This one for the Adults with PA

I've never really thought about it, but now that I do, I think I've gotten better about sniffing it out. I've sniffed a few things before putting them in my mouth for sure (things I've eaten safely before and looked somehow different-never to decide if something I'd never eaten before was safe).

there are a few threads on here from a while back where we talked about smelling peanuts and nuts...I think the actual comments were buried in a thread that wasn't specifically about it....
I certainly can smell peanuts a mile away... Same with cashews... I am mildly tree nut allergic (almonds) and can smell "nutty smell", but it's not the same nose-tingly ickiness that peanuts evoke. I'm smell sensitive...in that I get a red rash on my neck and chest, itchy eyes, and a stuffy nose...then an asthma like attack follows if I don't remove myself from the situation.
But yes, I also sometimes smell foods before I eat them! Sometimes my nose tells me not to eat something, I obey.
I'm not sure if it was a skill I developed over time, or I was just "always aware" of it. I can remember being young and refusing to eat something b/c it smelled peanut-y. I think though, that my spidey-sense got better as I got older...then again, my last 2 anaph. reactions were b/c of peanut-cross contamination (peanut cookie touching plain sugar cookie in 9th grade) and a dinner roll spiked w/ ground peanuts (for a health requ. in 11th grade). So...spidey-sense didn't always work properly.
Adrienne
------------------
30-year old survivor of severe peanut/tree nut allergy
[This message has been edited by ajgauthier (edited January 29, 2006).]

I'm a newbie to PA....just one year now. My PA has become worse in the last year but I'm also so much more aware of the smell.
I can smell them a mile away. BUT, I think it is because I'm on high alert.

I developed that sense of smell very early on, when I was young. After I had a few reactions, I just knew what to watch out for and try to avoid it. I could smell if something had peanuts in it, and that was always the test I used when I was younger. If I wasn't sure, I just avoided it. It's always been something I could do. I don't think it got any more acute as I got older.
I will say that the last reaction I had in 1999 was because my sense of smell was not there. I had a bad cold, couldn't smell or taste anything. Where I worked at the time we always had cookies with the coffee area. Usually they were sugar cookies or ginger snaps. Apparently some idiot put peanut butter cookies that looked exactly like the usual cookies down. Because I couldn't smell or taste the peanuts, I didn't know until my mouth and throat started to swell. I also didn't happen to have my epi pen with me that day, but I did take a big dose of benadryl which did the job nicely. If it hadn't been for that cold compromising my senses, I probably would not have any reactions for the last 10 years or so.

My daughter is 14 and can smell peanuts and peanut butter a mile away. We can walk into a room and she will turn and walk out and say peanuts! Sure enough there will be someone eating them.
Susan

Ditto here. My daughter has been able to do this with apparently perfect accuracy since her first aerosol rxn at two years old. I have seen her literally BACK AWAY in horror from another child who had PB breath.
(I think it is a sensitivity issue... the more sensitive you are, the more likely it is to develop into an almost sixth sense...)
[img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img]

Quote:Originally posted by Corvallis Mom:
[b]Ditto here. My daughter has been able to do this with apparently perfect accuracy since her first aerosol rxn at two years old. I have seen her literally BACK AWAY in horror from another child who had PB breath.
(I think it is a sensitivity issue... the more sensitive you are, the more likely it is to develop into an almost sixth sense...)
[img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img][/b]
IMO, this is a good thing. Being able to smell and sense it a mile away is a valuable tool as an adult to learning how to stay away and avoid a reaction. Prevention, prevention, prevention.

Yes, I think so too. As an adult (even a young adult) it will ease my mind some that she has that ability.
Right now, it is a major PITA for her, though. We are the only people who take it seriously enough. Other adults just roll the eyes at her and mumble something about just getting over her fears...or overprotective parents... and tell her to basically just chill out and quit being a pain.
I feel that if your body is screaming at you to get yourself out of a dangerous situation, you need to listen. KWIM? Rule number 1: DO NOT ignore fight-or-flight response. Repeat.
(Unfortunately, when you are 6, many adults will disagree vehemently with you out of ignorance.)

My daughter (10 years old, PA), smelled her food from her the very beginning. As a toddler, before she should even speak whole sentences she would smell everything before she ate it. We just thought she was "quirky". When we tried to get her to taste peanut butter, she would sniff it and say "i don't like it". No matter how much we pressured her, she never would try PB. After she accidently ate reeses pieces and had a severe reaction, we put all the pieces together. Felt pretty bad about all the times we yelled at her. Even today, 10 years old, she still goes with the smell test.