Skin Reaction to Peanut & Cashew Butter

This is exactly how we found out my son is allergic to peanut butter. He ended up in the hospital overnight after his first taste of it. We noticed the rash where it touched his hand and then his body broke out. Since then, he has had 2 blood tests and is allergic to peanuts, all tree nuts and sesame seeds. Be careful with sesame seeds because there is a link to them with peanut allergies. I'm glad you're talking with the doctor, as these are life threatening allergies for many children. Good luck!!

Our now 2 year old son had a very immediate reaction the first time he had a scrambled egg. He had eaten products made with egg before this, but the first time he had just egg he instantly broke out in hives and welts. Our pediatrician saw him a day or so later and after a follow up with the allergist he can no longer have anything with egg. Which just makes food choices even more difficult for our picky eater.

This problem is personal to me because my son has so many allergies but a different manifestation.

He got asthma at 18 months. He was put on several meds, including steroids, and as warned by the pediatrician who put him on the meds, his growth was stunted by the steroids. His symptoms in general were at first masked and subdued by the meds, but then he grew resistant and steadily worse while on these adult dosage meds.

We went to an allergist who found 8 allergies from some weak scratch tests. He wrote more perscriptions.

Then we went to an NAET allergist (www.naet.com) who tested my son for 160 different allergens through neuroscensory muscle testing (NMT) and foundhe had 11 undiagnosed food allergies and several chemical and enviromental allergies. This techniques isolates the organs affected and the antibodies produced by the allergen (such as histamine as was manifested by your son's reaction) and then it retrains the brain to acknowledge that the allergen is ok and eliminates the allergy.

It is amazing and life changing. OUr son is 3 now and off all his meds as all his food allergies are eliminated and now starting on the environmental and chemical allergies. he is a different boy. We go to Dr. Tam in Lombard, who is phenominal. Our insurance covers it.

Good luck. It is so nice to know there is a solution where your don't have to live in fear!

My 21 month old son is allergic to peanuts, hazelnuts & walnuts. We found out the hard way when he ate peanut butter at about 12 months. The reaction was almost immediate. It's good you're taking your to the doctor, but please be very very careful from here on out. The next reaction could be the fatal one. I would get rid of all peanut butter & nut related products just to be safe. (It is true that peanuts & tree nuts are different kinds of food, but a lot of kids with allergies to one also have allergies to the other.) I don't know about a previous poster's assertion that most doctors won't do an allergy test on kids under age 3; that was not our experience. Our pedi immediately referred us to an allergist when my son was 12 months and the allergist did perform a skin test which confirmed his allergies to peanuts & walnuts. She advised us to stay away from all nuts just to be safe. Good luck; it is scary and life-changing to have a food allergy, but it's not the end of the world. We've adjusted just fine!

Hi N.,

I'm sorry to hear of you son's reaction! My daughter has multiple food and environmental allergies; she is now six and her first reaction was at six months to strawberries. It is not rare to have an immediate skin reaction like your son's. My daughter's reactions have always been immediate and have included vomitting, hives, and red blotchy skin.

Be VERY careful with nuts and be sure to see an allergist immediately. The scary fact about allergies is that your son's next exposure to cashews or peanuts will be faster/stronger than his first. The body recognizes allergens faster with subsequent exposures and reactions will be come quicker and more severe.

Another frightening fact about allergic reactions is that the reaction can be biphasic which means that a second wave of symptoms may occur a few hours after exposure. My daughter's first exposure to peanut butter was at 18 months, and her reaction was this type. She ingested merely a finger full of peanut butter and her skin immediately broke out in hives. She was covered! After controlling this initial reaction with benadryll and a bath, she had her second wave of her reaction two hours later, and this reaction involved her respiratory system. She began coughing and wheezing, and we ended up in the emergency room doing breathing treatments and staying for observation.

So, please get your son tested and equip yourself with emergency meds (benadryll/epi-pens) and do not go anywhere without them! His reactions sound quite strong, and the next will be stronger.

