Tree Nut Allergy

Halloween can be scary for families of food-allergic kids

Jenny Kales spent the last few hours of a recent Halloween night scraping from her front stoop the peanut butter candies that trick-or-treaters had dropped in their dashes from door to door. She's not an obsessive cleaner, mind you, just a mother of a child with a food allergy.

A Reese's peanut butter cup can be more than a mess. It can be life-threatening.

Kales, 41 of La Grange Park, Ill., has written the Nut-Free Mom Blog ( nut-freemom.blogspot.com ) for the past three years as a way to process her feelings about her daughter Alexandra's nut allergy. Blogging also enables the freelance writer to share the knowledge she has accumulated since Alexandra, now 11, bit into a peanut butter sandwich in preschool and went into shock.

"I didn't know anyone else in my situation," she says. "It's a scary time."

Nut allergies are scary for the kids, too. The scariest time of all is Halloween, when kids expect to trick-or-treat with their friends, regardless of their ability to process nut proteins.

"When I was younger I was always nervous about eating the wrong thing or not getting anything that was OK for me to eat," says Alexandra, a sixth-grader who double-checks labels before popping any candy in her mouth.

Her mother recently devoted a blog post to Halloween tips for parents. Carry two candy bags, she wrote. "One is for 'possibles' ... candies you will review with your child when you get home, and one is for 'unsafe' candies."

Next, she advised moms and dads to fill kids' bellies before they leave the house.

"Take a hungry child with a food allergy and dangle some Halloween candy before them — are they going to be tempted? Most likely. So don't let that happen."

Kales told parents of nut-allergic kids to provide nearby neighbors with safe candy they can distribute to the little monsters who ring their doorbells.

And when all else fails, advised the blogger, trade with other kids. "First, we swap 'unsafe' candies with our child's friends who don't have allergies. Most kids are willing to give up their lollipops, gum and other 'safe' candies for my daughter's unwanted Reese's, Snickers and other nut-filled chocolate treats. Secondly, we tell our daughter that she can turn in any unsafe candy to us for a 'safe' treat bag. I fill it with nut-free chocolate ... and some inedibles such as some lip balm, a book or maybe some inexpensive Halloween earrings.

Tree Nut Allergy

What is a tree nut allergy and how do I know which nuts I’m allergic to?

A nut is the hard shelled fruit of some plants having an indehiscent  (not splitting open spontaneously when mature) seed.

Like peanuts, tree nut allergy reactions can often be severe. Individuals are seldom allergic to only one type of tree nut and the allergy is typically lifelong. Recent studies have shown that about 9% of tree nut allergic children will outgrow their allergy.

Tree nut proteins can be found in a variety of products including non food products. Many packed foods such as cookies, cereals, bars etc. may contain tree nuts or traces of tree nuts. Lotions, shampoos and other body products have also been known to contain tree nuts.

There are tree nut allergy tests, however most allergists warn patients to avoid all tree nuts if they’ve experienced a tree nut reaction.  There is the potential for manufacturer cross contamination amongst tree nuts and it’s also possible that tree nuts contain similar proteins.

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