Peanut Allergies

Factual Questions
81

Since milk has been brought up, and there seem to be at least a few lay-experts (one one real one) here, let me run this oddity by you (yes, it’s been run by the doctor. We’ve opted to wait-and-see and not do further testing yet.) I don’t think it warrants its own thread, as I expect the answers to be “Weird. I dunno, do a biopsy.”

WhyBaby (4 months premature), was exclusively breastmilk fed until 6 months, and then half breastmilk/half formula (milk based) until 14 months, and then just formula. She’s been fine, although she did have green stools until we started solids, but no gastric upset, no rashes, no “allergies.”

Cheese, fine, ice cream, fine. Tried cow’s milk: immediate wheezing, followed by 24 hours of diarrhea. Not loose stools - diarrhea. Burning diarrhea that left red welts on her bum even though I changed her diaper every 20 minutes round the clock. Hmm…no more of that for a bit. Tried yogurt:immediate wheezing, followed by 24 hours of diarrhea. Still fine on cheese and ice cream and milk based formula. Wait six weeks, try yogurt again: same reaction.

I was careful to only introduce one new food at a time, so there were no other dietary triggers. It’s possible, I suppose, that she coincidentally got a stomach bug on each of those three days and none other (she’s not had diarrhea other than those three times in her life), but I somehow doubt it.

So why can she tolerate cheese, ice cream and cow’s milk based formula but not the cow’s milk or yogurt? Anyone have a clue? Is there some protein that’s denatured in making cheese and ice cream that she’s reacting to in milk and yogurt?

82

It probably does have something to do with denaturing. I had a similar experience to your daughter though. I had a skin prick test a couple of years ago, and got a positive result from milk. My allergist gave me a list of foods that needed to be eliminated and rotated. Cows milk, and yogurt were two things that needed to be eliminated completely, however, the doctor said I could rotate servings of cheese and ice cream in and out of my diet every few days. I’ll have to get my list later and see if there’s an explanation on it.

83

My sis (age 28) is very, very allergic to peanuts.
She was fed soy formula due to a suspected milk allergy. (she will eat limited amounts of ice cream and cheese, but still avoids milk)
She has had five reactions in her life, and the last one nearly killed her. (age 11 I believe)
Each reaction has gotten faster, and more severe.
She can’t be in the house if someone is baking with peanuts or peanut butter.
We always had peanut butter in the house as kids, and were trained very early on that you never put the peanut buttery knife in the jam, or the honey. Even now I’m still careful - just in case she comes to visit and I am cooking with something that has been contaminated.
She very much welcomes the new “made in a peanut-free factory” chocolate bars, because it means she can eat a wider variety of treats (as kids we always had Smarties, because M&M’s made her throat itch, as they were made on the same machines as the peanut versions). On the other hand, she laments the fact that practically every product out there has the “may have come in contact with peanuts or other nuts” because now it’s much more difficult to determine what is an actual warning, and what is just band-aid butt-covering.

84

Forgot to mention in my post that my own peanut allergy seems to have sprung from nowhere. I have not (to date) tasted soy milk and our house, while clean, was never antisceptic. No peanut-allergic relatives. And as far as I know, I have no other allergies, not even to other nuts or legumes. (And can I just give a shout-out to the people who are gradually introducing cashew versions of traditionally peanut-infested products? Awesome!)

85

Standard Enfamil in the white container, which is cow milk I think.
He wasn’t breast-fed as long as his older brother was, but we didn’t do anything else different.

86

Lactose, Bovine beta-lactoglobulin. Maybe. Cheese converts Lactose, the sharper the cheese the less lactose. Live culture yogurt is sometimes disgesible for those with mild intolerance.

Or also possibly cow’s milk protein. * But I don’t see how that’d get “denatured” during cheesemaking. Did you read those cites I gave a little while ago? Yes, I know they are "MEGO" reading, sorry. :frowning:

But ask your Ped. And, stay away from Cows milk and Yogurt until you do.

