Dealing with Peanut and Dust Mite Allergies with Young Son

We found out my son was allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, sesame seeds when he was 18 months old. Sorry to say, it has been a difficult road. We mostly eat at home but when we do go to restaurants we ask lots of questions about the food preparation. Sometimes restaurants won't cooperate, so we have to leave. We can't go to baseball games My son does not get invited to many birthday parties because it is too much of a complication for the hostess and if he does half the time he can't eat anything there. He has been bullied by other students about his allergies. I have been harassed by Moms, told I should keep my kid home and home school him, laughed at. The good news is by the time your kid is eight, you will have developed a thick skin (and so will they). We have friends that are very understanding and supportive. This thing will weed out any friends that are not good friends.

My son has both peanut and dust mite allergies. Thankfully, they are both mild, not life-threatening. So the adjustment has not been too difficult for us. He's now 14 and we've never had to use his Epi-pen.

You've gotten some good advice here, but I just wanted to add that if you have carpeting in your home, you should be able to remove it, replace it with a hard floor and deduct that on your taxes as a medical expense. We have done this in a couple of houses, all legal, all above board, saved us tens of thousands of $$ . Check with your tax accountant for details.

It seems really hard now, but you will quickly get used to life with allergies. Although my son's allergies are mild, my youngest daughter has a life-threatening tree nut allergy. She's been in the ER a couple of times (lessons learned the hard way, even being careful). You will learn to adjust. Your child will learn to adjust.

You can find an food allergy support group in your area at http://www.foodallergy.org/section/support-groups
The parents there can let you know what restaurants are allergy friendly in your area, and they can help you cope with the everyday things. A lot of chain restaurants are now putting allergen menus on their websites, so you know which dishes are nut free. It is a big adjustment, but it will get easier with time. When it's time to send your child to school, please consider getting a Section 504 plan to keep your child safe, especially if the school doesn't have a food allergy policy of some sort.

If your child tested at a high level of peanut specific IgE, then it's unlikely that they will outgrow it. There is a very promising oral immunotherapy clinical trial out there for peanut allergy. It can allow the severely allergic to tolerate a few peanut's worth of protein without reacting. But I think it's still a few years off from being a mainstream treatment.

My son is six and he has a severe peanut allergy . It is so severe that he can't have tree nuts because of cross contamination at the factories that also shell/sell tree nuts.We have found pistacios that the company only sells them but I am too afraid to try it even though the blood test has come back negative for tree nuts . He had a reaction when he was 14 months when he has some pecan coffee cake and it was only the cake part not a whole nut.It was a minor reaction . He got a rash around his mouth and my parents thought I was giving him too many strawberries.
Anyway, it is a tough road the first couple of years until you get a handle on it in your own mind. There are support groups that you can find through FAAN which is a big help.The good news is that it is only peanut . When you add just one more food it becomes so much more difficult. You will find restaurants that you can go to and will becaome an expert on the subject trust me. Mcdonalds is safe for most everything including their soft serve ice cream (not any other ice cream products there though). Most italian restaurants are ok just always stay away from the desserts. Always ask wherever you go about cooking in peanut oil even italian restaurants. My son can eat at Cracker Barrel (he gets the kids pancakes), Carraba's , Chipotle and most fast food . Jimmy John serves chips cooked in peanut oil but their subs are safe . Subway bakes the bread on the same tray as the peanut butter cookies.Always check the website for a restaurant and then again at the restaurant. Stay away from all chinese/asian restaurants no matter what they tell you . We stay away from all mexican because they sometimes cook in peanut oil and use peanut butter in mole sauce.Bakeries cant guarantee no nuts so I make all the cakes brownies etc There are lots of mixes that are nut free. We also don't do ice cream parlors . At Halloween , I don't let my son eat any trick or treating candy but switch out his candy at home . In regards to chocolate , alot of hersheys products are safe . I use their milk chocolate chips for baking . At Easter they have bunnies that are safe as are rolo, big hershey bars (not snack size) , original hershey kisses,etc On the label for hershey if it doesnt have a nut warning , it is ok otherwise it will say , contains nuts etc . I still call the company to verify if it is a new product for us . Hershey has a plant that just does non nut products. Most sugar candy is fine dum dums , starburst , skittles, smarties. You will become a label reading, company calling expert. Also, every family party , event we go to , I usually bring safe desserts or a dish I know my son will eat . On Christmas I bring cookies, a pasta dish , fruit , and sometimes bread.

