Peanut Allergy - Lees Summit,MO

We have a daycare child that is allergic to peanuts. She brings an epy pen to daycare just in case. We haven't had any real problems. It's scary enough to cause us to read all labels.

We have had some close calls where we checked the label as an afterthought. But this little girl has been trained well by her parents. If she is eating cereal, cookies, cereal bars, or anything baked she will sit there and wait for us to read the label. Sometimes we do find out last minute like we need to find her something else to eat.

It's important to realize that a lot of products are made in factories where peanuts are processed on the same machines. We don't take chances and the product will say so in the allergy section if that's the case.

At her age I would say the bigger fear is that she could get some peanuts or other type of nuts from dried fruit/cracker/nut mixtures. I would just keep those out of the house for awhile. There are certain products like that we don't buy even for our family because we fear that they could somehow get to this girl.

Also breads sometimes have nuts in them and even one orange juice company puts peanut oil in their juice. That's pretty strange but I heard from someone I know that her adult son had a reaction to the orange juice. So we check even unlikely places.

Ice cream treats are another common culprit.

Suzi

My daughter also has a severe peanut allergy. She was diagnosed around 20 months and is now 6. It's ok to be terrified. The unfortunate part is that they now label every stupid box that it may contain peanuts or may have been manufactured in a plant that produces peanuts. Until your son can talk more I would be very cautious. I personally carry my Epi-pens everywhere I go. I haven't had to use them yet. We trust our daughter about what she eats. She seems to have a natural defense mechanism about the taste of peanuts. To her they simply taste horrible. If she takes a small bite of something and it tastes "bad" to her when I look at the box it says that it contains some trace amount of peanuts. She was also a very picky eater when she was very young. She is now branching out more, but still a very cautious eater. I do make sure to let everyone know that she has a peanut allergy. Friends, neighbors, family, school, preschool. I made sure that everyone knew and that if she does not want to eat something not to force her because she may be allergic to it. I have kind of gone on and on, but if you have any other questions or if I can reassure you more please let me know.

Dr. Jere Mills in Olathe does allergy elimination. I recently heard of a patient who saw him and was cured of his peanut allergy. 4 or 5 years old, I think. I know it sounds crazy to CURE an allergy instead of just treating it, and mainstream medicine has not caught on to this technique yet, but I've seen it work with my husband and other kids I know (my husband went for seasonal grass/pollen allergies and I know other kids that went for the same and one with animal allergy).

It might be worth it to give him a call and see if he thinks he could help your son. ###-###-#### (www.millswellness.com).

Good luck-
Alyssa

My nephew,he's two, is allegic, he would get hives, nothing too serious. But, his little brother is one and we found out a couple weekends ago, that he is seriously allergic. He was munching on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and no adults really thought anything of it. Not more than 15 min. later he broke out into a rash, started itching and then started throwing up. We called 911, and he spent the next 8hrs at the hospital, until he was cleared to leave.

Lesson learned:
Carry a least 2 epi-pens, one for each car, my sister left hers in the other vehicle

Obviously let everyone know about the allergy

Remember to dial 911 after contact and after the epi-pen has been given, you never know how serious it can get.

I told my sister to get a card put together with these instructions on it and to place it in her purse or diaper bag, we also learned that some Benedryl(sp) would have helped.

Good luck, it will be ok.

I found out my daughter was allergic when she was 3. She's now 6. Hers was never severe enough to get tested (broke out in hives - but the hives kept getting worse each time) - so we just stopped feeding her peanut butter and all nuts. To keep myself sane, I just don't make any dishes with nuts at all, and rarely have peanut butter in the house.

1) Read the labels of the foods you buy to become familiar with what has nuts and what doesn't. Labels clearly state the ingredients that are included that may cause reactions. You'll be surprised at some that have peanut flour (some cereals) so read ALL labels until you learn which ones are okay. Based on the severity of the allergy, it may or may not be okay to serve foods 'made on the same equipment as...'. For my daughter it's okay, but if his is severe, it may not be okay. Chocolate candy has this problem a lot. M&Ms uses same equipment, but Hershey's doesn't - so we have a lot of Hershey's candies for Easter, Val Day and XMas!
2) Remember to notify family members, day care, baby sitters, etc. Will even need to notify the parents at play dates/BDay parties so it's not served as a snack. If it's severe enough, take his own snack as a back-up. Again, if it is so severe that he shouldn't touch peanuts, notify the school of that too. A lot of times they'll use nuts to learn counting/sorting/art projects.
3) Start teaching him to bring you his new treats to make sure there's no nuts. So treat bags from parties and Halloween bags will have lots of candy with peanuts. Again, have some backup treats to replace what you take out so he doesn't feel slighted. My daughter knows not to eat anything people give her at school/parties until I look at. Peanut candies go to daddy and she gets a Hershey's kiss as a replacement. She's now at the age that she reminds people, and knows what candy has nuts, so she's starting to monitor herself.
4) The one thing that's been the hardest for me to remember (and isn't that big of a deal for her level of allergy) is restaurant equipment. Some food items we order for her need to be on cleaned equipment and I usually forget to ask. (i.e. ice cream where they mix it up. If the person before her had peanuts mixed in, then the equipment needs wiped down so it doesn't get in hers).

I realize it's scary and there's a lot of things to consider in the beginning, but it will soon become second hand as you learn what foods are okay, etc.

Good luck!
J.