https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Sat, 26 Sep 2026 10:40:54 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/peanut-tree-nut-other-allergies-and-intolerances-thread#post-1490066 Wed, 12 Mar 2014 17:56:27 +0000 babycanuck 1490066@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I had a reaction to almonds, and it's gotten progressively worse. </p> <p>It started when I ate one, and I broke out, so I didn't eat them again.</p> <p>Then I was baking with toblerone (almonds) and I broke out from touching them.</p> <p>Then I was on someone's computer who just ate almonds and broke out from touching his keyboard.</p> <p>Needless to say, I don't touch nuts at all. My sister is anaphylactic with tree nuts, and all of my cousins on my paternal side have peanut allergies. My sister was diagnosed young, grew out of it, then it came back full force. She also has a weird pollen allergy (thin skinned fruit that I think grow like tree nuts? fresh apples, cherries, etc. Have to be cooked or her mouth goes numb)</p> <p>I've never eaten a peanut to know if I'm allergic, and the doctor wouldn't test me when I went for my last allergy test in case I had a bad reaction (weird). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/peanut-tree-nut-other-allergies-and-intolerances-thread#post-1489715 Wed, 12 Mar 2014 14:44:52 +0000 Adira 1489715@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@spaniellove: haha, okay, yeah, I won't be doing that ever! :D </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/peanut-tree-nut-other-allergies-and-intolerances-thread#post-1489560 Wed, 12 Mar 2014 13:49:50 +0000 spaniellove 1489560@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Adira: Yes that's what a challenge is, although really it should only be done under the supervision of a doctor. Giving a child PB just to see if they have a peanut allergy isn't a challenge! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/peanut-tree-nut-other-allergies-and-intolerances-thread#post-1489552 Wed, 12 Mar 2014 13:48:19 +0000 Adira 1489552@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>What exactly is a food challenge? Is that where you give them the food and see what their reaction is???</p> <p>Xander had an extreme reaction to yogurt, which is how we discovered his milk allergy. So much so that we had to the go to the ER because he had trouble breathing. It was all sooooo scary, so there's no way I'd be willing to just give him milk and see what happens!</p> <p>That said, I do believe that our allergist is pro re-testing. We did the skin test at 7 months, but will be going for a blood test this year, and I believe we'll be going back for blood tests after that every few years to see how his allergy is doing. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/peanut-tree-nut-other-allergies-and-intolerances-thread#post-1489501 Wed, 12 Mar 2014 13:35:26 +0000 spaniellove 1489501@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I knew growing up that I had a peanut allergy because of bad reactions to eating peanut, and it showed up in a skin test as an adult. Generally if you suspect an anaphylactic allergy they shouldn't do a skin prick/scratch test because of the risk of severe reaction! Nor should they do a challenge. Although a blood test carries a risk of false positive, that's the only way to test for something like that. I think you're more likely to get false positives with blood tests, but I could be wrong. </p> <p>I think 50-60% might be an inflated number...what my allergist does is ask what I've reacted to and only test for those allergens along with a general list of top allergens. It's just too risky doing a challenge or assuming the next time will be fine because you never know what the next reaction will be like. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/peanut-tree-nut-other-allergies-and-intolerances-thread#post-1488795 Wed, 12 Mar 2014 10:03:18 +0000 Anagram 1488795@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. High Heels: @T-Mom: I don't think my sister outgrew a peanut allergy--I think she never had it in the first place and the tests just produced a false positive. I just didn't know it was so common! She's definitely allergic to all tree nuts though. </p> <p>Even though she's an adult and does her best to avoid them (obviously), it still seems to happen once or twice a year that some stupid restaurant will not know the ingredients of their own food, so she'll eat something she thinks is safe and fine but has something like almond paste in it. </p> <p>Her mouth reacts immediately so she usually doesn't ingest too much--but it still causes her throat to swell, problems swallowing and talking, and lots of throwing up--which means the nuts come back up and re-irritate her esophagus and mouth. The epi-pen stops the reaction immediately though, but for whatever reason she's really bad about carrying it at all times, so we still have to take her to the ER a lot or at least to a pharmacy so she can get benadryl and just ride it out (the multiple throw up session, I mean).</p> <p>She's totally fine being around nuts or nut dust--and we never had a "nut free" house growing up. But my mom would usually make two versions of a lot of desserts. One with nuts for everyone else and one without for my sister. