Siblings and allergens

[nonuteen]

This new study really has me questioning how I handle my non allergic children and our nut free home. 

I believe DD was born with her allergies.  From day one, she had eczema, reflux, and other issues.  I ate nuts while nursing.  Her eczema was awful for the entire first year, no matter what we eliminated.  Had a reaction to pb , the first bite she ever had.

SO...she is my oldest.  Our house has always been peanut, nut free.  My 2 younger children have been tested for all nuts (blood and skin) and always test negative.  I do not restrict snacks outside of the house other than they have never had a blatant nut product...EVER.  They have had plenty of may contains, bakery items, and manufactured on same equipment, plus zero restrictions at restaurants or with friends.  However, everything they eat on a daily basis is the same as my PA/TNA dd. 

It is not just because of worry about cross contamination and allergic dd, she is actually away at college now, it also has to do with my own fear of allowing one of my children to eat something that I now vilify due to everything we deal with oldest dd's LTFA.  I myself have not eaten an actual nut product in over a decade.

How does everyone else handle this?  Am I making a mistake by not adding more nut products in to non- allergic tested children?  I do not want to put them at higher risk for developing later in life by withholding.  Allergist of course thinks I should give it to them and has even offered to do it in her office.

Thoughts?

[PurpleCat]

My oldest DD has all the allergies and asthma.  Her two younger brothers do not.

DD is 15 living at home.

The boys can eat anything they want when they are not at home.  At home we only have 2 of her allergens (she has a long list). 

Eggs because she passed a baked egg challenge and then 6 months later an egg challenge but her egg allergy came back.  She reacts to direct egg but not baked egg.  We are careful with raw egg and the boys eat eggs occasionally and know that to clean up they must use paper towels not the sponge or dish sponge, etc.... 

Sunflower seed spread, because it has been in the house for years, since her first allergy testing, and the boys and DH are careful....if they mess up, then it is gone, (just ask DH why mayo will not be in our house anymore).  This is a more recent allergy for DD...at least discovered more recently, she's never wanted to try sunflower anything.

When she goes to college, I don't expect I will change anything.  I want her to come home when she wants and I don't want to have to super clean when she does.  During that time I feel she still lives here.

Once she has a home of her own I might feel differently, especially when DH and I downsize. 

If she has children with allergies, I, like all of you will be the best damned allergy free grandma those kids can have!

[YouKnowWho]

We have all of our allergens in the house but strict rules on how they are handled.  There have been caveats - I cannot mix up wheaty goodness in the house (DS1 has reacted with asthma responses being down the hall) but I will bake with premixed wheat stuff (ie cookie dough or premade pizza) on certain pans.

Our allergist and budget was clear at the time - DS2 was going to eat products containing wheat, rye, barley and egg even though DS1 was allergic in an effort not to sensitize him by avoiding.  We were told not introduce nuts until later - he tested positive for the peanut allergy prior to introduction.  DD had no restrictions on her diet but developed her tree nut allergy about the age of 4 (I suspect it had everything to do with two courses of antibiotics). 

This can change at anytime if needed, for now it works for us.

[guess]

Pretty much in the same boat as YKW.  With extensive MFA you don't have the option of considering only a single 'sometimes' food.  When it's multiple wide-category allergens you triage so in a sense it removes the burden of hand wringing over a single allergen.  As long as you have a plan with rules everyone can follow built with a couple of layers of indirection for inevitable human error - you're fine.

Talk it over with the one child with PA/TNA first then the family at large on what the changes will be.  My rule is follow the rule for eating allergens at home or you lose the privilege to do so.  I'm not a spell casting wizard or a human spectrometer with detection capabilities.  Cooperate with the allergen management or I enact measures based on your demonstrated unwillingness or inability to comply for in house.  It's not like I'm asking them to teach dolphins to make toast - just keep something in place X, use disposable utensils, 10-15 second decent hand wash, or do whatever you want outside the house.

Read your situation.  I'm not going to second guess what your oldest child needs but I would say if it looks like the rules will form themselves without your guidance then do so now to set them.

I do eat most of my children's allergens outside of the home.  Some I eat inside.  The two I shy away from either inside or outside the home are peanut/nuts and cow's milk.  That comes from trying to live with it and it failed miserably with ER visits.  Not gonna happen for us right now.  5 years from now might be a different story.

[nonuteen]

Our house has been nut free for so long that it is not hard at all for us to keep it that way and I prefer that we always do.   I want our home to be the one place she feels safe and doesn't have to worry.  I do not plan on ever changing that.

What I do think I need to change is how often younger 2 without allergies are exposed to nuts. In the past the allergist and ped, told me to avoid nuts while pregnant and avoid giving to  siblings due to higher risk.  In the past years, our allergist has encouraged me to give non allergic children nuts when not home.   I am worried that if they continue to avoid as much as we do that they may increase their risk to develop an allergy.  Guess I need to make a more conscious effort away from home to expose non allergic children.  I have always been afraid to give them actual nuts in case of an allergic reaction and at this point they don't want to eat it and don't even enjoy the smell either.

I wasn't sure how everyone else handled this with non- allergic siblings.

[krasota]

It's possible the egg avoidance in our house led to DD being allergic like her brother.  But I had a kid who was contact reactive in the past and was still in the strict avoidance mode, so what was I to do?  I couldn't very well feed her eggs and then set her loose to chew on his toys. 

He's since passed a baked egg challenge.  She occasionally breaks out in hives and get flushed cheeks when someone has been careless with baked goods crumbs.  *sigh*  I assume it's a contact-oral route and not strictly contact, but it's worrisome.

They get exposed to gluten and peanut and soy outside the house. I need to breathe, too.

[guess]

It's a study and a study isn't how people live, it's not truth, it's just data within certain parameters.  Prove, disprove, show how, yada yada.  Even on with the same extreme criteria some of the treatment group sensitized, and the vast majority of the non-treated group did not.  Clinically significant to change the course of advice towards that select population but assume for the time being that unless you're living on a regimen that it may not apply at all, or your children are in the statistical majority that didn't sensitize no matter what.

For what it's worth I'm not sure we're a good sampling because those who gather here skew towards the oh crap that's not supposed to happen end of the bell curve.