Life threatening allergies

[mom-in-alberta]

2/4 of my own kids are peanut-allergic, so I am well versed in EpiPen and Benadryl scenarios. *touch wood* I have not had to administer the EpiPen or the like. Benadryl will take care of what we have dealt with up to this point.
However, I always ensure that we have one around. Non-life threatening can, unfortunately, turn into life-threatening in one reaction. Scary stuff. I would recommend looking into the Allerject over the EpiPen. It has voice prompts, and a countdown for administration. I believe it even reminds you to call 911 after the injection.
Do your research, think about your own capabilities and make a judgment based on that.
Personally, I would not be able to do a long list of allergies. I can ensure that our home is nut-aware, but dairy/wheat/soy/etc would be difficult for me.

[daycaremom9]

I have a boy whose mother is allergic to peanuts so she is unsure if her son is or not. I've had him since he was a year old and he's almost 3 now. When he was 1, he was in a high chair so I allowed other children to have peanut products which his mother was aware of. I was very anal about making sure the table and children were cleaned before this boy could come down from the high chair. Since he started eating at the table with the other children, I have become a nut free daycare. If a parent informed me that her child has a life threatening nut allergy, then I would have to tell them that I couldn't accept them into the daycare.

[Daisy123]

I have a little girl with me with a peanut allergy. She's only ever broken out in a rash once but still has an epipen at my house. She's only here 2 ams a week and honestly I'm just super careful. I disinfect her eating space and make sure that she always washes before eating. There are some brands that eliminate oils including peanut oils off of skin and surfaces. But... there are very few items with nuts in them in the house as my daughter is sensitive. Any member of the family who opens a nut product does so in a designated spot and washes afterwards. Now, normally I wouldn't accept a nut allergy because of the liability but this was a special circumstance. I always tell parents that I will not serve peanut products but that I will also never claim to be peanut free. If anyone feels the need to bring in outside food ie, at halloween, it will NOT be used without my being able to see a guaranteed list of ingredients.

[5 Little Monkeys]

Bright sparks....thanks for that info!! None of the children I know with milk and gluten allergies had epi pens so I was unaware

[bright sparks]

5 little monkeys - I'm sure it's different for every child depending on each individuals reaction.

[daycarewhisperer]

How do they know this at ten months old?

[bright sparks]

How do they know this at ten months old?

I am going to assume that as the parent said her child has anaphylactic allergies to peanuts then he must have had that kind of reaction. As for the others, I would hazard a guess that she is misusing the term allergy and they are intolerances but that's not to say it is so. Child could have swelling of lips etc when ingesting them, or if it was an intolerance then loose bowel movements amongst other things would be a good indicator, even at this age. That being said, she would really have had to go through a period of elimination and introduce each thing back without the others for a period of two weeks to truly identify an intolerance and I find it highly unlikely that she would have done this at age 10 months.

[daycarewhisperer]

I am going to assume that as the parent said her child has anaphylactic allergies to peanuts then he must have had that kind of reaction. As for the others, I would hazard a guess that she is misusing the term allergy and they are intolerances but that's not to say it is so. Child could have swelling of lips etc when ingesting them, or if it was an intolerance then loose bowel movements amongst other things would be a good indicator, even at this age. That being said, she would really have had to go through a period of elimination and introduce each thing back without the others for a period of two weeks to truly identify an intolerance and I find it highly unlikely that she would have done this at age 10 months.

Why would they give a baby nuts?

I would be suspicious that a ten month old would have these allergies.

[bright sparks]

Why would they give a baby nuts?

I would be suspicious that a ten month old would have these allergies.

Living in Canada which is a cultural mosaic not everyone is raising their children the same, this includes the practice of weaning. Different cultures do different things. For example, myself being from the UK. We do not have restrictive guidelines like over here for weaning. Personally without meaning offence to anyone, I can't get over how anal the whole ordeal is here. By age 7 months my son was off milk and ate EVERYTHING. He started to be weaned onto food at 11 weeks. My daughter was 7 weeks when she started having plain brown rice pureed and was on full table food without it being chopped up by 6 months. She also ate everything. A staple meal for lunch was eggs from as young as 6 months and she was on cows milk at 10 months even though the guideline was 12mths. There were no restrictions on nuts for fear of allergy, the biggest risk was choking but that's not to say they couldn't be crushed up or cooked in something. I hear over and over that breast fed babies do not need any solid food till 12 months old and that a child should not be weaned onto food to early before 6-9 mths because it increases the risk of allergies, but honestly I have never known so many people to have food allergies over here so while I have read info that backs up these claims, it doesn't seem to be working out so well. Also seriously do you realize the family dr has little to no training in nutrition?!? They are the last people I would take advice from with regards to nutrition.

All I am saying is that there is more than one right way of doing something and just because some of us may not introduce nuts till after 12 months, doesn't mean that others don't or shouldn't.

[Artsand crafts]

Living in Canada which is a cultural mosaic not everyone is raising their children the same, this includes the practice of weaning. Different cultures do different things. For example, myself being from the UK. We do not have restrictive guidelines like over here for weaning. Personally without meaning offence to anyone, I can't get over how anal the whole ordeal is here. By age 7 months my son was off milk and ate EVERYTHING. He started to be weaned onto food at 11 weeks. My daughter was 7 weeks when she started having plain brown rice pureed and was on full table food without it being chopped up by 6 months. She also ate everything. A staple meal for lunch was eggs from as young as 6 months and she was on cows milk at 10 months even though the guideline was 12mths. There were no restrictions on nuts for fear of allergy, the biggest risk was choking but that's not to say they couldn't be crushed up or cooked in something. I hear over and over that breast fed babies do not need any solid food till 12 months old and that a child should not be weaned onto food to early before 6-9 mths because it increases the risk of allergies, but honestly I have never known so many people to have food allergies over here so while I have read info that backs up these claims, it doesn't seem to be working out so well. Also seriously do you realize the family dr has little to no training in nutrition?!? They are the last people I would take advice from with regards to nutrition.

All I am saying is that there is more than one right way of doing something and just because some of us may not introduce nuts till after 12 months, doesn't mean that others don't or shouldn't.

I think you are right about doctors having only an idea about nutrition. My hubby was referred from the cardiologist to the chief of research in diabetics and none of them venture to give him any nutrition advice. They referred him to a nutritionist.

I also agree that in Toronto there are people from almost every part of the world and there are countries where currently allergies are technically unheard of.

I had a 9 months dcb old whose parents gave him peanut butter sandwich and then realized he had a life threatening allergy. Mom said she had been giving him peanut cookies and nothing had happened until they gave him the peanut butter sandwich.

I also grew in another country and did not know anything about allergies until I came to north America.