My 22 month old son recently went to an allergist to get skin tested for environmental allergies. While we were there, the allergist decided to test for food allergies as well and even though my son has had peanut butter numerous times with absolutely no symptoms, he tested positive for peanuts. I told the allergist that he's had pb sandwiches, reeses cups, etc. with no adverse reactions and she said that people can be fine one day and then the next, anaphylactic shock! so she told us no more nuts and prescribed us epipens. Yesterday, I went to an allergist (a different one) for my own allergy problems and I found myself describing my son's situation to get his opinion and this doctor said that skin tests are only 50% accurate and that if my son ate these peanut butter products and was fine, then he has no peanut allergy. Basically, eating a food and looking for a reaction is the gold standard and is far superior to a skin test. Then he said that what he can do is take a blood test and test for peanut allergies if i was worried but had we gone to him to begin with, he wouldnt' have even tested my son for peanuts given his history with them. so now i'm confused!! should i get his blood drawn (how are they even going to find a vein in his chubby little arms??) or should i just trust this new dr and feed him peanut stuff again? argh. what would you do?
My son tested positive for peanut allergies and has had peanut butter in the past with no problem. Since his test I have stopped giving it to him though-better safe than sorry and it is totally easy to not eat peanuts b/c there is not much with them in it.
I went my entire life eating nuts, PB&J, Reese's cups. Several years back I ate a PB&J and had to be rushed to the hospital. My face was swelling, I could hardly breathe...it was terrifying...I was going into shock. Thank God, we live a block away from the hospital. The thing is, I HAD been tested for nut allergies, and it came back negative. I can attest that what the first Dr. told you can absolutely happen. The skin test could be right or wrong, but you absolutely need to know. It's true he can be fine one day, and having a life-threatening reaction the next.
Get the blood test. I will give you an answer for sure, and you won't have to go through what I did.
I'm sending you a private message. Please read it. Thanks!
I have already sent you a private message, but reading some of these helpful hints, I have to say a PEANUT is different than a NUT. Peanuts are legumes. When referring to nuts, it should not include peanuts. When you read labels on food packages they may say contains tree nuts, peanuts, etc They are two different allergies. Be very careful with this. It will also depend on the level of the allergy whether or not your child can eat items that are made in the same facility, made on the same equipment or may contain traces of...
Once you know what is going on, you will soon learn about all of this. FAAN is a great resource for parents with kids with food allergies. http://www.foodallergy.org/ Also check out: Kids with food allergies at http://www.kidswithfoodallergies.org/ It will provide a lot of information,.
The skin prick test is notoriously inaccurate for food allergies. And yes, it is possible to eat a food one time and be OK, then the next time have a huge reaction. That's because the first exposure causes your immune system to recognize the allergen and the second time it's ready and you react. To be sure your son is not allergic to peanuts, have your allergist do a food challenge. We did this for our kids. All you do it feed small amounts of the potential allergen to your child over a period of time under the doctor's supervision. You will have to wait at the doctor's office to confirm that there is no reaction. It is more accurate than a skin or blood test.
Blood tests are more accurate. Get one of those. It's better to be safe than sorry. Good luck!!
Skin tests are about 50% accurate and blood tests are about 70% accurate. So it's possible you might just get a blood test that says he's fine and then end up with a reaction anyway. If he is really allergic and you put a little under his bottom lip, rub it on, leave it for 20 minutes. Gently wash it off. If the skin is red lay off the nuts permanently. Someone allergic to peanut butter can't have it on their skin either.
If it's not red I personally wouldn't worry unless I saw excema, a rash, runny nose or some other allergic symptom. My daughter and I are both allergic to nuts. Good luck to you.
It's frustrating I know. My son was tested (by blood) for allergies at age 1 because he had exzema. The only thing that came up in his blood test was peanuts. He'd never eaten a peanut mind you, and now is 6 and we've gone through 5 years of carrying the epi pen, being extra cautious, etc. His blood tests are now negative, but his skin tests continue to be positive.
This summer (before he starts 1st grade and is eating at school) we are going to do an oral test at the allergists office to see what happens. Our allergist has told us that there can be false postives with a skin test and a blood test... and since at this point his is having negative blood work, we are really really hoping that he is not actually allergic at all!
Good luck,
Jessica
I know that skin tests can be iffy, especially if they're doing multiple allergens (how is that Dr sure it was nuts and not something else he reacted to?). I would take your son to the new allergist, and if you're worried about the allergy, go ahead and do a blood test (it's actually not so hard to find a vein, especially if they have a phlebotomist who specialized with kids, or can have the blood drawn at a children's hospital, or something).
Usually there are SOME sort of reactions before full-blown anaphylaxis. My husband has an allergy to mint (weird, I know), and developed a dislike of the taste, then other not-well symptoms on exposure, before he ever had a severe reaction (and we've been to the ER multiple times with him now!). It may be wise to restrict peanuts until you've made sure, but I wouldn't worry too much.
