How many reactions?

PA son had 1st ana reaction at age 11 1/2 months. I fed him peanut butter for first time.
He has not had a massive reaction since.
He is almost 8 years old.
We lived in a safety bubble for years. We were hyper-vigilant.
This is our first year of really having him out in the world on a daily basis -- he goes to school for first time this year. (We have previously homeschooled.)
We have never had to use Epi-pen, thank heavens.
~Elizabeth
PS -- oh yeah, and some might say I am certifiable after all of this. LOL! But my son is still alive . . .
[This message has been edited by ajas_folks (edited October 06, 2006).]

PA DD had grade 4 anaphylaxis (hives, neurological changes, cardiac involvement/shock) at 11 months. Fed her about 50-100 mg of peanut butter. Rxn crested within ten minutes.
She had another major anaphylactic rxn before she was three. This one was biphasic, with only vomiting and general "malaise" in the initial phase. Cardiac/CNS involvement again in phase two-- also crested within about 10 minutes, but during the first thirty minutes she was only partially conscious. [i]We do not know what triggered this reaction.[/i] But not for lack of trying to find out.
We have since seen techincally anaphylactic reactions (grade 1/2) but only once or twice have we wanted to have epi handy "just in case." We've never had to pitch any expired Benadryl, though. [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/wink.gif[/img] About half have been to aerosol exposures, and half to suspected ingestion (usually of products that are 'in a facility'). DD is MFA, and has egg and TN anaphylaxis triggers as well.

my dd will be 4 in a few weeks, and (knock on wood!)...NEVER (no anaphylactic reactions, no reactions whatsoever).
hope we keep the streak going...

My first reaction was anaphylactic, breathing/swallowing/talking difficulties, hives, slapmarks, severe hives.
I have had many accidents since then, but these have been skin contact (one resulted me in full body hives for 4 days, still with near triple doses of claritin!
hopefully (touch wood) it will never happen again

I've had lots of milder anaphylactic reactions----usually vomiting + itchy/burning throat. But when I was a kid, we didn't realize that this type of reaction required medical attention.
I've only had one of those truly terrifying reactions involving nausea, throat itchiness, a "feeling of impending doom," face swelling, major breathing difficulty . . . I got an epipen after this reaction!
Few of my reactions have been from nuts though--I have multiple food allergies. When I was a kid, I reacted to peanuts several times, but never actually ingested that much of the protein . . . once I put some cracker jack in my mouth but spit it out before swallowing because I knew I was having a reaction as soon as I put it into my mouth (I was a kid. kids do dumb things.)
Once my grandmother gave me some chocolate M&Ms---I had never had them before, and peanuts isn't an ingredient on the label (and at that time there weren't warnings I don't think) so we didn't know about the major cross contamination issue. (I'm mildly allergic to chocolate but I used to eat it anyways.) I just had some throat itchiness + vomiting.
And once when we were visiting relatives in the States, I had some potato chips that were baked in peanut oil----but we didn't check the label until I had a reaction (throat itching).
I *think* I might have had a reaction in highschool from imported chocolate that was possibly cross-contaminated. I do react to chocolate . . . but this reaction was more severe.
---------
I've had milder "anaphylactic" reactions (i.e. involving more than one body system) even now when I'm more careful . . . but not to nuts/peanuts.
[This message has been edited by LisaM (edited October 09, 2006).]

My son will be 7 in a month or so and has never had any reaction at all that I can blame on his peanut allergy alone.....he was generally rashy from head to toe as an infant reacting to many foods through my milk, but once weaned to soy formula cleared up and has only had rash reactions to foods. he has only ingested peanut once that we know of since, at age 2, and had no reaction at all. His blood tests show his levels are reletively high though, so we are very very careful. he has had reactions related to his seasonal allergies, and his allergy shots- mostly rash, a few hives and asthma. nothing anaphylactic so far, thank goodness! Jen

DD has had one...and one was more than enough...
we still aren't exactly sure what triggered it...we were moving furniture that day and I remember her putting on chapstick...I believe it must have been an old tube that someone had used after eating PB...It must have fallen out of maybe the sofa, chair, ect while we moved it...
she started to get hives...we lived in the country at the time...I gave her benedryl and called the allergist...he said to get in the car and drive toward town to be closer to the hospital...we did so, and not 5 minutes down the road she said her throat felt funny...
I stopped the car and grabbed the epi...by the time I got to the back seat, she had her hands to her throat and was struggling to breathe...we were so far in the country, I couldn't get a cell phone signal...I jumped back in the car and was flying down the backroads at like 80 mph...
the whole situation was surreal...I remember hearing myself say, "Breathe Baby, just keep breathing." I remember my son quietly crying in the back seat next to her, And I remember the wheezing sound of each breath she took...
by the time we got to the highway, the epi kicked in and she was breathing easy...by the time we got to the hospital, the hives were gone, and you'd never guess she came close to death just 30 minutes ago...
I refused to take her back to our house in the country...I was terrified it would happen again...it scared my husband as well...so he agreed and we stayed in a hotel for a week...then we moved into a townhouse while we sold our house and land...we recently bought a house...
we're about 10 minutes from the hospital here...I'm not in panic-mode, but I'll never forget how horrible that and how powerless I felt...we had only known of her PA for a few monthes and had had the epi for @ one month...I give thanks to God for getting that epi into our hands before the anaphalaxis and for giving us the strength to endure it.

PA son had 1st ana reaction at age 11 1/2 months. I fed him peanut butter for first time.
He has not had a massive reaction since.
He is almost 8 years old.
We lived in a safety bubble for years. We were hyper-vigilant.
This is our first year of really having him out in the world on a daily basis -- he goes to school for first time this year. (We have previously homeschooled.)
We have never had to use Epi-pen, thank heavens.
~Elizabeth
PS -- oh yeah, and some might say I am certifiable after all of this. LOL! But my son is still alive . . .
[This message has been edited by ajas_folks (edited October 06, 2006).]

PA DD had grade 4 anaphylaxis (hives, neurological changes, cardiac involvement/shock) at 11 months. Fed her about 50-100 mg of peanut butter. Rxn crested within ten minutes.
She had another major anaphylactic rxn before she was three. This one was biphasic, with only vomiting and general "malaise" in the initial phase. Cardiac/CNS involvement again in phase two-- also crested within about 10 minutes, but during the first thirty minutes she was only partially conscious. [i]We do not know what triggered this reaction.[/i] But not for lack of trying to find out.
We have since seen techincally anaphylactic reactions (grade 1/2) but only once or twice have we wanted to have epi handy "just in case." We've never had to pitch any expired Benadryl, though. [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/wink.gif[/img] About half have been to aerosol exposures, and half to suspected ingestion (usually of products that are 'in a facility'). DD is MFA, and has egg and TN anaphylaxis triggers as well.

my dd will be 4 in a few weeks, and (knock on wood!)...NEVER (no anaphylactic reactions, no reactions whatsoever).
hope we keep the streak going...