tree nut allergy question

My granddaughter went to the allergist yesterday and the results came back. She's highly allergic to cashews & pistachios, then walnuts and less for crabmeat.She isn't allergic to peanuts. She had not eaten these before her reaction, but has eaten plenty of packaged foods that say " may contain treenuts or processed in the same factory as tree nuts" now we're afraid to even give her anything labeled like that. My question for those who have children with tree nut allergies, what do you do about eating out, say at Friendlys? We are concerned that if they use the same scooper to scoop pistachio ice cream, then use it to scoop another flavor the other flavor may have traces of pistachio in it. Do you go out to eat? Where do you go that are "safe" if you tell waitstaff that her food cant be cooked or prepared where there were any of these things, can we trust theyll take the proper precautions. How cautious are you? We also realized as far as cold cuts, there is a cold cut called mortadella which has pistachios in it. So if it was sliced on the machine, then we get turkey it could contain traces. King Kullen only carries Boars Head cold cuts and they told my daughter that Boars Head does not put pistachios in their mortadella because of the allergens. Good to know!

Message edited 1/13/2013 8:19:50 AM.

Re: tree nut allergy question

My son is extremely allergic to cashews and pistachios as well. He ate half a cashew once and his whole body swelled up, it was horrendous I've never seen anything like it. His eyes swelled shut, he was throwing up, he had welts all over his legs looked like they were three times their normal size and his peni s even swelled so much that now he has a ton of extra skin and looks almost uncircumcised due to the stretching. It was bad. That being said...I carry an epi pen with me at all times and we avoid food with those nuts in them. He was tested for a few other tree nut allergies and he's not allergic to them. We do buy foods where it says made in the same factory with tree nuts and we have only had an issue ONCE and that was with Kashi granola bars, his one eye slightly swelled we gave him some benedryl and it went down. He eats Annie's organic granola bars now. He has cereal bars, and various other things made in the same plant as tree nuts, never had an issue. He also eats cold cuts and has never had an issue. Just make sure to carry the epi pen with you. We have never had to use it but always carry it. We aren't super strict with avoiding things, I mean obviously we don't eat cashews and pistachios and things made with them but that's it, we live life as normal and have the back up just incase. We have known about the allergy for a year and a half and no epi pen use.

Re: tree nut allergy question

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Re: tree nut allergy question

We don't have nut allergies but we do have multiple other food allergies. You can tell them about the allergy but if my child was allergic to nuts I would be nervous that they might not switch or wash the scoop well. We do have crab and shrimp allergies. You have to be careful of places that have things like softshells or crab cakes which could be cooked in the same oil as french fries. So in addition to making sure you know what kind of oil they use you need to ask if they fry separately.

As far as cold cuts not sure what others do. DD has a milk allergy. For a while we were really strict. I buy packaged deli meats. While some have caseins, my issue was that they often slice the meat using the same slicer as the cheese. You might want to consider brands like applegate farms. Boarshead does now sell deli meats prepackaged.. not sure if you have manufactured in or processed on issues others on here would know who have that allergy. Also you would have to know about the cross contamination issues. Most of the people we know with tree nut allergies have an epi pen but can eat items processed on or manufactured in so they don't have that issue.