Warning - Locust Bean Gum

Another thought on the fruit spread is if they make other spreads and there may be another cross contamination issue.

Hope he is okay and good luck figuring it out. Maybe you can test for the locust bean? becca

Also, maybe he is developing a tree nut allergy, even though he ate them safely in the past. Since he is so young and already PA, he is high risk for tree nut allergies. I hope not, but you might want to keep him away from walnuts til you can have him tested. Good luck. I hope you find out what it is.

We are not taking any chances with our bundle of joy. We have an appointment to have allergy testing redone in mid January. Until we know for sure we are avoiding tree nuts as well.

hello pete,
I am glad you have decided to keep your son away from other tree nuts, my son, Will, is 7yrs and is allergic to peanuts and all beans. He used to be slightly allergic to hazlenut , but grew out of that, But the medical advice we have recieved is that he has a 40% change of developing tree nut allergies.
And , if you have to go through the pain of avoiding peanut, why not go the whole way and avoid all nuts!
What other allergy problems does your son have? Is he asthmatic , my son is not, but has loads of allergies, ......well, only asthmatic if near dog. Thats our new allergy prob this year!!!
I like your web site by the way, have a daughter called Emily , who loves babies and the pics of your daughter!!
good luck with your son in Jan,
sarah

My son Matthew is moderately asthmatic and he has moderate eczema.

His eczema is worse in the winter.

Persistant infections are his primary health problem. If it were not for his infection problem we would not have known that he was PA.

He has pretty much lived on Honey Nut Cherrios for breakfast.

Up until now we have mainly avoided tree nuts.

Another interesting thing is that as soon as Matthew ate the cookie that started his reaction he complained that his mouth was "burning". Next he started to sneeze. Then the hives started. As soon as his lips started to swell, we administered the EpiPen and went straight to ER (we are less than 5 minutes away). We waited a few hours in the ER to make sure that he didn't rebound and got a script for Prednisone.

I think I'd be more suspicious of the walnuts than the locust bean gum, but you never know. My peanut/soy allergic son is now also allergic to tree nuts, and that is with pretty much avoiding them for the last 12 years! Perhaps it is time for Matthew to be tested again?

My money is on the locust bean gum. I have been allergic to this stuff for my whole life, but didn't figure it out until I was about 12 or 13 (25 years ago). It is used as a thickener in a lot of products, but is often listed as gaur gum and/or carob bean gum and/or locust bean gum. Because of this, there were a lot of products that had it listed in the ingredients but only contained it some of the time. It has really started to show up in a lot more products the last couple of years.

For reference, I am severely allergic to tree nuts (except almonds - go figure), but peanuts don't bother me. My other two major allergies are locust bean gum and sesame seeds - which are pretty bad, but have not led to anaphlaxis.

My money is also on the locust bean gum...i came across these comments as i was searching for locust bean gum allergies because i am trying to narrow down what is causing my son's recent outbreak of excema and raised rash on abdomen---he has peanut,egg and soy allergies and the cream cheese that he recently discovered he loves, has the bean gum. i scrutinize every package of processed food that goes into him and this was the lone ingrediant that was new.

my son's peanut allergy isn't severe (a 3 out of 6) but good to know that this locust bean gum may cause reaction similar to peanut allergy--scary!