My 11 month old son was just in the hospital for an anaphylactic reaction to peanut butter. He was a giant hive, and projectile vommitted, but thankfully his airway remained unaffected. I have to keep epinephrine on hand, but he is still too small for an epipen, and so the Dr's are trying to figure out how to give us the epinephrine...
I am feeling better today, but am really uneducated in this area. One of our other boys had food allergies, but nothing life threatening, and he's grown out of them already. From what I understand, this will probably be lifelong, and could get worse with every exposure. To make matters worse, we have to wait (probably months) for allergy testing, and until then, I have no idea if it is only peanuts, or all nuts, and no idea if he has any other allergies, or exactly how severe they are...I'm almost afraid to take him out of the house! 
I know I just have to accept it and move on, but I'm really scared and angry.
Sorry for the rant, just needed to get it off my chest without panicking my DH!
Jane
its really hard to have kids w/ allergies. both my boys had food allergies. we found about our youngest one when he was a baby that he was allergic to any milk products,choc.,cokes(any made with the coco bean)and dust mites.he would have really bad respitory problems. have to start looking at labels for everything you buy and bring into the house. we thought since our oldest wasnt allergic, we would buy a little bit of cheeze or ice cream or candy for him,but started finding out that our youngest was sneaking food to his room or taking bites of the cheeze like a little mouse. soon after he would have trouble breathing. sometimes ended up in ER for breathing treatment.so we learned real quick, dont buy ANY THING he couldnt have. it sucked for the older one,but we couldnt take any chances. a few yrs laters my older one has to get tested for allergies and finds out that he too is allergic to same things, only his reactions where rashes on his legs and arms. they both were given shots every week,and once they were teenagers they pretty much grew out of it. my youngest since uses an inhaler,but only when he has been excercing alot or sometimes with weather changes. they were both active in sports so it didnt inhibit them it any way at the time,except for birthday parties when everybody was eating cake,ice cream and choc candy,pizza's. just be very careful to look at labels when grocery shopping and ask when ordering food or what ever if they know if its made with anything he might be allergic to. DONT TAKE ANY CHANCES! your babies are too precious for that! good luck, its going to be hard at first,but you will get used to looking at everything (labels) and asking about everything. im sure he will be a healthy baby with you looking after him.
My oldest daughter is allergic to fire ants and we have to keep the epipen jr's on hand...the dr actually told us we had to have two for home and two for school because the response time for ems is so bad here that if we ever had to use the pen, it could start wearing off before help arrived 
talk about stress...
It is scary...a peanut allergy is much worse than the fire ant allergy, depending on how severe it is. Thank goodness though that your son didn't have a more severe reaction...I have a friend who found out her son had a peanut allergy when he was 2, and she found out because she fed him peanut butter and he just completely stopped breathing. She lived around the corner from the fire station so she just put him in the car and raced over there, but how scary! His allergy is bad enough that if she touched something that had peanuts and then went home and touched something, and later on he touched whatever it was, he would have a reaction...hopefully your son's allergy will be milder than that.
Those all sound pretty scary! I still haven't heard anything from my DR about the epinephrine...I'm not sure how they can let him go without it, since they told me he DEFINITELY needs it...I'm not allowed to measure it out myself and dose him, since I'm not a DR, but I give them all sorts of meds (over the counter) that are potentially fatal...
I just hope these things get resolved quickly
Thanks for the advice!
Epipen Jr's are for kids over 33 pounds, so you'll have a bit to wait.
I have food allergies, drug allergies and am really sensitive to chemicals. Just wanted to share that I've switched from Epipens to Twinjects. Twinjects carry 2 doses per pen and they have a lower copay than the Epipens. Those of you with allergies might want to ask your Dr.'s about them. My allergist told me they're gathering more and more data that more than 1 dose is generally necessary to stop a full blown anaphylaxis. One dose only lasts about 15 minutes.
