Hi I am new here and this is my first post. I have an almost 4 year old son who was "diagnosed" with peanut allergy at a little over a year old. The reason why diagnosed is in quotes is because he tested positive on Rast and on SPT. We were originally at the allergist for a dairy allergy, and the Dr. decided to test for peanuts. My son had never had a peanut bfore this time. I was shocked when it came back positive. The Dr. said well he has a peanut allergy and you need an epi pen. That was all.
So fast forard almost 3 years, and he is now 4 with a confirmed egg allergy and is no longer allergic to dairy. In the past few months I know he ate a few cookies that had peanuts in them and he had no reaction. I also gave him 5 Reece pieces again no reaction. So at this point in time I am assuming he really doesn't have a peanut allergy and it was just a false postivie and considering his rast was only 1.1 it made me feel like he was fine and not allergic.
Well yesterday he asked to eat peanut butter puff cereal. So I slowly gave him some, epi in hand. I gave him 10 he was fine, I gave him 10 more he was fine.... He had a total of 100 in about a 1/2 hour period. He was fine, no reaction. About 1 1/2 hours later he developed a hive on his cheek. He told me he had an itchy bump and sure enough 1 single hive. I checked him over and watched him very carefully. No other reaction. The hive disappeared in about an hour.
So what I was wondering was is this a reaction? Is he really allergic after all? I'm just trying to figure out what this all means. I called his Dr. and am waiting for a call back, but I was hoping for some input from other parents.
Seriously? Your child was diagnosed with a peanut allergy and you chose to feed peanut butter? Your child may have only had a 1.1 result, but any food allergy can worsen with exposure. My child has only had peanut butter ONCE that I know of (which is how /when found out about the PA) and the RAST results have ALWAYS been 5.9. The scale is 1-6. There has been at least 3 children, that I have heard of, die within the last 6 months that have only had ONE bite of peanut butter. I would advise to NOT intentionally feed peanuts of any kind, unless it is your doctor doing so, with a trained staff of professionals on stand by. Here is a link to a video that was released last month about food allergies. It was shown on the Discovery channel.
He was never diagnosed with a peanut allergy. He had an allergy test that came back positive for peanuts, you can't diagnose a peanut allergy based only on a positive test. A positive test + a reaction = a peanut allergy. In fact there have been a few studies that shows that many kids with a positive peanut test are not allergic to peanuts but may possibly be allergic to birch. If his rast was 15 or higher then I would have never tried peanut butter with him. 15 or higher has 95% predicitve value of a true allergy. <2= 50% channce of allergy. I only tried peanut butter after he accidently ate a cookie with peanuts and he had no reaction. We have been avoiding for almost 3 years. I talked to his allergist and she said that if he is eating it without a reaction, then I continue to feed it to him. He had a hive 2 days later as well, and he did not have anything with peanuts, so I'm assuming the hive was just random. I am slowly giving him peanut products and so far so good.
The severity of reaction depends on couple of things 1. The amount of allergen presented at a given time. 2. The condition of child's immune system (allergic reaction is a hyperactivity or malfunction of one's immune system response). the stronger the immune system is the lighter the response might be. This is also why children outgrow certain allergies as their immune system/gut mature. 3. The form in which the allergen protein is presented. Sounds like your child might be sensitive to peanuts. Possibly prudent to avoid large quantities of peanut containing products in the future. i think this is a hopeful story in the sense that your child can have peanut products even though was diagnosed with allergy via skin pricks/blood work. Also I don't know if you realize that epi injection may not save a child if the reaction is a true anaphylactic shock.
I just read below and saw about birch connection that is very interesting. will have to research more.