Hmmmm, nuts . . .

Little D had an allergist appointment a few weeks back. It was actually to talk about asthma (which he does not have an official diagnosis far yet as he has not had three episodes BUT our allergist says she is pretty sure he has it). However, I mentioned that we were not doing any baked foods because it was so hard to find gluten-free flours that did not have tree nut contamination.
Soooooo, our allergist decided to run a blood test to see if Little D was, in fact, allergic to tree nuts. Usually, when you have a peanut allergy it is recommended to stay away from tree nuts for two reasons: 1) many people with peanut allergies also have tree nut allergies and 2) it is very hard to find safe tree nut sources as most are contaminated with peanuts. Still, our allergist thought it would be good to look into it because the benefit of adding nuts to his diet could outweigh the risks.

Hence, Little D’s first RAST blood test results!
Before I give you his numbers, let me give you the breakdown of how they are rated.
Class 0 <0.35 (no allergy)
Class 1 0.35 - 0.69
Class 2 0.70 - 3.49
Class 3 3.50 - 17.49
Class 4 17.50 - 52.49
Class 5 52.50- 99.99
Class 6 >100

The thing about this class system is that it does not correlate to the SEVERITY of a reaction, only the PROBABILITY. The higher the class, the higher the likelyhood there will be some sort of reaction. So Class 6 does not mean you will have an anaphylactic reaction, only that you are pretty much 100% likely to have a reaction. It could just be a hive. Of course, this also means that a Class 1 reaction could be anaphylactic.

Okay, so Little D’s results:
Total IgE (which corresponds to his general allergic level) - 118 (normal is 0-89 so his number is high BUT the nurse said she’s seen numbers in the thousands before so, you know, it’s not the worst ever)
Sesame - 1.72 (Class 2)
Peanut - 75.20 (Class 5)
Chickpea - <0.35 (Class 0)
Almond - <0.1 (Class 0)
Brazil - 0.10 (Class 0)
Cashew - 0.15 (Class 0)
Hazlenut - <0.1 (Class 0)
Pecan - <0.1 (Class 0)
Walnut - <0.1 (Class 0)

Well, as you can see, based on the numbers, Little D has no tree nut allergies. And this is pretty accurate, although the RAST test has a higher chance of false negatives (the skin prick test has a higher chance of false positives). So, I admit, I am a little nervous to actually try feeding him something with nuts in it (after carefully making sure they are a safe tree nut source and have no peanut contamination). It didn’t help that the nurse’s actual words were, “You can introduce nuts cautiously and you have an EpiPen.” Oh! We have an EpiPen. Okay then! Geez. Hone and I have decided to take it slow. We haven’t changed anything yet. We are pondering adding nuts at some point. We’re just waiting until we feel more comfortable. Also, I mentioned a few posts back that Little D has a serious speech delay (I’ll get into that in a later post) which also makes me more nervous to add a food he *could* have a reaction to because he is not able yet to say, you know, “Hey, my throat feels funny and is swelling up!”

Oy! This allergy stuff gets more confusing. Still, I have come out of these tests feeling better. Seeing negative numbers has made it seem more managable. And we are hoping that his sesame number stays low and maybe drops more in coming years. The fact that it is below 15 means he has some chance of outgrowing it, although, his only reaction so far has been to sesame AND was a stage 1 anaphylactic reaction. The peanut number is very high and it is less likely he will outgrow it. It’s possible but less likely. But if he COULD outgrow the sesame it would be great. The sesame allergy is the hardest, frankly, because it is not recognized as a top allergen and nothing has to be labelled. Managing a peanut allergy is easier.