Allergies & weaning

[Sunflower28]

I am currently weaning my 7 nearly 8 month old and I know I need to introduce allergens early and I have introduced most things now and has seemed fine. However, I’ve not yet introduced nuts....I am myself a nut allergy sufferer and I know her chances of being allergic are increased.....I’m very very anxious about the whole thing. I’ve spoken to a doctor who was as usual, incredibly unhelpful & just basically sent me a leaflet telling me stuff I already know 🙄....I mean....what would I do if she had a reaction?....rush her the 20min journey to hospital while she swells and chokes? Should I have infant antihistamine on hand?

A friend told me she heard that you could go to hospital and have the allergen introduced under controlled conditions? Has anyone heard of this or experienced it?

Are there any fellow allergy suffering mums who have had the same concerns? Should I go back and speak to a different doctor? Or should I skip that and phone allergy helpline?(is this the sort of thing I can phone them for?

Any advice appreciated x

[Octoberbaby2019]

Hi, you can get infant antihistamines from the pharmacy but they usually want the child to be 1 year old. However, if you introduce peanut butter and there was a reaction, you'd call the ambulance and they'd administer the same thing,no matter the age just saying.. My pharmacy friend told me this.

If you're an nut sufferer I think be careful, I'd call your health visitor and ask for guidance.

Also maybe you could put a tiny amount of peanut butter on the skin first? When we introduced it we gave our son trace amounts initially, so my husband would have peanut butter and then use the same knife /spoon to do him a butter toast or get out some yoghurt.

Hope this helps. But call the HV I find they are like 99% more useful than gp

[Sunflower28 in reply to Octoberbaby2019]

Applying to the skin sounds like a good idea. I think I will phone the HV....I thought they would just tell me to speak to my GP....if they do that I think I will try and speak to a different one. Thank you x

[Octoberbaby2019 in reply to Sunflower28]

Just tell them you already spoke to the gp but are really concerned. I had the same with my son as I think he may be intolerant to egg, the gp was useless so asked the HV and the first one couldn't help me but she said she'd ask one of her more senior colleagues age call me back and she did. She then said for me to insist on a RAST test. I've decided though that I'll give him egg one more time but after his 1st birthday sometime.

[Sunflower28 in reply to Octoberbaby2019]

I’ve not had the best support from gps so far & I’m quite rubbish at fighting my corner and pushing for things.....I tend to just accept what they say and then stew over it later realising that they don’t necessarily know what they’re talking about🤦‍♀️. Thank you for your help! Good luck with the eggs! 👍x

[Hidden]

Haven’t really got much advice but understand your fears as my LG is under the allergy clinic currently being tested for numerous things. We were given antihistamine when she was 6 months old for her eczema so maybe see if you could get it prescribed for emergencies??

You can have allergy tests under controlled environment at the hospital as we have had that but we had to initially have a reaction and then went for skin prick testing then when she showed positive we went onto the controlled testing.

I thinking speaking to HV would be good. My HV actually did the referral to the hospital for testing so yours could possibly do that for you xx

[Sunflower28 in reply to Hidden]

There’s a chance she could have eczema too as I suffer with it but I’m not as worried about that as it’s not potentially life threatening so happy to wait an see with that one. The anaphylaxis is a pretty scary prospect though....it’s scary enough when I get a reaction and so I’m quite terrified of her reacting. I will definitely speak to HV as everyone seems to have said they are helpful. Perhaps you are right and she could get referred for a test. Thank you x

[Shelleybean]

Hi, my Health Visitor told me to apply a small amount of food to the skin to check for a reaction prior to baby trying common allergens for the first time. I think if it were me I would also maybe go and give her first taste of nuts in the hospital cafe/ car park so you would be very close to seek assistance if needed. I would definitely speak to your HV Team for support xx

[Sunflower28 in reply to Shelleybean]

Ah....yes that’s a good idea....go to the cafe in the hospital! Although not sure how acceptable that is during a pandemic? We did joke about sitting outside the hospital to do it.... but to be honest it’s probably not such a silly idea is it?. I will speak to HV. Thank you x

[Shelleybean in reply to Sunflower28]

Just to let you know I had a recap of weaning advice from the HV yesterday (baby brain 🤦‍♀️) and they said no whole nuts or peanuts before age 1 xx

[Sunflower28 in reply to Shelleybean]

Yes I think it will need to be in a butter form at this stage. Thank you x

[Shelleybean in reply to Sunflower28]

Hope it goes well xx

[Crk28 in reply to Shelleybean]

Only for whole nuts. You can give nut butters. And its recommended to give potentially allergy provoking foods early, as this actually helps prevent allergies developing

[SRA8]

You can buy liquid piriton. We have family history of allergies and eczema. Snd always have some in the niyse first my niece. My boy had a tiny bit of egg at 6 months and reacted. We had the piriton to hand and it settled quite quickly. One thing to note is our bottle didnt come with a syringe and he wouldn't take it from a capol syringe but luckily we had 1ml colostrum syringes in the house and was able to get some in that way.

[Sunflower28 in reply to SRA8]

Thanks....I think I will speak to HV & try and get some antihistamine too x

[Crk28]

I was in a similar position with my daughter. My husband is a severe nut allergy ssufferer and actually while I was pregnant ended up in a&e having had a reaction.

We ended up being referred to paeds around 6 months and she had blood tests for common allergies, which were negative for nuts. We were advised to then introduce foods gradually and keep giving them regularly. The option was given to us to do this in hospital but we felt comfortable doing it at home, as it happens we are both drs ourselves. Id recommend having piriton syrup on the house, which you will probably have to get on prescription or pretend it is for an older child since its not licensed for kids under 1.

Of note my daughter had a milk allergy, she would come up in hives to dairy products. I think this is why she was tested. She had also had pretty bad eczema. We did a lot of research on allergies and inducing foods and spoke to allergy specialist colleagues. I think if the baby is well with no signs of other food allergies or things like ezcema, then they would have advised to just introduce the foods at home.

I hope this helps