Nut Allergies

My daughter is allergic to peanuts. Even though she only tested positive to peanuts she's not supposed to have tree nuts either since they are often processed together. I've read somewhere that the peanut oil is supposed to contain the part that does not cause reactions but the processing isn't 100% effective at filtering. We were told to avoid peanut oil with her. We do eat at resturants on occasion, however her allergies to milk and eggs are more of a problem there. I would avoid Asian food estabishments since they use peanuts in a lot of dishes. At resturants we talk to the waiter about what is in the food. They've gone back to talk the chef and check labels. We try to go when they are not too busy and give a good tip because of the extra work.

My boss's nephew's school has banned peanuts. She was ranting about how wrong and unfair this was to the peanut eating kids. I just stared at her. She's hates when I'm out of work to take care of the kiddo. Being exposed to peanuts at school would mean I'm out of the office for a couple of days while my DD is in the hospital. My DD and her nephew aren't in the same school district but you'd think she'd see the connection and social contract. Anyway, that's a taste of what a MC might have to experience with peanut allergies.

Yeah peanuts are hard.... I'm luckier because I'm only allergic to Brazil nuts so peanuts are okay. Nuts come in different families so you can be allergic to one type but okay with others. I'll eat some nuts but other nuts I get all jittery about and won't touch even though they aren't Brazils, its psychological with the other nuts but I still get all shaky and avoid them.
I quite happily tolerate peanuts, hazelnuts and pistachios, only recently did I learn to accept almonds, however cashews give me the shivers as do Walnuts, walnuts I particularly can't stand and they make me feel sick if I come across one though as I said thats psychological inbred in childhood from a deep fear of nasty nuts and walnuts look nasty...
If I'm travelling overseas I'll take an epipen with me just in case I accidently hit a Brazil Nut...
I was 6 at the time we discovered via eating part of a christmas cake on christmas day... christmas then got cancelled as I was raced off to hospital by my terrified parents who didn't know what was wrong other than I had red blotches all over me, mucus in my eyes and was choking and later vomiting when I got there...
The epi-pen is basically a dose of adrenalin which is there to help pump up your system and keep you breathing until you get some more detailed medical care.
But yeah its a serious allergy and it does kill you and some people are extremely sensitive to exposure, read some things about people with peanut allergies where someone died in a plane due to the peanut dust floating around from all those little packets everyone eats and another poor girl went into anaphalyactic shock after kissing her boyfriend who'd been eating peanuts a bit earlier.
Even if the bad stuff is processed out like the person above me suggested or as I've heard they are trying to create an allergy free peanut I would recommend that your MC would still avoid it like hell... I mean I can't look at a walnut and thats not even a brazil nut that's going to kill me.

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- words dancing in the wind, scattered into sentences, blown into my mind -

I can speak from experience on this. If you have an allergy to peanuts, yes, you're most likely going to react to peanut oil as well. I'm sure there are exceptions, but generally, any peanut products will trigger a reaction.

There's actually a bit of differentiation between peanut allergies and other nut allergies, since technically peanuts are legumes, not nuts. But that's beside the point.

In general, restraunts aren't too much of a problem with nut allergies. I've asked before at restraunts whether this has hazlenut or whether there's almonds in that, and they've been understanding. How much a nut allergy would affect you depends on the severity. Are you talking about just plain allergic, can't eat nuts? Or ubersensitive can't eat food prepared in the same kitchen level of allergic? This can make a big difference. I've dealt with moderate severity, I just can't eat them, and I get kinda itchy if I'm in a room with a lot of nut dust, like if someone's grinding hazlenuts or something. I've known some people, though, who can't eat at the same table as someone eating nuts; it's that bad. If you're just talking moderately allergic, restraunts shouldn't be a problem. Most restraunts tend to be pretty flexible, too. A restraunt near me that serves mediterranean tapas has a special menu that points out what items have what kind of nuts in them.

