residue and he gets sick. He has also had a variety of different reactions so it isn't the same each time. Sometimes he has sounded like his mouth and throat is swollen, other times it is asthma, but almost always it ends up in severe vomiting. One time he had a bad reaction when he bit into an egg roll that was fried in vegetable oil. The egg roll, we found out, was pre-made and had contained peanut oil. It makes it tricky to detect with things like that. Airlines are getting more away from serving peanuts as snacks, but still do at times. When he doesn't ingest them, he isn't violently ill, but he does develop asthma and has a lot of head congestion. As you can see, it can get to your child in a variety of ways that are less obvious.

I think the challenge as a mom is watching for all these things while your child is too young to watch out for herself. A chocolate chip cookie on a plate that also had cookies with peanuts could cause her to react. When she is at friends' houses, stay away from any jelly (because people can/do use the same knife they had peanut butter on to scoop the jelly out of the jar). This contaminates the jelly. It has been my understanding that a peanut allergy is one of the most severe of food allergies. My husband managed to make it through all these years when most of his life it was practically unheard of. I remember bringing him into the ER after he had ingested peanut/peanut oil and they looked at me really odd like I was bringing him in for sneezing or something. I felt like I was often educating them on how serious of a reaction he gets if not treated right away (which usually they discovered really quick). Then a few years later we were beginning to hear of more and more kids having peanut allergies. Since then, we have never had that strange look. He still gets into peanuts now and then no matter how careful he tries to be. Always have benedryl and the epi-pen on hand in case it does occur.

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My son was diagnosed at about 13 months also, and although it seemed overwhelming at first, now it's not that big of a deal for us. Our allergist told us not to worry about peanut oil because it was normally so refined that the proteins were denatured (the proteins are what cause the allergic reaction). We haven't had a problem with it, so it might be something you just have to find out the hard way. The only peanut oil he can't have is cold pressed, which is more gourmet. I was also told by a friend to be careful of items in Amish country b/c their peanut oil wouldn't be as refined either.

This first year I've pretty much stayed away from all things manufactured in a plant with peanuts, and so far he hasn't had another reaction since. Since he doesn't seem to be extremely sensitive, I'm going to slowly see how he does with these things and go from there.

I thought it was easiest to make the house peanut free. I have 2 older boys who were little enough not to trust to be careful. It was going to be such a worry feeding him out and about that I needed to know everything in the cupboard was ok.

The Benadryl comes in single dose packs if you haven't seen those yet. It makes it easy to keep in my purse with the EpiPen and in the cupboard next to his EpiPen at home. No tracking down the Benadryl and measuring - just pop the top and squeeze in.

When we go out to eat, I try to call and talk to the manager at a slow time of the day - like 2 or 3 in the afternoon. I tell them that my toddler is allergic to peanuts and ask if there is anything we should stay away from. Then when we get to the restaurant I tell the server also. Many times I've had the manager come over and talk to me after I spoke with the server. I've always had people bend over backward to make sure everything was ok even when I wasn't able to call first.

When we were at a potluck with my family, I just asked that nobody give him anything to eat without asking me first. That actually was more stressful than other situations b/c there was so much food out and so much was easy for him to grab. I think I came across as a little b*tchy, but oh well - they're family for a reason.

I promise, it may seem like so much right now, but it becomes second nature awfully quickly.

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get a allergy braclette for her. my friends daughter is allergic to all nuts. she has had 1 encounter and it was from a mother that didnt know she had the allergy and gave her a cup cake with reeses peanut butter candies on it. if she goes to day care make sure they have an epi pen there and a strict list of food allergies. rid your home of all peanuts and other nuts.

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My 4yo daughter is allergic to peanuts. I purchased a Medicine Kit from foodallergy.org and in it I carry 2 epi-pens, benadryl with dosage syringe, the epi-pen trainer and the following papers in a ziploc bag to make sure they stay dry and readable: her food allergy action plan (lists signs of an allergic reaction and what to do, mom and dad cell phone #'s, Dr #'s, emergency contacts, and epi-pen directions), an Authorization to Consent to Treatment of a Minor form (in case it's not mom or dad taking her to the ER), and a copy of her insurance card.
This small kit fits in my purse and goes with us everywhere. It's mostly designed so that when others are watching my daughter (neighbors, friends, grandma's and grandpa's...) they have everything they need. I go over everything in the kit, have them use the epi-pen trainer, but this way they have everything written down if there are questions after we leave.
Sometimes my kids stay with grandma for a weekend while my husband and I go out of town and this way grandma has a copy of her insurance card and a form with our signatures stating she can give consent to treat a minor.
It gives me peace of mind educating others and giving them the tools they may need in case of an emergency.

