mild vs severe reaction

You asked what is the chance of your daughter's next reaction being severe...the answer is the same as anyone else who is PA. By the same token, she has the same chance of a mild reaction as anyone else who is PA. The fact is you can't predict what the next reaction will be like, mild or severe, so you need to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

My daughter's first and only reaction was considered severe, yet it only involved hives and swelling of the eyes. Her skin test was 4+ and her RAST test was >100. She is in danger of an anaphylactic reaction. When she was tested, the allergist told me that even those who score lower are still at risk. I don't want to frighten you, but this allergy is terribly unpredictable.

Thanks, it helps to hear from others on this. I don't know what the results were on her skin test. He (allergist) said that the size doesn't matter much. She did have some pretty big wheals though.

Theresa, I don't want to frighten you either, but I have to agree that you must always be prepared for a severe reaction. My daughter actually did not even have any noticeable reaction the first 3 times we gave her peanut butter. (We knew she was a highly allergic kid and waited until she was 3 1/4 years old to give her pb, and did it in a very systematic way - that's how I can be so certain.) The 4th time we gave it to her she got tiny hives around her mouth. I called the allergist who said "treat her as though she is very allergic to peanuts". We were already carrying epi-pens because of a severe milk allergy (which she has thankfully outgrown). Anyway, we were diligent at keeping her away from peanuts, even though we were thinking "thank goodness she's not one of those kids with a life threatening peanut allergy" - for 1 1/2 more years, until she ate a peanut butter filled pretzel nugget given to her by a neighbor child without my knowledge. This time she had an extremely severe reaction: within minutes (seconds?!) of eating the pretzel her eyes began to water and her nose began to run profusely. Then she got very itchy all over and got some small hives. Then she began to profusely vomit. So, as you can imagine: I'm terrified to think what her next reaction would be like. This was a very long way of me telling you that I've been in your shoes, and now I do feel that my child has a life threatening peanut allergy. It's great that you have an epi-pen; I would consider getting more than one. I always have at least three at home, and we have 4 at my daughter's kindergaren. This way, if there should be a problem when someone administers it, or if it wears off before emergency help can arrive, my daughter will still be safe. Also, I know a woman whose pa son almost died from his second exposure. He required 3 epipens before he even got to the hospital. All the doctors were surprised that the mom was even carrying epi since his first reaction was only hives. Thank God she was! Good luck to you - reading these boards can be both helpful and scary, can't it?!

Lengthy is good. The more information I get, the better. Thanks for your input.