Now, restraunts I WOULD avoid: most ethnic restraunts, DEFINITELY Indian. I've had personal experience with that, trust me, it's not the kind of place you want to eat with a nut allergy. Asian foods in general are something to be cautious about.

I don't know what exactly you're planning to do with this, but I strongly reccomend looking into food ingredients and preservatives. I had murderous allergies for four years, and I learned far more than I wanted to in that time about what goes into the food we eat. You'd be surprised where you can find nut and nut products, and what foods will have nuts in them. As far as peanut allergies go, I stear clear of store bought cookies and brownies unless I can read the ingredients first. Definitely do some research there.

THANK YOU all for your insight.
It's a murder mystery. I had already decided that nut oil is going to be the murder weapon. The victim is a middle-aged man with a moderately severe nut allergy. I hadn't decided which nut to choose. I did decide that he would carry an epipen as I have read about those. How big are they - bigger than a Sharpie? Do you have a prescription for that or can you get them at a pharmacy? Can you describe one to me? How do you carry it around, does it have a case? I'm particularly interested in a man's perspective. Also, I imagine most of your friends and family know about your allergy but how about co-workers, acquaintances, etc. Do you tell most everyone or do you keep quiet about it?
Thanks again to everyone!

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VictoriaPL

Well, there are lots of different types of nut allergies, so I guess it all depends...

For me, I'm only really allergic to hazelnuts, others are usually fine, unless I eat insane amounts. And I'm not really that much of a nut person, so I'm good. I get swollen, itchy and painful lips, and VERY itchy mouth (and throat as well, in some cases). Mine's a fairly mild allergic reaction, and most likely a cross reaction because of my (much stronger) pollen allergies. Apparently most food allergies (at least against nuts and certain fruits/vegetables) come from such cross reactions. At least that's what I've heard.

http://www.acenta.com/allergy.foodallergy.asp here is a nice little page, that lists some normal cross reactions. Of course, having one allergy doesn't mean you have all the others, and it doesn't really always make sense. I have the worst reaction to grass (and cats), so I shouldn't really have that much of a reaction to hazelnuts, but those (and kiwis too, I guess) are the only foods I can't eat.

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My daughter's epi-pen is in a case that is slightly bigger than the pen. Yeah, it's a little bigger than a Sharpie. You slam it against your thigh to injst the medicine. It is perscription. Our came with 2 pens and a short DVD to learn how to use it. However, it is an Epi Jr. It might be different for adults.

Here's another good site about food allergies
http://www.foodallergy.org/

I'm allergic to walnuts and pecans. Walnut oil (often used in Mediterranean food) is just as bad for me as the actual nut.

As for eating at restaurants, I do so frequently. I know which cuisines are walnut-heavy and which common dishes contain stuff I can't have so I'm generally ok. If there's any doubt about a dish, I ask the chef or completely avoid it. There have been some nasty surprises along the way, though.

Yeah I always get kind of annoyed when restraunts will neglect to mention a dish has nuts... honestly its one of the ingredients, I remember once the dish had listed lots of things that were in it but when it arrived there were bits of nuts in it too and you just roll your eyes and think well they bothered to list all the other stuff in it so why forget the nut... but yeah the less common the nut the easier it is to avoid so walnuts and brazil nuts are easier to live with than peanut allergies...

Epipen, yeah its prescription from your doctor and mine just came in a cardboard box... don't have one at the moment as they only last a year before you need to replace them

With the murder thing I remember seeing a recent episode of Silent Witness I think it was where someone murdered a girl with nut oil by lacing her biscuits with traces of it...

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- words dancing in the wind, scattered into sentences, blown into my mind -

A friend of mine has a mild allergy to nuts. He gets the blotches, swollen lips and a complete lack of energy, he feels just awful for a few hours.

Walnuts are the worst for him, walnut oil is just as bad (and sneakier...). Cashew, pistachio an hazelnut give much lighter reactions. He has a possible very mild reaction to peanuts (but doesn't feel like testing further, as he loathes even the smell of them).
He's completely fine with almonds, even in huge quantities.