I am not an expert at all in childrens allergies. I am a dude with an advanced degree in Biology, who is a bureaucrat/investigator in a field where we are expected to “keep up with advances in your field”. Thus, I know how to use Google Scholar, and how to read the results. I am often suprised when I do research for here and find unexpected results. So, *do * read those scientific abstracts, those dudes are real experts. My “expertise” here is knowing how to Search and to be able to discard those abstracts which are not relevant, that’s all.

I also have mild lactose intolerance myself, so I read quite a bit about it when new papers/abstracts on the subject come out. I am a “lay” expert on my own digestive tract. :stuck_out_tongue:

  • “Mine Eyes Glaze Over”
87

I will go back and read all of them in detail, I promise. A simple scan gleaned the information about green bowel movements, which prompted my question. Now that I know they may apply to ME, they’re suddenly much more interesting! And your answer (“Go back and read where I already answered it, dammit!” (Only much more nicely phrased.) is entirely appropriate. :stuck_out_tongue:

(bolding mine)

Talents not to be underestimated. I began to formulate my own reply about how lactose intolerance in babies is very rare and would show up even in breastfeeding infants, but the very first cite I pulled up was a pharmacy page about how lactose allergies are common in infants. :smack: So I decided to leave the whole thing alone till someone better informed came along.

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Interesting. And good to know it might be something we could determine by a scratch test, rather than a biopsy. Thanks for sharing!

89

My daughter is the opposite case – soy-fed infant that grew into an eminently peanut-tolerant 3 year old :shrug:

As I noted on page 1 … I always considered my wife’s “milk allergy” diagnosis to be incorrect.

90

Another approach to take, Why, is digestion in general …

Thus follows a recitation of what I know based on what we’re doing. None of this is meant to be taken as any sort of medical advice, any elimination or challenge diets should be conducted with full cooperation with your chosen medical professional.

I still can’t get a straight answer other than “it looked like you were pooping pinto beans” and “so we fed you goat milk, bananas, rice, jello, and expensive medicine for years” as to my infant/toddler gastro problems. But I BRAT-dieted for the first couple of years, worked my way slowly up to all foods, but even now sometimes I just have to have a BRAT weekend to “reset” my system because everything tastes bad and hurts.

I’ve had other gastro problems, but mostly things that “come and go” including a temporary multi-year “allergy” to peanuts and pork. Not throat-closure but extreme digestive upset reminicent of food poisoning (without the fever and immediate relief when all items had passed through my system, usually violently, painfully, and without warning, almost like IBS - except tied to those two foods exclusively). Which suddenly went away a few years later. mMMMM welcome back, bacon.

Wolfie has the reaction you describe your daughter has when fed, of all things, milk that has been “ultra pasturized” - either the shelf stable milks you get in the coffee section of the grocery store or the Organic stuff the stores are now pushing - we’ve finally tracked down an Organic “regular pasturized” milk and he’s had no problems with it. I should more correctly say when fed ultrapasturized stuff exclusively; a cup or so a day is okay, sometimes, two - more than that is Bad.

He also has that reaction when given citrus fruits in significant amounts. A bite or two is fine, three days of an 8 oz carton of OJ on the ride into school turns into a disaster of massive proportions (and seriously affected his potty training being snuck attacked by an explosive runny explosion multiple times a day at an age where bowel control is still being learned).

Flying by the seat of our less poopy pants, we’ve elimintated most ultrapasturized milk from his life (he still gets it at daycare/school, but in small amounts) and all citrus/acidic fruit (we have spaghetti or ketchup in small amounts from time to time). In addition we’ve added to the diet probiotics for he and I, and I’m using digestive enzymes to help combat my odder digestive problems that are resurfacing (though not as severe as when I was bordering on failure to thrive as an infant, thank goodness).

