How to educate family members?

Any video or literature would likely be out of date by the time it's produced. Companies often change their manufacturing processes, and it's a case of keeping track of companies you trust, and always reading labels.

Just tell people they are not allowed to feed your child at all.

When you say your child is showing signs of a peanut allergy, what exactly do you mean? Are there a lot of food allergies, or specifically a peanut allergy in your family? Have you spoken to the doctor about getting him/her tested?

I know some doctors say testing can't be done when they are young, but other doctors say it can. Can some parents step in here and advise when allergy testing can be done?

It's true, in time you will have to worry about things like ice cream (although I think for the time being you're safe from that--I don't think DS had ice cream until he was 1).

This is a great stage where you can really control things. At daycare, if that's an issue, you can pack everything, and the kids aren't eating PB yet--or at least they shouldn't be. Everything I read when DS was little (he's 9 now) said no PB until they're 2 or more.

It's a little later that things become so worrisome, and there are a lot of threads on this board to deal with family and others.

Some have family members who get it, and some don't. Some whose family members don't get it have their family in their children's lives on their (the parents') terms in order to keep their children safe.

Welcome to the boards. There's a lot to learn here--and we look forward to learning from you, as well.

You might want to check out the thread in Living with Peanut allergies from Austin's Mom about Easter.

Then, go find a post from her about either Thanksgiving or Christmas--I can't remember. But there have been some good responses to her about how to deal with family.

A lot of it depends on your comfort level and the level of trust and your relationship with your family, I'll say.

What we've done (my son is older, 3) is work on educating family about PA, while telling them we have to okay ALL food he eats (including every ingredient). So far, we've only eaten things grandparents have prepared on holidays, and we have been there as well and have okayed each ingredient (including the specific brand beforehand) and double-checked labels once we got there. Although we're controlling what goes in his mouth, what we've done to educate them is: hold family meetings where we showed videos, talked to them, demonstrated epi; had a family consultation with the allergist; e-mail articles occasionally.

[This message has been edited by cam (edited September 03, 2007).]

Wow! Thank you all for the quick responses. I am feeling so much less frustrated knowing that there are others out there! My 6-month-old's skin broke out in bright red welts after being held by my husband who had just been eating peanut butter. Poor baby was screaming for almost an hour afterwards. Our pediatrician just told me to keep anything peanut away from the baby until he could be tested at two-years. He said that this reaction does not necessarily mean that the baby is allergic to peanuts. Can anyone share a first allergic reaction of their little one and how severe their allergy currently is?

bump for Tiggermom