He's also sensitive to pollen, but has no other allergies.

Oh, and for maybe a nice detail for your victim: many people with food and pollen alergies also have eczema. This could be a lead for the medical examiner or the detective.

I am allergic to all nuts to a various degree so yes peanut oil is a major no go area as is anything made in a factory or area that has been used to prepair nuts. Mine is so bad that I can be effected just by walking into a room where peanuts have been eaten anything up to 15 mins before (though it just makes me feel sick and faint rather than cause a proper omg things are swelling up reaction.) Can not be in the same room as open peanuts.

My epipen comes in a bright yellow cardboard triangle box and is roughly the size of the average soft drink bottle in hight though obv a lot slimmer. I keep it in its cardboard tube as it has to be kept out of direct sunlight.

Eating out is fine generally, fast food restraunts and bar meals have never been an issue and anywhere fancier whoever books the place makes it clear that their is a person with food allergies so the restraunt can be prepaired for this. Is there is ever any doubt about whats in a dish so far everywhere I have ate at has been fine about finding out for me. Although I tend to stick to English or italian meals and would never eat anything from an ethinic restraunt or in a place that was not willing to find out for me.

Telling people, I tell everyone I spend any significant amount of time with from classes and teaches, people I work with and if booking to travel anywhere on public transport such as long distance coach journeys I make sure the driver is aware to. Again more out of playing it safe than to be truely awkward but thats just what I feel safer with. There is also medi aware braclets etc that can let people know about allergies, medical illnesses etc so you might want to research them to. Also I know a lot of people who have allergies have ashtma to in my experiance.

My young cousin has a SEVERE peanut allergy, and avoids peanut oil as well as the nuts and things made with them (like peanut butter). He was diagnosed after his first bite of a Reese Cup when he was only 1 or 2, and his airway and lips swelled and he couldn't breathe.

He can be in the same room as peanuts (I'm not sure about dust - he's only ever been in the room as peanut butter, or cookies with nuts after they've already been baked, not during the actual baking process), but he can't eat them or be touched/kissed by anyone who just had some without them washing their hands or brushing their teeth first. He's also lactose intolerant, and allergic to something in that lactose-free milk, so he has to have soy milk and cheese, and no ice cream, plus VERY SMALL amounts of chocolate at a time. These allergies I don't think are quite as severe, so he gets itchy, hyper, and sick to his stomach eventually if he has them.

He carries an epipen in his backpack, plus the school nurse has one in her office (he's in kindergarten this year). They read the lunch menu very thoroughly because he enjoys getting his lunch there with the other kids, so my aunt and uncle let him when they can, but he does bring his own from home quite often. At restaraunts, they mention that he has a peanut allergy to the waiter/waitress when they first meet them and they are usually more than happy to assist them in finding a food product that he can eat (I don't know if this is because he's so young, and they'll get less tolerant as he gets older, or if we've just gone to exceptional places).

My mother worked with a woman who was allergic to something in mayonaise, maybe the eggs, and it was very severe. She and my mother went to a deli one time where they both got the same sandwhich, one with mayo and one without, and she got sick anyway because they had used the same knife to cut both sandwiches.

I'm allergic to hazelnut - anaphylaxis, but not only sometimes. Most of the time, I have no reaction to hazelnut at all. It's odd, and there's currently no explanation for why it happens that way. Realistically, I only worry about hazelnuts if they're loose - I've never reacted to cooked hazelnuts such as in cheesecakes or other baked goods, or in nutella, or that sort of thing. It's only when they're loose that I've reacted to them (but yeah, only sometimes).

I'm also allergic to shea, as in shea butter, and that allergy is a huge one - massive rashes that are unbelievable.

But that's the extent of my nut allergies. Peanuts have zero affect on me.

