Reply #38: The poster referred to "minute exposures" [View All]

[Emit]

And minute exposures ingested in any manner can cause a reaction in some cases.

"Some kids HAVE DIED merely becuase (sic) of minute exposures to peanuts by other kid's lunches."

Kids in elementary school are notorious for sharing food, even when they are told not to. Very small amounts of nuts and peanuts can be deadly to these people who are allergic - and we have discovered that preventing exposure has been quite a challenge - not as easy as we had thought.

My son's first reaction to nuts occurred when he was 1. He saw me eating pistachios and wanted a bite. I chewed some up and gave him a very small taste, no more than a few sand-sized pieces (weird, but mothers do that). His reaction was immediate - he jumped around the kitchen yelling, "Spicy, Spicy" then he looked at me and projectile vomited all over, repeatedly. This was all within seconds of exposure. He then broke out in hives, head to toe.

His second exposure occurred at the Aquarium in Monterey Bay. He was about 2 1/2. He grabbed a muffin off my husband's food tray in the cafe, and took one bite off the top before we were even done paying. The top was sprinkled with ground nuts and wheat flakes - my husband had not even known that it contained nuts. Again, his reaction was the same - immediate and severe.

His most recent exposure occurred when he was 6 or so. A neighbor gave him a cookie. He had asked her, do these have nuts? She assumed they didn't but didn't read the label - she knows he has this allergy, we have tried to educate people. They were assorted Danish Christmas cookies made with ground almonds and almond oils. One bite was all it took.

We serve peanut butter in our house, but the girls are trained that they do not use the same knife they used for the peanut butter to dip into the jelly jar (which is gross anyway, but in our case, it's to avoid even the smallest amount of peanut butter mixing with the jelly that their brother may ingest at some later date.) No one eats nuts when we are traveling in the car - my son can smell them and gets sick to his stomach. Kids at school have teased him by shoving their peanut butter sandwiches in his face, laughing at him because of his reaction.

We have been told by his allergy doc that repeated exposure to nuts can actually make each subsequent exposure more severe. In his case, that is why he now MUST avoid all exposure and he needs an epi pen injection at each exposure and a trip to the ER if it happens.

Minute exposures can kill in these cases, meaning a very small piece of nut or peanut - including the oils and residues.