Are Seeds (such as sesame seeds) as allergenic as tree nuts?

This is not scientific, but I plan to discuss this on our allergist visit in May. If I get any hard science I will post back for you.

My dd is PN allergist and egg allergic per blood RAST test, and found TN and sesame seed allergic by skin test only done at 23 months of age. Now, prior to the sesame testing(it was our first allergist appt., and he just did his additional tests per our history, and based on the known allergies), our dd was eating Kashi cereal(has sesame flour) daily as a snack and sometimes a meal with no reactions. She was also eating crackers with sesame seeds, and had pretzels with them. Never any reaction. I had a gut feeling to watch her closely even though I only really knew she was allergic to peanuts at the time.

I do not know if this is because sesame seeds are less allergic, or if her skin test could be falsely +, and we did stop giving her any known sesame products from that day on. Good question. That is my experience, and would be curious if anyone has more info as well.

Is your nursling the one with PA? In that case, I would definatly not eat the sesame seeds while bfing. Our allergist did say there is some cross reactivity between the two. I think it is more if the PA allergy is present. mish

[This message has been edited by becca (edited April 16, 2002).]

There is high comorbidity between PA and sesame allergy. My PA son didn't start out allergic to sesame, but became allergic around the age of 4 - 41/2.

BTW, sesame seeds are referred to as "the peanut of the middle east", because sesame allergies are about as common there as peanut allergies are here.

Hope that helps.

Amy

mom of pa kid,

I just wrote 4 long para to you but computer froze and lost info. so I need to be brief.
Sesame seed allergy- consider lifelong.
uncommen here- less 1 percent.
doesn't make the top 8 most common food allergy list of FAAN or food companies

Make cross- contamn issues tricky- can't find safe ready made bread crumbs- but easy to make own. We have to avoid sesame oil due he his high CAP RAST scores -but not all sesame seed allergic do.

for those who are allergic to it- high risk of fatal reaction just like to peanuts.

If you want the copy, pastes (about 2 pages worth that I have on sesame seed allergy email me you email address and I'll send them.)

I breastfed my child too- and rescricted my diet some- but we are dealing with 7 food allergies and son is 11.

Take Care,
Jandy