Airborn reaction w/a Peanut Intolerance?

[Plateau Mama]

My middle child has just been diagnosed with several IGE allergies and even more IGG allergies/intolerances. We are on an elimination diet to heal his system and then we will be challenging the IGG allergies. One of his IGG is peanut. It's not an IGE allergy but it's a pretty high intolerance. We have been doing pretty well on his new diet. In the last 3.5 weeks we have had one known instance of him eating (and reacting) to something that he wasn't supposed to have.

 

Yesterday we ate at 5 Guys. Well he didn’t eat at 5 Guys but he was with us. I went to the Asian place next door and got him some plain white rice, which he ate at 5 Guys with us all. Within an hour he had a headache and by the evening he had stomach pains and threw up. If you know 5 Guys you know they have peanuts everywhere with warnings on the doors etc.

 

So I’m wondering if he could have reacted to the peanuts in the air at 5 Guys? IMO it seems highly unlikely, but other than there he ate everything else at home that I prepared. The timeline of him not feeling well fits with being at 5 Guys.

 

What thinks the hive? I have epi-pens for his IGE allergies, but the Dr. doesn’t feel he will need them because he’s never had an anaphylactic reaction before.

[AK_Mom4]

:grouphug: :grouphug:

 

I have no clue, but I am glad you have epi-pens handy just in case. Just because he's never needed the pens yet doesn't mean he never will. In the best case, you carry around little pens with you everywhere and they go unused. Sounds very good to me!

[Plateau Mama]

Yea the Dr. didn't seem too concerned, my pediatrician said he should have them and Dr. FIL says that you never know when an allergy will go anaphylactic.

[Karen in CO]

My dd tested negative to tree nut and shellfish allergies a few months before she had anaphylactic reactions to them. AND reactions get worse. Our allergist prescribed epi-pens for dd when she was only having hives as a reaction to environmental allergens. He warned that she might need them and it was better to have them. In 3 months, her tree nut allergy went from non-existent to anaphylactic and then airborne. My answer is, Yes, it could very well have been the peanuts in 5 Guys or cross-contamination. Sorry.

[Runningmom80]

The peanut residue could have been on the tables and chairs, if it got on his hands, he could have accidentally ingested it.

 

The whole "he's never had an anaphylactic reaction" is a very risky way to look at allergies. I'm surprised an doctor would say that. Is this an allergist?

 

 

Also, there is no reliable testing for igg, so take those results with a grain of salt. Did your son have a low ige number for peanut?

 

[Plateau Mama]

The peanut residue could have been on the tables and chairs, if it got on his hands, he could have accidentally ingested it.

 

The whole "he's never had an anaphylactic reaction" is a very risky way to look at allergies. I'm surprised an doctor would say that. Is this an allergist?

 

 

Also, there is no reliable testing for igg, so take those results with a grain of salt. Did your son have a low ige number for peanut?

I know there is no reliable test for IGG, but we did the same test with my daughter and of the 4 things she tested IGG to 3 of them do cause a reaction if she eats them so I am willing to go thru the trouble of food challenging each one on the loooong list. We are truly hoping that once his body heals he will be able to handle more of the things he tested IGG for.

 

He did not test IGE for the peanuts at all, only IGG which is why I am surprised he would have reacted so horribly to a slight cross contamination. That is the one IGG allergy that the Dr. said not to challenge on our own.

 

It wasn’t and allergist. The allergist refused to believe my DD had a food intolerance/allergy. She told me just to use Allertec to manage her ever worsening hives. That the reaction she had after we arrived home did not indicate any problem because she has to react in the office. (Even though at home the hives would appear 3 hours have ingesting the problem food.) The Dr. my son saw didn’t give me any hassle about getting an epi pen, she was just of the opinion (one I don’t agree with) that he won’t need it.

[Parrothead]

 

 

What thinks the hive? I have epi-pens for his IGE allergies, but the Dr. doesn’t feel he will need them because he’s never had an anaphylactic reaction before.

 

Really? That is weird. It can happen at any exposure. My allergist told me that more than likely it is only a matter of time. Don't let your guard down because of what your dr. said.

[sbgrace]

Could he just be sick? Migraine maybe? My son's first migraine was a headache that eventually ended with vomiting.

 

What are his IGE allergies? Could the rice have had cross with those? Asian places would be the last place I'd try for a cross allergen free dish, depending on the allergies.

[Plateau Mama]

No, he's not just sick and it wasn't a migraine (he can tell us if its a migraine headache or different) He woke up this morning fine. I'm pretty confident the rice was safe as its not in the kitchen with the other foods being cooked. The only other option nearby was subway. The incident I spoke of in my OP was soy and every meat there has soy, so it was out.

