Yesterday morning Anna and I went to see an allergist. Anna had a skin prick test on her back for many different allergens. Her results confirmed an allergy to cats but did not confirm a peanut allergy. She had little or no reaction to the peanut. The doctor said that her previous blood test was positive for peanut allergies, but she had quite a low score, so she wanted to give Anna a taste of peanut butter in the office to see how she tolerated it. Anna had no visible reaction and kept signing for "more." Although a peanut allergy is usually a pretty black and white issue, her allergist feels that it may be safe to let Anna have peanut butter as part of her diet as long as we monitor her closely and always have her Epi-pen on hand.
The trouble is, we're not sure we're too comfortable with the approach of continuing to give her peanut butter unless something bad happens. According to a book about peanut allergies I read over the weekend and some research I have done online, reactions are difficult to predict and can vary greatly from one peanut exposure to the next. A child can be fine for the first five exposures and go into anaphylactic shock on the sixth exposure. I don't want to be an alarmist and I don't want to limit Anna unnecessarily, but I also am not confident that continuing to feed her peanuts is the best course of action. I think for the time being we may not directly give her any food with peanuts in it, but not worry too much about trace amounts of peanuts (for example, when a product label says "this product was manufactured in a facility which also processes peanuts"). And of course, we'll keep her Epi-pen handy.
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2 comments:
My doctor recommended we wait until Isaac was 3 before giving him peanuts (ie, peanut butter). We have no history of food allergies and he had no previous "signs" of a problem - so we introduced it around 2 years, 4 months or so - and he did fine. Had you considered just waiting until she is older and reintroducing it then? Perhaps when she has more verbal ability to tell you how she feels?
I fully support your thoughts of not continuing to give her peanuts directly but not worrying about trace amounts. I also echo what "Brian and Becky" said about just waiting until she's older and then she can verbalize other signs like itchiness, upset tummy, whatever else signs of allergy.
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