A child's developing digestive and immune system can leave many toddlers open to problems with allergies. Often, children are allergic to nuts, especially peanuts. While an allergic reaction to peanuts can be life threatening if the toddler is exposed to a large quantity of peanuts, or if the allergy is severe, you can help reduce your child's risks.
How an Allergy Works
When your child has a food allergy, his immune system does not recognize peanuts as food. Instead, it reacts to peanuts -- and sometimes even just peanut dust -- as if they're foreign invaders. This reaction causes the body to release chemicals like histamine to fight off the peanut. Histamine creates an inflammatory response, which can result in a wide range of mild to severe and life-threatening side effects.
Symptoms
If you child has a food allergy to peanuts, her body will react to the allergen in a variety of ways, depending on how allergic the child is to peanuts. Mild symptoms can include itchiness or slight swelling in areas that make contact with the peanut product. Allergies that are more severe can include symptoms like vomiting, diarrhea, rapid breathing, increased pulse, severe swelling and wheezing. In the most severe cases, swelling of the tongue and throat can occur, blocking your child's ability to inhale oxygen, resulting in anaphylaxis.
Dangers
While mild allergic symptoms can be uncomfortable for a toddler, serious symptoms can quickly lead to an emergency. In children with severe allergies, anaphylaxis can occur, resulting in brain damage or death, if not treated immediately. Anaphylaxis is a severe, whole-body allergic reaction to peanuts. This can include severe swelling of the throat and tongue, blocking the flow of oxygen into your child's lung. As oxygen levels drop in the bloodstream, major organs, especially the brain, are affected, as cells die from lack of oxygen. If oxygen is deprived for too long, death results.
Solutions
During infancy and toddler years, there are few options for treatment of food allergies. An allergy test by your doctor or an allergy specialist can confirm the peanut allergy. After confirmation, the best option is typically to avoid contact between your child and peanuts by removing items from your home that contain peanuts, or items processed on equipment that also processes peanuts. This means reading labels carefully before purchasing packaged foods at the grocery store, as most will state whether they have nuts or were packaged somewhere that peanuts could have contaminated the product. Share your child's peanut allergy information with caregivers to protect your child when you're not around.