 

He is IGE to

 

Pork

Beef

Lamb

Cheddar Cheese

Milk

Whey

 

The reality is he just can't eat out. My DH didn't want to go home after church and eat before our errands and we did the best we could. We have gone from daily dehabilitating headaches & vomiting 3-4x a week to 2 incidents in the past month. This I feel is a huge improvement. I'd love for it to be zero, but we are still figuring this all out and to be honest, it's hard.

[momto5blessings]

Nicole,

I wonder if it could be the rice? We eat at a Lebanese restaurant that has rice, and there is a sign posted that nuts are in the rice. I don't know how, as the rice looks like regular rice, but somehow it has nuts in it at some point. Wonder if asian rice is similarly made to Middle Eastern rice. Just a thought. Also agree with those who have suggested you always have an epi-pen. With such a wide range of allergies you never know when you might need it!

Blessings

Pamela

[Lisbeth]

Asian restaurants are notorious for peanut cross contamination. My allergic daughter never eats in one. She also wouldn't go into a 5 Guys. Too much chance of exposure. I agree what your doctor said seems very misinformed. Past reactions don't predict future ones.

[laf919]

There are peanut-allergic kids who are so sensitive that they will react to airborne particles. Not sure if this is true for your son, but it is possible. Also possible that it is something else - but I would avoid taking him to 5 Guys until his system is more stable. FWIW, my husband who is peanut-allergic won't even walk into 5 Guys because the smell makes him nauseous. I don't really notice, but he does.

[Plateau Mama]

Nicole,

I wonder if it could be the rice? We eat at a Lebanese restaurant that has rice, and there is a sign posted that nuts are in the rice. I don't know how, as the rice looks like regular rice, but somehow it has nuts in it at some point. Wonder if asian rice is similarly made to Middle Eastern rice. Just a thought. Also agree with those who have suggested you always have an epi-pen. With such a wide range of allergies you never know when you might need it!

Blessings

Pamela

 

 

Asian rice is just plain white rice, no nuts. If you get fried rice or something else its got stuff in it, but a side of rice is just that.

 

 

Asian restaurants are notorious for peanut cross contamination. My allergic daughter never eats in one. She also wouldn't go into a 5 Guys. Too much chance of exposure. I agree what your doctor said seems very misinformed. Past reactions don't predict future ones.

 

 

We eat (or I guess used to) at 5 Guys a lot. It's one of my kids favorites. I've never noticed such a bad reaction from being there before. Of course I wasn't watching cause and effect so much then either. He's eaten the hot dogs, the fries, played with the peanut shells (doesn't like whole peanuts). But something definitely triggered something last night. Not only did he have a headache and vomiting but he said his whole chest hurt. He's complained every now and then of a tummy ache, but this was his whole torsoe. He was cold, clammy and frankly freaked us out. (And we've dealt with this for years, we just thought it was caused by something else. So we don't freak out easily. )

[Cinder]

I have no personal experience with food allergies but there is a mom in our hs group who was explaining her ds's severe peanut allergy. She said when he was little he had a reaction at the community pool. She was holding him in the pool, about in the center, so she couldn't figure out why he reacted because they were well away from food. They discovered someone sitting on a bench near the pool was eating a granola bar that had nuts. That was their first indication that he reacts to airborne particulates.

[Spryte]

My allergic DS has had severe, frightening reactions from airborne particles. Twice - once in an environment (store) where they were selling a lot of chocolate and nut items (nothing loose, all bagged, so we thought it would be okay), and another time when I cooked lentil soup (lentils often cross react with peanuts - that's how we learned to avoid lentils). Basically, if one inhales an airborne particle into one's mouth, it's like ingesting the allergen.

 

Oh! And another time when DH brought home 5 Guys. We thought peanut residue might have been on DH's shirt. Allergist had told us never to take DS into 5 Guys, but we thought take out for us would be okay.

 

I wouldn't rule out the rice, either. Unless you read the packaging at the restaurant, and discussed cross contamination with the cooks? All it takes is a cook using the same spoon to serve the rice that s/he used to stir something with another allergen... We rarely eat out, but when we do, there is always a discussion with a manager, and unless we are confident that the manager understands food allergies, we don't eat there. Usually the manager prepares the food him/herself. Oh, and rice - we don't order it. It's one of those items that they've probably prepared in advance since it takes so long to cook, and so we have no way of ascertaining their allergy-awareness before our arrival. Our allergist constantly reminds us that when eating out we are placing all of our trust in the cooks/servers. All of it. It's our child's life in their hands, which is a sobering thought.

 

But, your kiddo's allergies sound different, and the doc's advice to you is clearly not the same... (Have you considered a second allergist's opinion?). So maybe all of those precautions sound like overkill to you. That's okay, too, as long as it works for your family.

 

Did your son have a skin prick test as well as a blood draw? Did he react to peanut? I don't personally know much about IgG allergies, so I'm not much help there. Just wondered if you'd explored peanut via SPT.

 

The IgE allergies, though... Do you avoid all of those items?