It gets easier but you have to just work through it so you are comfortable . At preschool , it should be peanut free because little kids are so messy and they all play with the same things . I hope your preschool /daycare is otherwise you may have to switch .

Disneyworld is so allergy friendly it is unbelievable . Keep that as a your goal to go there in a couple of years as a reward to the whole family !!!

If you need any help you can message me . hang in there , you can do it !!!

First let me say that I cannot believe that people would be so heartless as to make fun of someone for being allergic to nuts! Do they kick handicapped people too?!?! Wow. Those people aren't worth your time anyhow - avoid and ignore them!

As for a nut allergy, I can't help but I can give you some info on dust mite allergies. My whole family suffers with it esp. me. Search online for bed coverings that are NOT vinyl (you will get to breath in lovely carcinogens with those). They are hot and uncomfortable too. Find ones that feel like fabric. Get the best you can afford with the highest ratings (they are rated based upon how many particles they allow through). Encase the mattress and box spring completely. Consider replacing the mattress with one that is hypoallergenic if the mattress is older. Remove all carpeting and window treatments if possible. If not, purchase ones that can be washed/cleaned on a regular basis. We have our rugs cleaned 2-3 times a year (helps SO much). We also wash our curtains or send them out to be dry cleaned. All pillows need to be encased and replaced every few years (they really get you b/c they are by your face). I would get a new hypoallergenic, highly rated pillow for him and encase it. NEVER buy down/feather anything again. They hold massive amounts of dust. Get a HEPA filter vacuum cleaner and use as often as you can. Dust with swiffer type products that trap the dust (not just spread it around). Use dust clothes made for electronics on those (they are big time dust attractors). And, if you can afford it, the single best thing we did was to get a whole house air purifier added to our HVAC system. I think it was about $2k to add to our house but that was about 5 years ago and I think the price has come down as the technology has improved and more people have started getting them. They didn't have the UV light when we got ours but I've heard good things about that. We got a service contract with our system for $20/mo. b/c that ends up being less than what we can buy the HUGE filters for twice a year. If you can't do that, make sure you replace your filters often (if you have the cheap-o ones that most systems have, change it every 30 days). If his allergies are really bad, ask people to take their shoes off when they come in, it helps keep out dirt and dust. Don't let him have any stuffed animals. If he has one or two he really loves - do whatever it takes to wash them (may have to ask a dry cleaner if they can clean them if they can't go in the wash). Have any stuffed furniture - couch, chairs - cleaned once or twice a year. Chem Dry does a really good job and doesn't leave your stuff wet. You get used to it and really does get easier once you have covers, etc. in place and once things start getting cleaned on a regular basis. Oh, 1 last tip, I learned the HARD way, when I leave my "bubble" aka my house, and stay elsewhere, I always get sick with allergies. I stayed at a really old hotel in Boston on vacation with friends one summer - my poor husband had to run out and find Benadryl in the middle of the night b/c my eyes were swelling and I was sneezing/coughing like crazy. Oops. So always take allergy meds / Benadryl with you when you travel or stay overnight somewhere. Sorry if some of this is repeat info! Good luck.

Is your son taking daily allergy meds? If not that will help quite a bit. My son is allergic to both (and then some) as well. The allergist should have given you spectrum of how allergic he is to both to know what you are dealing with. We have to carry the epipen also. I know it sounds scary and drastic, but we have never had to use it- thank god. You can still go to restaurants- just look at their allergy warnings which are usually displayed clearly on their website. You can then know which restaurants are safe and what you can best order from there. Also, don't hesitate to as the restaurant manager. I have been known to do this quite often. If they aren't sure, they are almost always happy to find out.
As for the dust mites- keep the bedding to a minimum. Not a lot of stuff animals or blankets. Keep the draperies light- maybe do only valances and no heavy drapes. We keep a hepa air filter in my son's room, and it does help quite a bit. Just make sure to leave it running all the time. Also, another piece of advice is to research the different kinds thoroughly and invest in a good one. Make sure the filter fits the room size. Also, you can buy allergen filters for your home AC/heat system. We find that helps.
All of these things take some adjustment, but you will get use to it and it will be normal in no time. It's unlikely he will ever outgrow the peanut allergy, but they are making big strides on that front. Who knows what the next 5 years holds for allergy sufferers.