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My daughter has a level 4 peanut allergy. We carry the Benedryl and epi pen everywhere too. Chick Fil A fries all the chicken in peanut oil and Chilis is a big peanut oil user too. Just an FYI.

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Mike Sells potato chips and I believe Chick-Fil-A is cooked in peanut oil.
At school, about 15 kids ate the potato chips and though the one with an allergy didn't and was sitting about 10 feet away, he had a mild reaction. I banned them from my class and got the school to ban them. Also, I had to preread labels on snacks because other parents thought if it didn't have peanuts, it was ok. All MMs are made in the same factory, for example.
It is possible to keep your child safe. You just have to educate others as well as yourself.

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I can not say much more than what Merri has already said. We discovered my daughter's (now 2.5 years old) at 13 months and like yours, it was terrifying. The hardest part for me to accept (believe it or not) is the fact that SO many people do not "get it" when it comes to how severe this allergy really is. We adapted pretty easily to all of the checking, and rechecking and label reading and the questions every time we go anywhere. I have a hard time when I hear people talk about how so few people die from this allergy each year and why should they be concerned enough to refrain from eating certain foods when around an allergic child. People who don't live with it every day just don't understand. Its not about just ingesting the peanuts themselves, and its not a matter of using an epi pen and moving on with your day. Raising a peanut-allergic child is a completely different lifestyle from raising a "typical" child.
J.
www.delaniesdoggy.org

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My only advice coming from a mom that has kids with other allergies is that why wait until 2 to see an allergist? My youngest has been going since 10 months and had testing at that age. My kids go once a year and as needed.
Get her a bracelet, I also taped an index card inside the diaper bag, and also had the info in my wallet just incase. Be careful when you eat out most places are really good about it, make a list of safe snacks for daycare, babysitters, etc keep things she can't have out of your home, be careful of what she touches. There was a little boy in playgroup that was to the point where he could not touch items at the grocery store.

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Actually, according to our pediatric immunologist & allergist, items that are cooked in peanut oil (Chick Fil A, potato chips, etc.) are not a risk for our son, who tested at 3+ on his peanut scratch test. Cooking breaks down the allergens in the oil. It's raw peanuts and raw peanut oil that cause the problem, so stay away from ethnic restaurants (Chinese restaurants are big no-no, since they use uncooked peanut oil in a lot of their dishes; Thai of course, and some Indian, etc). Even store bought Chinese stuff should be examined carefully. Ice cream parlors/make your own sundae bars can be danger zones, since loose peanut bits can get everywhere.

Read all labels carefully, and stay away from things like bakery goods if you can't get the list of ingredients. Peanuts can also hide under other names (I'm sorry that I can't remember the list, but if you google it, you can find it).

Kids who are allergic to peanuts are also allergic (but less so) to sesame seeds (they are chemically very similar), so you'll need to also avoid sesame seeds, too.

For kids who are little like yours (& mine who's 2yo), our pediatrician recommended avoiding any of the peanut butter facsimiles (sunflower butter, soy butter, hazelnut spread, almond butter, etc.). The reason being that at this age, they can't tell the difference, and one spread is like another and it would be easy for other caregivers to assume PB is safe or accidentally give it instead.

I really recommend reading up one it at FAAN and www.kidswithfoodallergies.org (which has a discussion forum). FAAN has some good stuff for parents with kids in childcare and in school.

Educate yourself as much as you can; there are a couple of good books (The Complete Peanut Allergy Handbook; The Peanut Allergy Answer Book). Then, educate the people around you. You may also want to think about getting a medical alert bracelet.

Myy son was diagnosed at 6 months with a severe peanut, egg, dairy and wheat allergy. You definitely need to get to a pediatric allergist and get a blood test. You'd hate to find out the hard way that he has more allergies. Plus, the flu vaccine has egg in it, so you would want to if she had that allergy too. You have received a lot of good info here. Check out the FAAAN website http://www.foodallergywalk.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Home. You are going to have to be hyper aware from now on. People have food everywhere, the library, bounce houses parks, etc. My son is a 6+ on the peanut and egg allergy scale, so I have pretty much been on high alert for the last 3years. It does get easier as you get used to reading labels and watching like a hawk while trying to be casual about it. My best advice is never leave home without your benadryl and Epipen, even for a walk outside. That way it becomes 2nd nature to carry them. You have to be ready for people to look at your like your crazy, get mad when you