 

My kiddo has several IgE allergens via blood that we don't avoid, but we watch out for symptoms, and we are aware that problems could develop. This is at the advice of our allergist. She had us eliminate the allergens totally for 2 weeks, and then flood his system with them, just to see what would happen. Sure enough, 2 of the IgE allergens that didn't seem as frightening, as he's not anaphylactic, were exacerbating his asthma. So we avoid those 2. The others we ignore. But we are always armed with epipens, for other reasons. :)

 

I hope you find answers soon. FWIW, it does sound like your kiddo had some type of reaction - but there are so many variables, I think it would be hard to pinpoint the cause. Peanuts in 5 Guys, possible X-contamination in the Chinese restaurant. Mystery reactions are the worst!

[Spryte]

Double post. Sorry!

[Plateau Mama]

.

 

Did your son have a skin prick test as well as a blood draw? Did he react to peanut? I don't personally know much about IgG allergies, so I'm not much help there. Just wondered if you'd explored peanut via SPT.

 

The IgE allergies, though... Do you avoid all of those items?

 

My kiddo has several IgE allergens via blood that we don't avoid, but we watch out for symptoms, and we are aware that problems could develop. This is at the advice of our allergist. She had us eliminate the allergens totally for 2 weeks, and then flood his system with them, just to see what would happen. Sure enough, 2 of the IgE allergens that didn't seem as frightening, as he's not anaphylactic, were exacerbating his asthma. So we avoid those 2. The others we ignore. But we are always armed with epipens, for other reasons. :)

 

 

 

It was just a blood test. Honestly we were not expecting the results we got. We (& the Dr), really expected them to be more in line with his sisters results. We were just tring to pinpoint the one or two items causing the headaches & vomiting.

 

The Dr is going to retest him in 6 months. She said its possible for people with a grass allergy to have false positives if you test during grass season. We tested in Feb, so it shouldn't be an issue but since there were so many she wants to be sure. I will probably see an allergist after that. Although after the way she blew me off with my daughter I'm not sure I want to work with her anymore and all the allergists in the area are in the same office(s). I guess I should start researching now.

 

We do avoid all the IGE items. Strangely enough my son has never eaten beef, pork or lamb. They make him gag. He spent a year with an occupatial therapist in 1st grade trying to get him to eat meat and he just couldn't do it. So, the only thing IGE we had to eliminate was dairy. He tested very high IGG on other components of dairy so we don't do any dairy right now. The dairy one didnt surprise me because I have a dairy allergy and his sister is intolerant.

[myfunnybunch]

I would say it's likely that he had a reaction to airborne peanut particles or to peanut residue on chairs and tables from previous customers. The severity or mildness of the allergy/sensitivity doesn't make a child any less likely to react because the exposure was through the air. Asian restaurants commonly use peanut products, so it's possible he was exposed through cross-contamination; however, the simplest and most likely explanation is that (to be safe and until you figure it out for certain), your poor guy can't go into Five Guys (or go to baseball games unless there's a peanut-free section, or walk past the peanut barrel at the grocery store, and so on). Hugs. I know how frustrating and difficult it can be to figure this stuff out. Until we found out which restaurants were safe, we started packing lunches and snacks to take with us in a cooler because it was just plain easier.

[kitten18]

Asian rice is just plain white rice, no nuts. If you get fried rice or something else its got stuff in it, but a side of rice is just that.

 

 

 

 

 

You can hope it's just plain rice, but you don't *know* that it is.

 

I know it's terribly hard. :grouphug:

[Lisbeth]

 

You can hope it's just plain rice, but you don't *know* that it is.

 

I know it's terribly hard. :grouphug:

 

 

Yes, this. I have read far too many stories about kids have serious reactions in Asian restaurants, even though the item itself didn't specifically include the allergen. Ice cream shops that use the same scoops when serving, and bakeries, are also danger zones. It is a pretty big minefield and it can be a pretty big family adjustment. It does get easier!

[TravelingChris]

My daughter has airborne reactions to oranges or lemons being cut. She started though with actual reactions to citrus fruits. (It turns out she is highly allergy to citric acid, even though that is only supposed to be an intolerance on all these internet sites but she has anaphalactic reactions that have been tested by a board certified allergist),.

[Susann]

My youngest dd has celiac disease and has the same problem with airborne gluten. She can't step inside a Subway or, unfortunately, my DH's Panera restaurant.

[Plateau Mama]

.Until we found out which restaurants were safe, we started packing lunches and snacks to take with us in a cooler because it was just plain easier.

 

I have been taking food for him wherever we go. I had planned to go straight home after church which is why I didn't ave food, but DH didn't want to. DH doesn't understand the complexity of his issues. Lesson learned. :-(

[Runningmom80]

I would go see a different allergist. Something seems off with the results honestly.

 

 

Have you visited kidswithfoodallergies.com? There are recipes, a forum, a blog, etc. it's a very helpful place for parents of kids with food allergies!