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/peanut-tree-nut-other-allergies-and-intolerances-thread#post-1488780 Wed, 12 Mar 2014 09:59:35 +0000 T-Mom 1488780@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Anagram: it's really awesome that she can eat peanuts and shellfish without reaction. Maybe she's truly allergic, but on a lower scale. For peanut, there are some more specialized tests these days where she can see exactly which proteins she is allergic to. Some of the proteins correlate more closely with anaphylatic reaction, but some people aren't as high on those and have more mild reactions. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/peanut-tree-nut-other-allergies-and-intolerances-thread#post-1488777 Wed, 12 Mar 2014 09:58:19 +0000 Mrs. High Heels 1488777@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My DD has a peanut allergy too, which came as a huge surprise to us because we have no family history of peanut allergies, or any other severe allergies for that matter. We found out because she had a bad reaction after exposure to peanut butter. She did a blood test at the age of 2 to see if she had other allergies as well (it only showed that she had a mild walnut allergy). </p> <p>I will discuss with her allergist about getting a retest done, but I don't feel comfortable at all doing a food test on her. All those peanut deaths in the media really scare me, and there are so many great alternatives out there now that I'd rather she just never eat peanuts/peanut butter again. She doesn't react unless she physically ingests it herself. She is fine with there are peanuts in the air, or if the person next to her is eating it. Of course my hope is that she does outgrow this allergy since we have no family history, but we'll see I guess! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/peanut-tree-nut-other-allergies-and-intolerances-thread#post-1488763 Wed, 12 Mar 2014 09:53:42 +0000 Anagram 1488763@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@T-Mom: she might, I didn't ask her. I know they did outdoor/indoor allergies as well and found that she has seasonal allergies to certain things as well (we all have that in our family, but she's the only one with food allergies). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/peanut-tree-nut-other-allergies-and-intolerances-thread#post-1488754 Wed, 12 Mar 2014 09:51:10 +0000 T-Mom 1488754@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>That's very interesting about your sister. Do you know if she is also allergic to birch pollen? I have heard that some people who have the birch pollen allergy also test false positive since the proteins are similar and the body gets "confused". </p> <p>My DD has a peanut allergy, and I asked her allergist recently if she would recommend a retest before she enters public school. She said that is not something she usually does since the likelihood for outgrowing peanut allergy by this age (5) is not high at all. I definitely don't feel comfortable doing a food challenge with her since she has multiple blood tests in addition to skin prick testing positive for peanut, as well as visible reaction to eating peanut, but I think every parent's hope is that their child would outgrow or test false like your sister. We are looking for a new allergist that will be more aggressive in testing and doing oral immunotherapy.. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/peanut-tree-nut-other-allergies-and-intolerances-thread#post-1488707 Wed, 12 Mar 2014 09:36:16 +0000 Anagram 1488707@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My little sister has always had a pretty severe tree nut allergy. I it was discovered around age 3 when a family friend gave her a bit of pecan pie. She's 26 now and still allergic to tree nuts. She also had childhood allergies to dairy and egg that she outgrew by age 2-3. </p> <p>She never had allergy testing when she was young. The ped back then didn't recommend it for children. She was clearly very allergic to nuts (which was evidenced every time she accidentally ate something with almond extract or something). </p> <p>Finally, in middle school she changed Peds and the new doctor said she should have had the skin test a long time before. So she got skin tested and found out she was allergic to shellfish and peanuts as well (although she'd eaten both but never had a reaction).</p> <p>Recently, she changed insurance and they required an updated allergy test and they did the blood test. This time it said she's not allergic to peanuts OR shellfish, just tree nuts--and she's been avoiding all of them since she was 10 or so.</p> <p>About 50-60 percent of all blood tests and skin prick tests will yield a “false positive” result, so I guess you really only know by doing a food challenge--which she has done, and feels okay with eating shellfish and peanuts now. But seriously---50-60% of allergy tests yield a false positive? That's pretty high, right? Her new allergist recommended she have a follow up updated skin prick test, which also showed an allergy to peanuts, but she feels fine when she eats them.</p> <p>If you are a parent or an allergy sufferer yourself, have you dont food challenges with the allergic foods, just to test? Do you periodically re-test to see if the allergy has changed? </p>