OMG! I'm so sorry that he is having a hard time. My daughter also has allergies but, hers are not severe. She does not have to carry an eppi pen because her allergies to peanuts is mild. She will break out, get very sick, have diarrea and things if she does come in contact with them. But it is a challenge I have not had any problems with daycares though, most daycares are peanut free around here and take allergy children's regiames very seriously.
My daughter was tested just before she turned one and found she is allergic to whole milk, eggs whites, soy, and peanuts. Her number for reaction to these were low but did disrupt her digestive system. She would projectile vomit whole milk and when she was an infant I breastfed her but had difficulty when she came home from the hospital and tried to suppliment with formula and thats when she had her first projectile vomit of anything other than my milk. Anywho I can go on for days...

So bottom line she is now two and has outgrown the reaction she has to the milk, she really does not like milk at all, but i can cook with it and she does not have a reaction and she has a bit of it in her cereal and does not react. She can now eat eggs when they are cooked, but not raw, she cant eat things like mayo, or things containing egg whites that have not been cooked. She cannot have soy sauce or things that contain like...well its hard to explain, lots of beans and peas are soy based so we try to avoid them, the thing is if she does have them she may or may not have a reation, with the soy allergy if certain foods containing soy are heated to a certain temperature it breaks down a compound that she has the reaction to and changes it so therefore no reaction, so a lot of box food that contains soy she won't have a reaction to. Weird I know! The peanut allgergy although mild compared to your child is the one I go to great deepths to avoid the most. I can't tell you how many times I have had to walk away from fast food joints because they cannot tell me if the fries are cooked in peanut oil, you'd be surprised some still do and really watch the mom and pop food establishments because they use it the most. I am going to have her re-tested soon because she has not had contact with peanuts and I want to know what her numbers are and see if the allergy is better or worse and if she needs an eppi pen. Last year she came in contact with some cereal that had peanut flavor and she had a reaction but her breathing was ok, when she did have peanut butter once thats when she broke out really bad and had shallow breathing and was really sick and ended up in the ER they had no clue what was wrong with her and sent her home to suffer they did give her benedryl though two days later I had the results to her allergy test.

The things I do to adjust are:
If I go to friends houses or restaurants then I pack her food and take it with me.
If it is a last minute trip to a restaurant I let them know she has allergies to food and order her fresh fruits and veggies, letting them know will usually help them be aware of cross contamination when preparing her food. Although don't expect a miracle since your son is very sensitive. preparing the food and having it with you is best.
I always keep containers of applesauce or mixed fruit in her diaper bag for emergencies.
Maybe try keeping some gerber prepared meals for toddlers handy so you can grab it when going out on the weekends just keep it in your car just in case. I use to keep a lot of food in her bag so she always had options.
Planning is how I get through, & reading, reading, reading...I didn't find it hard to adjust, just frustrating when others didn't ask and would just give her things to eat (extended family) they'd tell me things like well i didnt know, even though I was in the other room and they can ask me if its ok, also they would say "well she wanted it!" Then I was left taking care of a sick baby. I had to be very watchful when around other people, I'm much more relaxed now but that was the hardest part.
I also put on her diaper bag, using a luggage tag, a list of her allergies. It is very hard to leave her with other people for long periods of time like overnight or all day when they are not understanding of her allergies you will have a select group of friends you will leave him with and trust to make the right decisions with his food. You will find it harder to leave him with friends who have other children because he will have a greater chance of being exposed to something, even dust mites, like a child might share a stuffed toy, or blanket that is infested and he will have a reaction. You will find it better to leave him with friends who don't have kids or pets and just have one and are attentive. the another poster said you will learn who your good friends are and that is correct.