4 ms·

If you do this, be prepared with benadryl and be ready to handle the situation if your kid does have an allergy. Speaking from experience, here. Wife is an ER

If you do this, be prepared with benadryl and be ready to handle the situation if your kid does have an allergy. Speaking from experience, here. Wife is an ER doc and it was still a scary situation. (He's fine, but still has the allergy 7 years later)

mirsadm 4y ago
Yeah we gave our 6 month old peanut butter and ended up in hospital. This happened during the Covid lockdowns so it was quite scary. The recommendation here is to give them the food and see if they are allergic. I'm not sure I would follow that guideline again.
- yread 4y ago
  Same here, started with peanut butter and egg for a 4 month old. Now has allergies for both. I guess it works across populations. Or the research is wrong
  - wil421 4y ago
    I have 3 kids 3 and under, no twins. We did a similar thing around 5-6 months. They hate eggs with a passion but no allergies. About to start the peanut butter trials with my 5 month old. We did the same with shrimp and oysters. My son loves seafood gumbo and made a whole restaurant turn around when he first tried it. He loves it. Have you stopped trying allergic foods?
- itronitron 4y ago
  Yeah, I think there is some other factor that is driving the increase in incidence of peanut allergies. Wife eating peanut butter while nursing doesn't seem to have prevented our oldest child from having a severe peanut allergy. edit--> didn't expect to be downvoted for this comment, lol
- weberer 4y ago
  Nowadays your doctor can just take a small blood sample and run a battery of allergy tests on that.
  - LesZedCB 4y ago
    blood tests aren't very reliable like that. i have been with my partner to the immunologist many times over the years and observed skin prick tests and seen blood test results and watched her get epipen'd after a bad prick test. she will go into anaphylaxis if you wear a jacket you brought to somebody's house who has a cat. her blood work says the IgE count is fairly low. they can indicate more testing should be done, but they aren't perfect. neither are skin prick tests. i can dig up some of her reddit comments about it if you're interested.
    - CadmiumYellow 4y ago
      I had a bunch of allergy blood tests after having an allergic reaction to kiwi fruit. My results came back "severely allergic" to almond and sesame, both of which I have eaten all my life with zero issues. No antibodies to any of the pollen I am actually allergic to or to kiwi. I didn't show any allergies to anything when they gave me a skin prick test either, despite having had hay fever my entire life, which was ultimately the cause of the kiwi allergy via oral allergy syndrome. The doctor basically shrugged and told me "allergy testing is more of an art than a science."
  - Balgair 4y ago
    IgG and skin prick test have a ~10% false negative rate and a ~50% false positive rate. You have to work really hard with a really good allergist to get reliable results.
  - QIYGT 4y ago
    I don't think that's common. Our pediatrician, who is part of a US major hospital, never mentioned this and basically said "introduce new foods on days without much going on in case you need to go to the ER."
jaywalk 4y ago
I've heard a recommendation to do this in an ER parking lot for this reason.
- s1k3 4y ago
  The idea is you basically just touch their lips with a dab at first, so if there is any sort of reaction it isn’t life threatening. Then you increase a bit, etc.
- Red_Leaves_Flyy 4y ago
  Do you give them a heads up first or just say yolo and hope everyone survives?
  - myshpa 4y ago
    We managed to reduce the child's allergy by using nano/microdosing and increasing the dose over several weeks/months until it practically disappeared. Avoiding allergens and hoping the child grows into adulthood (with allergies) didn't seem like a very good strategy to us. Being afraid of accidental exposure and epipens and stuff, no fun.
- TheCapn 4y ago
  Depending on how the hospital operates and whether there is a reason to be concerned some pediatric units will allow you to do the introduction on-unit. I'm sure things can change day to day, but that's the case for the hospital my wife works at, and is what we were advised to do when we're going to attempt some food re-introductions in a few months for our child.
zwieback 4y ago
Similar experience, our first kid ate peanut butter happily for two years or so, then developed more and more of an allergy. It was gradual, basically the reverse experience of developing a tolerance as many others experience.
modeless 4y ago
Benadryl can reduce itching and hives but it will not treat the life-threatening parts of an anaphylactic reaction (suffocation from tongue/throat swelling and/or dangerously low blood pressure). Epinephrine is the only thing that can save you from anaphylaxis, and it should be given early to stop the reaction before it spirals out of control. Don't give Benadryl and think that you're safe, call 911 immediately on any sign of swelling or breathing difficulty or lethargy from low blood pressure. All that said, you absolutely should give peanut butter (and other allergens) early and often. If you don't, you're signing your kid up for much worse odds of anaphylaxis later. The good news is fatal anaphylaxis is extremely rare even in people with confirmed food allergies, and even lower in infants than older kids and adults. Even when anaphylaxis occurs epinephrine is extremely effective, so anaphylaxis deaths are almost always due to failure to treat with epinephrine. So just make sure that you have access to prompt medical treatment if you need it (i.e. not camping in the mountains far from any hospital), and give those allergens ASAP.
nbaugh1 4y ago
Yeah, I have a peanut allergy which isn't super severe and used to have an egg allergy. My mom is a nurse fortunately and knew how to react when I had reactions as an infant. I think my peanut allergy has gotten less severe over time, but is definitely still there, and I'm 100% fine with eggs despite them giving me welts on my skin as a baby

mirsadm 4y ago

Yeah we gave our 6 month old peanut butter and ended up in hospital. This happened during the Covid lockdowns so it was quite scary. The recommendation here is to give them the food and see if they are allergic. I'm not sure I would follow that guideline again.