Jodie
I'm hearing more about those twinjects, I'm going to have to ask if they are available in Canada. Usually the states are much faster to bring in new drugs & treatments...
I just have no clue what I am going to do for the "security blanket" effect of the epinephrine.
I am getting more comfortable with it, the more I learn, and have found an awsome website peanutallergy.com for anyone who might be looking!
I've had the Twinject for almost 2 years, so they're not brand new. Ask your Dr. about it and the pharmacy can order them if they don't keep them. The first injection of the Twinject is an auto injector. The second is a syringe that's inside the pen. You pop off one end cover to get to it. Fortunately I haven't had to use it, but I sure carry one. I also have one at work and one home. My copay for a two pack of Twinjects is $25. It's $40 for the Epipens.
Edited to add: I also carry the Benedryl strips. You put them on your tongue and they dissolve, so they get into you system very quickly, unlike taking the antihistamine tablets. It's not as good as adrenaline, but you can use it immediately when a reaction starts.
Jodie
I'm allergic to peanuts. When I was young it was very severe. I was about two when my parents found out about it and it was on board an airplane!!!! Needless to say, they got off the plane and headed right to the hospital. I don't think it's quite as bad now, but I don't know since I still avoid anything with peanuts. As your son gets older, try to teach him to ask adults about the ingredients in things like birthday cakes or anything that you didn't make. If an adult can't or won't answer the question, tell him not to eat it and send snacks with him to preschool, parties, etc. if necessary. After he learns to read encourage him to start reading food labels himself and identifying any peanut ingredients if they are present. Right now, he's too little to do this and you have to look out for him which can be extremely stressful. But as he gets older, he needs to feel like there's something he can do to prevent an allergic reaction.
My 5 year old son is allergic to peanuts. We found out when he was about 23 months old. He swelled badly, threw up, and broke out in hives (AFTER the epinephrine he was given at the urgent care place). THey then sent us to the hospital in an ambulance. It has been stressful, but he has been reaction free for over 3 years. (I am now knocking on wood.) Many day cares are now peanut-free, but even if they say that, ask to read all labels of anything they give him. Here are the things that I have done:
- keep cupcakes in the freezer at day care (and now school) so that he can have them when others have birthday treats i didn't bake
- keep a box of safe things in his classroom so that if there are other treats or snacks he can't have. He gets to choose in that case. I made sure there were some salty and some sweet things so the teachers could help "match" it to what was going on.
- Read labels on everything, every time. Ingredients can change.
Some good companies:
- Hershey (Not everything is safe, but if it isn't, even if there are traces or "may contains" or "made in a facility with . .." it WILL be labeled
-Tootsie- Their website states that all their products are safe. No nuts in any facility.
- Nabisco
- Kellogg's
Most other national brands.
I don't let my son eat anything baked elsewhere-- bakeries or other people's homes. I do offer to bake for every school event. I sign up to bring cookies rather than napkins or drinks, for example. I read labels on anything I find out about at his school. He takes his lunch to school. I am lucky that he is in my school so I can keep a closer watch, and we have a great staff and nurse. I have also made sure that everyone from his teachers to specials teachers, to the workers who keep him in the After School Program to the school nurse, the cafeteria monitors and other workers there know who he is and what he looks like and that he is allergic.
He, fortunately, does not appear at this time to react to airborne particles, but we can't be sure. He has been to Braves' games and has been fine and there are peanuts EVERYWHERE there. At school he eats at the table with his class, but they sit kids with peanut butter away from him. It's been 13 days, and so far so good. (More knocking on wood.)
I remember how frightening this was, and without Epi, I'd be more nervous too. However, you can live with this. It just means lots of vigilance and taking food for him everywhere you go in case you can't find anything you are confident of for him.
Feel free to PM me if you have more questions. I'll try to answer.
I've heard from several doctors, i'm not sure how they do it, but they expose them to just a little at a time, and they can build up a tollerance for it. I would ask the doctors about that.
I know they do it the most with cats but I have a friend who said it works with peanuts too
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