91

Milk, soy - both Wolfie and I can drink Cows milk just fine, and yoghurt. I actually grew up (once I was on “normal food”) drinking mostly non-homogonized barely-pasturized day or two old milk from a local farm.

Never liked the “watered down” stuff, though I am moving W over to 2% now that we figured out to stay away from the ultra pasturized stuff.

Soy formula and milk are not options in my house. They make other housemembers ill (I won’t even get into that gastro-mess) and there isn’t enough data on the long-term effects of massive amounts of soy consumption Western countries are ramping up to consume that make me willing to feed it to me or mine on any regular basis.

92

My 2 year old has been diagnosed with a peanut allergy. She had a handful of peanut butter about 8 months ago, and her face turned red and swollen. Took her to an allergist, she was diagnosed with a peanut and all tree nut allergy. She was breastfed from birth to 8 months, with occasional milk based formula. From 8 months to 1 year, milk-based formula and 1% milk, after 1 year, milk only. Never had any soy based anything to the best of my knowledge. We now take an epipen with us wherever we go.

She’s also probably asthmatic. She had to spend a few nights in the hospital 5 months back when she was wheezing and had low blood oxygen.

And she certainly didn’t grow up in an ultra-clean environment. She’s always loved being outdoors, and being the youngest of 3, didn’t get daily (or sometimes even weekly) baths.

BTW - on school policy - my school district uses an age-based approach. For kindergarten & preschool (half day programs) - no nuts of any kind allowed in the building. Elementary school (1st-3rd grade) - no nuts in the classroom outside of lunch boxes, and they have a peanut free table in the cafeteria. No nuts in any school provided lunches, but students are free to bring whatever they want for lunch. Higher grades - nut free table(s) in the cafeterias, no other restrictions. So as the kids age, they give them less built-in protection, and have them take more responsibility for themselves. I think that’s the perfect approach.

93

In the case of my kid, who is most allergic to walnuts (on the blood test, over 3 is a severe allergy, walnuts came out as 23 - he is too allergic to do skin tests on as it could be dangerous.) but allergic to all other tree and non-tree nuts with the exception of Brazil nuts (peanuts - 8, almonds - 5, cashew nuts - 3, coconut - 3,… I can’t remember the others now. We had 8 nuts tested - with the exception of walnuts, all the other results were in the single digits).

He never drank even one drop of any kind of infant formula - my husband and I both have asthma and we were trying to protect him from that, plus he was a very easy feeder. He was breastfed until the day after his first birthday when he gave up by himself. I did feed him peanut butter (what the hell was I thinking??? ) from about 2 years old for a year or maybe less. I had an American friend at that time who would give me a jar every now and again. I will kick myself for that forever.

This son has asthma which has had him hospitalised five or six times before he was six, horrible eczema and now the nut allergy. He really does often have a miserable life.

The second kid was born early and with no suck reflex so it was a bugger to get him feeding. I struggled for six months then he went to formula (regular cow’s milk I think but I can’t remember). He has no allergies that we know of, a little asthma when he catches a cold or in the damp Japanese spring, and a tiny patch of eczema on one hand.

So, although I think that it is a good idea if you have an itchy family to avoid formula, breast feed and all the other things mentioned in the thread, it is only a statistical chance that your kid will benefit from such measures. Some kids will not seem to gain anything from it at all. Sigh…

And it is also a very good idea as many people have said to train your kids to ask what is in things when they are at friends houses. Unfortunately you then get the people like his grandmother (who has even been present when he’s had a reaction - grrr) saying that “a little bit will toughen you up and get you used to it” or as my kid has experienced a number of times with playdate mothers “Oh stop asking! I wouldn’t give you anything dangerous and it’s very rude to ask!” (That’s very hard for a five or six year old to resist and either refuse the food or insist on reading the packet for himself…) We have lost a couple of friends over this attitude - no fights with them but a cooling as it is not safe to allow him to play there, and the mothers have made my son so uncomfortable that he doesn’t want to go there any more.