I think it best to get him to an allergist and get him tested for allergies to tree nut and legumes, since peanuts are a legume.
Don't mess around with allergies because it could lead to very grave consensuses.

S.

My son has lived on peanut butter for 10 years practically and has now developed an allergy to it, he had a handful of peanuts last June and in ive minutes was covered in hives from his waist to his knees. There are lots of theories out there including kids developing the allergy when they were raised on soy formula. However I 've not seen anything definitive.
As far as your son, with the reactions he has shown, I would not even keep peanut butter in the house. Since this can be an airborn allergy, it could be life-threatening to have him around it. We had our son tested in June. They simply took blood rather than do all the pricks. It was easier on him to do it just once. It is well worth it. We found several food allergies that i would not have thought of (like beef) He is a happier healthier kid since we eliminated those from his diet. Good Luck!

My niece has this type of reaction and when I was 16 yrs old I developed this reaction (after ingesting nuts for my entire life). If I ingest nuts I have an anaphalactic reation (throat closes, swelling of the tongue, face, etc.) and if I touch nuts I develop hives immediately. So, to answer your question ... yes, this is possible.

I agree that you should get your son tested. It is not a fun process as I went through it when I was much older. Testing will at least give you definitive answers as to the extent of his allergies.

hi N.! I am a nurse and work in the research area and we work
On a food allergy research project in families. We have seen many
Families and often the reaction after eating an allergic food the reaction
Happens immediately and the hands are often a first sign. I see you
Were going to the doctor so hopefully the visit helped, and to me
It sounds like an allergy and I would stay away from all nuts. Reactions
To allergens can often change to each exposure. An allergist would be very helpful!

I would get him tested for allergies. Typically if you have a topical reaction you will have one when the allergen is ingested too.

First I would do a skin test with the cashew butter. Just so you know if that is an issue or if it was something else entirely. He may or may not have an actual EATING allergy, but may have a touching allergy instead. The only way to know for sure is to get actual allergy tests done. I would recommend doing BOTH the skin test (prick test) and the blood tests. I believe the blood tests show long term affects and intolerances where the skin test shows immediate reactions only.

**I was allergic to 72 different foods as a teen, so I have experience unfortunately**

A friend of ours has a daughter who gets a rash if she touches peanuts or peanutbutter. She has a sever allergy. If she ingests it, she will go into anaphylactic shock. Her parents carry an Epipen with them wherever they go, just in case she eats something with peanuts in it. It is possible to get a rash from just touching food you are allergic to. Your doctor can test him for allergies. It's no fun having food allergies. Good luck!

Peanuts are not actually nuts they are a bean. If your son is allergic to peanuts he may also be allergic to nuts although kids like mine who are allergic to nuts are not necessarily allergic to peanuts. Most Dr's will not do an allergy test until a child is over 3 because their immature immune systems will show reactions even if an allergy doens't exist. When you have an allergy the reaction usually is immediate. I would avoid giving him any foods that he has shown any reactions with. I wouldn't give him any peanut or nut products until he can be tested. Those allergies can be life threatening.

I haven't read the other responses, but I would highly recommend that you take your child to an allergist. (I love ours in the western suburbs - let me know if you'd like a recommendation.) Something similar happened to us and so we had our son tested by an allergist. I'm SO glad that we did - his reaction to the skin pricks was so severe that they had to quickly administer medication to him.

This happened to my daughter with PB and I had a blood test takedn on her and she was severly allergic to PB.

N.,

My son is allergic to wheat, eggs, milk, barley, peanuts and tree nuts. He has skin reactions to these foods; not just if he ingests them. When he was diagnosed, I was amazed that he not only had that many allergies, but he was having reactions just from skin contact. I asked his allergist what is the percentage of children with food allergies that have the touch reaction, and he said about 20 percent. My son gets almost instant hives on his skin if he touches (or we touch him) any of these foods that have his allergens.There are many different reactions to allergens, but I'm sure you'll find more out at the doctor.