Children's Allergies

Nathan has had a reaction to both of these veggies. His eczema flared up last night and he refused the meat patties I made him - and I had put green beans baby food in it. He had peas last week and ended up with a flare up as well as a couple of hives on his wrist.

So now I am suspicious of a peanut allergy. If he is PA what other foods should I avoid?

You can be allergic to some legumes but not all== we withheld all beans and peas from my PA son, but now that he's older he recently decided to try them all, very carefully and wasn't allergic to anything other than peanuts! Not sure if it was b/c we waited, or he was never allergic to them in the first place. My son was allergic to soy and peas but outgrew those allergies by age 6...hth!

L

Well, we are avoiding all legumes except for green beans and soy on the recommendation of our allergist. DS #2 is allergic to peanut, and although he did fine with peas at first (and even skin tested negative to them), he started regurgitating any jarred dinner that had them in it, so I assumed that he was allergic to them. The doctor told us that avoiding all legumes (other than the green beans and soy, which he was/is doing just fine with) was probably the best idea.

It's frustrating, though, because there are all kinds of terrific legumes out there that I love cooking with (black beans and cannellini in particular), and we're just avoiding them even though they might not cause him any sort of problem. Plus, they're a great source of protein, and I hate the idea of avoiding any food unnecessarily since we already have to avoid so much.

So, I guess that avoiding all legumes might be the way to go, but you should really check with your doctor on that. Also, our doctor recommends avoiding tree nuts not only because many PA people are allergic to tree nuts, but also because of the cross-contamination of nuts. DS #2 might not have a tree nut allergy, but tree nuts are often mixed with or processed with peanuts, so we avoid them. HTH!

Hey we've trialed all legumes and have failed all of them. Altho DD tests negative to them she still reacts badly to all of them. I've been told by people to not get rid of an entire food group but after reactions to more than half we decided we'd just avoid :)

Katrina

My DD was allergic to soy (outgrew) and is allergic to peanuts.  She never reacted to any other legume, and we never had to avoid any other legume.  (At one point, she was allergic to milk, soy, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts, poppy seeds and avoiding eggs, fish and shellfish.)  It's interesting to note that milk and soy allergies are commonly found in the same kids, but not necessarily soy and other legumes. 

Most kids are allergic to one legume and not to the entire group (though they may test pos because of cross-reactivity).

He reacts to peas and green beans but may never develop any other legume allergy.  To be on the safe side, since PA is so common and severe, you may want to avoid it anyway until you talk to an allergist.  (He's also too young to eat peanuts.)

People with true PA are often advised to avoid tree nuts, but he's too young for tree nuts anyway.  Peanuts are found in granola bars, cereal, baked goods, crackers, cookies...

Has he had allergy testing? 

Anne