yread 4y ago
Same here, started with peanut butter and egg for a 4 month old. Now has allergies for both. I guess it works across populations. Or the research is wrong
- wil421 4y ago
  I have 3 kids 3 and under, no twins. We did a similar thing around 5-6 months. They hate eggs with a passion but no allergies. About to start the peanut butter trials with my 5 month old. We did the same with shrimp and oysters. My son loves seafood gumbo and made a whole restaurant turn around when he first tried it. He loves it. Have you stopped trying allergic foods?
itronitron 4y ago
Yeah, I think there is some other factor that is driving the increase in incidence of peanut allergies. Wife eating peanut butter while nursing doesn't seem to have prevented our oldest child from having a severe peanut allergy. edit--> didn't expect to be downvoted for this comment, lol
weberer 4y ago
Nowadays your doctor can just take a small blood sample and run a battery of allergy tests on that.
- LesZedCB 4y ago
  blood tests aren't very reliable like that. i have been with my partner to the immunologist many times over the years and observed skin prick tests and seen blood test results and watched her get epipen'd after a bad prick test. she will go into anaphylaxis if you wear a jacket you brought to somebody's house who has a cat. her blood work says the IgE count is fairly low. they can indicate more testing should be done, but they aren't perfect. neither are skin prick tests. i can dig up some of her reddit comments about it if you're interested.
  - CadmiumYellow 4y ago
    I had a bunch of allergy blood tests after having an allergic reaction to kiwi fruit. My results came back "severely allergic" to almond and sesame, both of which I have eaten all my life with zero issues. No antibodies to any of the pollen I am actually allergic to or to kiwi. I didn't show any allergies to anything when they gave me a skin prick test either, despite having had hay fever my entire life, which was ultimately the cause of the kiwi allergy via oral allergy syndrome. The doctor basically shrugged and told me "allergy testing is more of an art than a science."
- Balgair 4y ago
  IgG and skin prick test have a ~10% false negative rate and a ~50% false positive rate. You have to work really hard with a really good allergist to get reliable results.
- QIYGT 4y ago
  I don't think that's common. Our pediatrician, who is part of a US major hospital, never mentioned this and basically said "introduce new foods on days without much going on in case you need to go to the ER."

jaywalk 4y ago

I've heard a recommendation to do this in an ER parking lot for this reason.

s1k3 4y ago
The idea is you basically just touch their lips with a dab at first, so if there is any sort of reaction it isn’t life threatening. Then you increase a bit, etc.
Red_Leaves_Flyy 4y ago
Do you give them a heads up first or just say yolo and hope everyone survives?
- myshpa 4y ago
  We managed to reduce the child's allergy by using nano/microdosing and increasing the dose over several weeks/months until it practically disappeared. Avoiding allergens and hoping the child grows into adulthood (with allergies) didn't seem like a very good strategy to us. Being afraid of accidental exposure and epipens and stuff, no fun.
TheCapn 4y ago
Depending on how the hospital operates and whether there is a reason to be concerned some pediatric units will allow you to do the introduction on-unit. I'm sure things can change day to day, but that's the case for the hospital my wife works at, and is what we were advised to do when we're going to attempt some food re-introductions in a few months for our child.

zwieback 4y ago

Similar experience, our first kid ate peanut butter happily for two years or so, then developed more and more of an allergy. It was gradual, basically the reverse experience of developing a tolerance as many others experience.

modeless 4y ago

Benadryl can reduce itching and hives but it will not treat the life-threatening parts of an anaphylactic reaction (suffocation from tongue/throat swelling and/or dangerously low blood pressure). Epinephrine is the only thing that can save you from anaphylaxis, and it should be given early to stop the reaction before it spirals out of control. Don't give Benadryl and think that you're safe, call 911 immediately on any sign of swelling or breathing difficulty or lethargy from low blood pressure. All that said, you absolutely should give peanut butter (and other allergens) early and often. If you don't, you're signing your kid up for much worse odds of anaphylaxis later. The good news is fatal anaphylaxis is extremely rare even in people with confirmed food allergies, and even lower in infants than older kids and adults. Even when anaphylaxis occurs epinephrine is extremely effective, so anaphylaxis deaths are almost always due to failure to treat with epinephrine. So just make sure that you have access to prompt medical treatment if you need it (i.e. not camping in the mountains far from any hospital), and give those allergens ASAP.

nbaugh1 4y ago

Yeah, I have a peanut allergy which isn't super severe and used to have an egg allergy. My mom is a nurse fortunately and knew how to react when I had reactions as an infant. I think my peanut allergy has gotten less severe over time, but is definitely still there, and I'm 100% fine with eggs despite them giving me welts on my skin as a baby