For insight in Asian food... In Sri Lanka, it's cultural that people will tell you what they think you want to hear, which is not necessarily the truth. They may not know the truth, or they may, but they'll still tell you what they think you want to hear. If you have major allergies, eating in restaurants here may not be wise unless you know how to ask questions to elicit a truthful response (I don't have that). They're also very... casual. Laid back. Unconcerned.

I imagine that there may be similarities in some other areas in the region.

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Laurie, ML for Sri Lanka, Asia: Elsewhere
Why, yes, I am crazy. Why do you ask?

Allergies can be tricky because there is a lot they don't know about how/why they develop or are triggered. I developed all of mine as an adult. My corn allergy was undiagnosed for two years---the doctor kept saying it was 'only eczema' and I kept insisting it was not, that I knew what eczema looked like on me, it wasn't it, and something else was going on :)

I am fine with peanuts (which are a legume, not a nut) and although I tested positive for tree nut allergies, I have eaten them and never had a reaction. I don't like them much so I was not too upset with the allergy diagnosis---until I had an anaphylatic reaction to a raw apple (which I have previously eaten uneventfully my whole life). It turns out that people with tree nut allergies can often cross-react with tree FRUIT---it's called oral allergy syndrome. You can have them cooked, canned or processed because it kills the proteins, but not raw. This, I was quite upset about as I love fruit. So that might be another area for you to explore with your character---a lot of people don't know about this, but several doctor-types I know where all quite horrified that the allergist did not warn me about fruits when I tested positive for nuts on the skin test.

I have mild allergies to peanuts and nuts. Like... really mild. Technically I DO have severe reactions, but not really. I've been tested for them, I reacted, but I've never actually reacted in life. (I have reacted to soy, but I outgrew that allergy).

Buuuuut I'd thought I'd talk about the EpiPen. It's slightly longer than a pen, and thicker... it's between the size of a nickel and quarter. There's a greyish part on the back you pull off, then you slam it into your thigh and hold it there for ten seconds. It WILL NOT SAVE YOU IF YOU ARE HAVING A SEVERE REACTION. It will give you 20 minutes to get to the hospital. They recently just changed the cases for EpiPens so they look more nifty.... it's now in a plastic tube with an orange spin-top, which is an improvement over the sickly orange tube of the past.

Also, one of the major indicators that you ARE going into anaphalactic shock is a sense of impending doom. No, really. You start thinking that something is very, very wrong. I was amused when I found this out.

Someone above mentioned an allergy to all nuts... whilst this happens its not usually the norm, usually its a specific group, nuts come from differerent families so something like pecans and walnuts are related but other nuts are fine though they might give you a mild irritation but its probably something more developed from your body or mind reacting to the fear of the nut like what I get over some nuts.

With the fruit thing, I recall something that almonds are actually related to some stone fruit like peaches so someone who would be allergic to almonds would also have a problem with peaches (theres some others in the family too). I think you can look it up somewhere as to what belongs in which genus group.

What I remember of my anaphalytic shock was feeling like really really crap, instantanous I just was like, I need to keel over on the couch, I recall just hitting the couch and curling up as if to die whilst my parents noticing this came over and freaked out because the symptoms I mentioned earlier were already cropping up... I don't remember anything after that really as I think I just blanked out of it then whilst my parents rushed me to hospital, so yeah if its happening to you you really need someone else there to help you because you just have no ability to fight it yourself you just go all bleary eyed and crash out of it so yeah you rely on someone to pull you through

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- words dancing in the wind, scattered into sentences, blown into my mind -

I've been severely allergic too all nuts, except peanuts, my entire life. Unfortunately, the discovery of my allergy nearly cost me my life, but I can tell you that you get used to it pretty quickly and after awhile, it becomes easier. I think someone mentioned it earlier, but peanuts are actually beans and grow underground while tree nuts, which is every other kind of nut, are grown on trees.

