Does skin reaction = lethal allergy?

It sounds like you daughter has a peanut allergy. I would encourage you to get her tested ASAP and get epi pens.
I would not consider any swelling round the mouth a small reaction because you cannot see into her throat to know if there is swelling there. Plus for the most part reactions worsen with accidental exposure making every exposure potentially tragic.
I would try not to worry about how she became allergic. Nature or nurture every mom finds a way to blame herself. Spend you energy getting to an allergist and educating yourself if your daughter has a peanut allergy.
I would say avoid all peanuts and nuts for now. Not every kids with a peanut allergy has tree nuts allergies but many do. A good allergist will test and let you know what you need to worry about. Peanuts and tree nuts are ofter processed in the same places. So many people with peanut allergies avoid tree nuts on the basis of contamination or they shell their own.

Thanks for your response.

That is a peanut allergy unfortunately. Lip swelling in response to eating a food is considered a potentially life threatening reaction because ANY swelling around the mouth or throat could continue to progress and cut off breathing. If our son has lip swelling from ingesting an allergen we give him the epi pen and call 911. The thing with food allergy reactions is that you don't know if they are going to self-resolve or continue to progress. most will eventually self-resolve but the ones that won't can only be stopped using the epi pen. There is no way to tell which reaction will progress to live threatening and which will not once a reaction is systemic or involves swelling around the mouth or throat so that is why those reactions call for giving the epi.

You should get epi pens from your ped doc TODAY and call for an appointment with a good allergist asap. You will also need a written emergency plan so you know when to give the epi pen.

Here is a plan you can copy and bring to the ped to fill out while you wait to see the allergist.

http://www.foodallergy.org/files/FAAP.pdf

Treatment to desensitize people to peanut allergy is being developed and trials are being done in hospital settings with children hooked up to IVs at least initially. They are years away from rolling this out to allergists to preform on patients and it is *not safe to do this at home*. No one knows for sure yet how to do this safely. You child might be fine doing this and then one day have life threatening anaphylaxis. Already just to that lick from the toast your child had a very significant reaction including lip swelling.

Many people who have children with peanut allergies get rid of all peanut products in their home because accidents are so easy to happen. Peanut butter is a very messy food and can easily get smudged on surfaces and cause a later reaction. Also, food allergic children have to be careful what they touch whenever they go out. Imagine if there was poison spread all around the world and you knew that and still had to go out and interact with the world. I think when my child is home in our house he deserves the right not to have to worry what he touches or eats, you know?

People can have the most mild of reaction one time and the next nearly die. It is like being pregnant. You are allergic or you aren't. Unfortunately your child is almost certainly allergic to peanuts.

As the above poster said--peanuts and tree nuts are processed on shared equip so the standard is to avoid both.

Wow. I never would have thought that her mouth reaction could have been life threatening because to me it was just a skin reaction as opposed to a respiratory reaction.

MIsts: My daughter had a horrible contact skin reaction once to pb, but if you have a contact reaction to a food, I would think that you would have a serious reaction if you actually consumed the food...it does seem as though she only had a local reaction from licking the pb, but I think she definitely needs an epi in case she ever accidentally consumes it.

I learned that even you eating something can cause problems.

I was eating a butterfinger bar one night, came home to my child. Picked her up, gave her a kiss on the forehead, and within minutes we were giving the benedryl.

Luckily, there was no other swelling or anything worse than the skin reaction. But due to this incident, I stopped eating anything that comes into contact with peanuts.

I do agree with what they have said above. Call your primary care Doctor, get in with the allergist.

UPDATE:

We FINALLY got the allergy testing done today and she has a severe peanut allergy, as well as allergies to pollens, dust mites, cats, tree nuts and shrimp. We've been prescribed an EPI pen. I don't know what my husband is going to do for food now...he practically lives on peanut butter.

In response to something in the middle of the thread-
It's my understanding that only hives=skin reaction. Lip swelling is considered another system. It's so important to get a food allergy action plan from your allergist though...Mine says even if only hives are present on the face to use the epi and call 911. The only time we are to use only benadryl is for hives on the body, but not on the face or possible ingestion without any symptoms.

