I have a 15 year old son with multiple tree nut and peanut allergies. I highly recommend Auvi-Q over EpiPen for its portability; so much easier for him to slip his Auvi-Qs in his pocket than bulky Epis. He actually has both- Epi for school and Auvi for self-carry.

The thing that made us initially go to the allergist was my husband eating a Thai chicken pizza with peanut sauce and kissing him when he was a toddler- he broke out into hives where kissed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you know when to use the EpiPen? Anytime there are two symptoms. And of course carry it everywhere.

This. And you may not be aware of an exposure. Also, kids with anaphylactic reactions to one often develop reactions to other things over time. Not all..but many do. That is why you treat every time there are more than two symptoms even if you don’t think peanuts have been touched.

Adult here. Not always. I'm allergic to almonds and I get only ONE symptom - tingly throat - and after that I start swelling up and my airway closes. So I use my epipen if I have a tingly throat, period. And I've been informed I must go to the hospital EVERY time I've used my epipen - the epipen doesn't cure anything, it just holds it off until you get to the hospital. So I carry a 2nd epipen in case it takes more than 15 minutes to get to hospital. At hospital, your child may need steroids and IV drips, you might not (I've had both experiences, depends somewhat on how much I've eaten before the tingling starts, probably also depends on whether I've extra tired, getting sick, it's hot so my body is stressed, blah blah). I carry my 2 epipens everywhere. I don't leave home without them unless I know FOR SURE I won't be eating but what happens if we are out longer than we thought and we stop somewhere for a meal? It's not worth the nerves, honestly. I've been in trouble 2 times in my life and spent HOURS at the hospital with IVs but mostly my epipen will stop the reaction, I go to the hospital and am observed for a few hours, and all is well. But it's hard to NEVER be near almonds (or peanuts) - you ask and ask but still things aren't 100%

Also, you have NO idea about the exposure until the symptoms start - almonds (in your case peanuts) can be hidden in salads, snack mixes, ground up in pie crusts (that's gotten me twice!) etc.

The bane of my existence is gluten free baked goods, as they use a flour, and that is usually almond flour. In your case you need to ask: does this have any peanuts, peanut flavorings or peanut flours in it? Because someone will pour almond flavoring into a cookie dough and look right at me and say there aren't almonds. And there aren't the NUTS but the flavoring and flours HAVE the proteins and allergic people will react every time.

I can eat items that say "processed in an environment with nuts" or "might have cross contamination" although when almond hershey's kisses first came out, I noticed I"d get a weird feeling but not the real tingle after eating NORMAL hershey's kisses, so clearly that contamination was a bit of a problem. (not eating kisses is better for my waistline anyway) but YEARS later I can eat them again because I think they've figured out the cleaning better.

My kid is now a teenager, diagnosed at about 1 1/2. It was always just hives but we carried the EpiPen. We glanced at labels and let other parents know. It was easy then. We had control over who we were with and what he was eating. Everything went through us to get to him. OIT wasn’t readily available then, so I knew about it but didn’t pursue it.

First anaphylaxis was at age 13. He was more independent, we didn’t look at everything he ate and a mistake happened in a restaurant. Now he goes out with friends without us, without any adult. He’s a super smart and aware kid but teenagers are idiots and spacy and impulsive, and I wish so very much that OIT was a viable option for us early on. Doing it now would be very difficult with activity schedules and things when he has late nights with friends and when he showers and rests etc.

I say give it a shot while he’s young!!

To OP, how did your child get diagnosed with peanut allergy? Have they done a blood test? If so, what peanut protein is your child allergic to? If it's Ara h8, perhaps there isn't a likely chance of needing the Epi-pens but I am not an allergist, so you should consult yours.

See here https://www.carolinaasthma.com/blog/so-someone-in-your-family-has-peanut-allergy/: Three of the peanut proteins, Ara h1 (the Ara h is an abbreviation for peanut’s botanical name), Ara h2, and Ara h3 have been most closely linked to serious peanut allergic reactions. People who are primarily allergic to Ara h8, on the other hand, usually only have an itchy mouth or slight mouth swelling from eating peanuts.