I carry an Epipen with me every where I go just in case of a problem. My Epipen has a little case to keep it enclosed. On the Epipen itself there is instructions of how to use it. The Epipen alone, without the case, would be probably about the size of a sharpie maybe a bit longer, but it's definitely bigger with the case.

When using the Epipen, you place it on your outer thigh, pushing the top, the needle will enter into your thigh, which gives you a boost of adrenaline. You hold it in for ten seconds and release. It always gives me a bruise for a few days after having an Epipen.

Many times, especially for dessert, I'll tell the waiter or waitress too make sure not to let any nuts get into my dessert, because in the past I've had problems with only a little crumb of nut in my food. For example: when I was about 9-10, at a Christmas party, I had cookie and there were pistachio cookies right next to it. I wound up going to the hospital for 4-5 hours completely ruining Christmas. Recently, I went to the hospital for eating peanuts that didn't actually contain nuts, but it did say 'may contain traces of tree nuts' at the bottom and I hadn't seen that part of the ingredients until it was too late.

I hope I helped in some way with your story! : )

My brother has an intolerance to almonds, which isn't actually an allergy, LOL, but hopefully I can provide some insight from the other end of the spectrum here. When he was around 6 or 7, he started to break out in hives all over his back, which came and went, and eventually we traced it to almonds and almond products such as almond oil and marzipan. While he was never at risk of anaphylactic shock or anything that would seriously harm him, his reactions were pretty severe and very fast. He once ate a piece of cake that had had one almond flake on the icing, and as soon as he'd finished eating it, promptly threw up all over he floor. A couple of raw almonds would have him out in almost instant hives, but his reactions have calmed down now - he only has them to that extent if he eats a fair amount of almonds/almond products. However, we still don't have any almond products in the house. The type of things we have to avoid include sweets with marzipan in/on them as well as raw almonds and almond oil, which rules out some types of cakes (a lot of sponge cakes have almonds on the icing, and cakes with that mouldable type of icing contain marzipan). You have to watch out for museli products as well - it's tough finding almond-less museli. Also museli bars/lunchbox bars, some types of ice-cream, chocolate and nougat, and trail mixes. Thankfully he's pretty much a health-nut!
Generally the only trouble we run into in restuarants will be if he's having a piece of cake or dessert, checking it doesn't have marzipan/almonds in it. However ultimately it won't kill him if he eats it accidentally, he'll just get a reaction. Still not pleasent for him though, so we have to look out for him!

NaNo 2006: Victoria (19.5k)
Screnzy 2007: Disconnected (20.5k winner)
NaNo 2007: The Witness a.k.a Into The Dark (51k winner)
Screnzy 2008: Adding 30 or so new pages to Disconnected.

Sorry, double post!

NaNo 2006: Victoria (19.5k)
Screnzy 2007: Disconnected (20.5k winner)
NaNo 2007: The Witness a.k.a Into The Dark (51k winner)
Screnzy 2008: Adding 30 or so new pages to Disconnected.

My sister has an allergy to tree nuts. She's not allergic to peanuts, though, thankfully, because she practically lives on peanut butter. She is a picky eater anyways, so she mostly just figures out what foods are safe anywhere and tends to stick to those (burgers, fries, and chocolate shakes, mostly). Cookies are a problem, though. She usually has to ask if they have nuts in them, and then she only nibbles a little bit. If she waits 30 seconds and her mouth hasn't started to tingle, the cookie is safe and she can eat it.

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I always remember my sister being allergic to walnuts growing up. If she even had the tiniest taste of one her throat would swell, she felt like she couldn't breath, ect, ect.
I'm pretty sure this still happens to her. o_o;
We'd always check the ingredients on things we bought and ask if there were walnuts in the food we were going to eat when we went over to other people's houses. When ordering at a restaurant , we asked the waiter/whoever we could... and if all else fails, we took a bite to see if it tasted walnutty at all, though that didn't always work.

It was never any other nut.. just walnuts, which suited her just fine seeing as neither of us can stand them. XD;

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