In response to last post- we were never huge PB fans, but find that sunbutter is very close in taste and texture. A little too close actually- it freaks me out a little :)

My 3 year old has a specialist appt tomorrow to test for peanut allergy. We were at the cottage on the weekend and we were feeding chipmunks peanuts, we broke some open and let him eat one peanut. Within 5 min. he developed a rash around his mouth and chin. We gave him benadryl and it subsided, thankfully. He hasn't really ingested much peanut before this because when I started trying to give him it, he wouldn't eat it. I wonder if it is possible that he would never eat it and spit it out because it made his tongue itchy or something. He has eaten cashews without reactions though. He has eczema and environmental allergies and my husband has a history of childhood asthma which I just found out all make you more susceptible to a peanut allergy. This is just so surprising to me because my husband and I have no food allergies. How does this just develop seemingly all of the sudden? I have never taken any precautions for the past 2 years to avoid peanut contamination in food, he has eaten all sorts of cookies, cakes, sauces, etc. I imagine he may have had traces of peanut many times. Should I make sure they do a blood test and not just a skin test and will they tell me how severe this is for him?

One more question - is there a difference in a reaction of swelling and hives versus a skin rash without hives? If it is just a rash, does it mean it will be less severe of an allergy? From what I have read, it seems like you just never know because every reaction could be different. Is it possible his throat has a rash in it as well? I didn't see anything odd when I looked in his mouth.

Ben-Mom

Reading your incident about your son reminded me of our daughter's. We found out about her allergy when she was almost 3 when she ate a tiny bite of a peanut butter cracker. She had swelling around the mouth which eventually spread to the rest of her body. She received benadryl, a steroid, and eventually an epipen when the rash did not go away. There were no breathing issues. After testing (skin test) were told she was mildly allergic to peanuts.

Unfortunately with each exposure, the reaction becomes more severe. Just this weekend, one year after her first incident, she was exposed a second time. She accidentally ingested the equivalent of half a peanut. Again she had a rash around her mouth. While the rash did not spread, she began coughing 20 minutes after exposure. We gave her Benadryl and the Steroid (orapred), but waited on the Epipen until we reached the ER 40 minutes later.
At the ER, they administered the EpiPen immediately and informed us that the the next time this happens there should be no delay. We were transported to an ICU where we remained for 24 hours. It has now escalated into a more serious condition.

I wanted to write - since we did not take her initial reaction as serious as we should have...it requires working with your child and others that care for her to understand the severity of the condition. As I mentioned, it generally becomes worse with each exposure, as it did in our daughter's case.

How scary, I am glad she is ok. My son is PA/TA and we take it very serious and have also been told the same thing you have about the reaction getting worse each time. We have a friend who has a PA son and they go to resturaunts, ball games, parties, all without thought. He gets hives and swelling often (no surprise) when there has been accidental consumption ( they just give him benydryl).He also does not avoid "may contain" lables I have been telling them some of the stories I have been reading on this site and trying to pass along info. I have learned but they do not seem concerned, they do not even carry epi-pen. I wonder if some people can just continue having reactions that do not close their ariway? anyway I am thankful for each story I read on this site and that your daughter is ok.

I am glad she is ok too. We confirmed it with the allergy test today, he is definitely allergic to peanuts but not tree nuts. It is strange that we have gone 3 years without precaution and no incidents - to go from that to possible life threatening allergy overnight is hard to adjust to. Especially as in your case where his first reaction was so mild. I almost feel like I shouldn't worry about it, but then I hear stories like yours and re-think that. I intend to get as much info as possible on it and also do intend to have his epi pens with us always. I will remember your story and not delay if any type of reaction occurs again, I will use it. It's just a scary unknown for us I guess just not knowing the severity.

Thanks for sharing your story.

"It's just a scary unknown for us I guess just not knowing the severity."

I feel this way too and it sucks.