Peanut Food Challenge

We recently went to the allergist for a peanut challenge. While my 11-year-old has tested positive (RAST test) for peanut protein, he has never actually had peanut. To prepare for the test, I made a peanut butter candy by melting safe chocolate chips, spreading it in a candy mold and putting a layer of peanut butter on top. I then added another layer of peanut butter and refrigerated it until it hardened.

We arrived at the challenge and all his vitals (heart, skin, breathing) were checked. The first level of the challenge was to break open one of the candies so the allergist could put a tiny amount of the peanut butter on a tongue depressor and place some on his tongue. Within minutes, he began complaining that his lip "felt funny". Sure enough, his upper lip was swelling and had developed a hive. We called for the doctor who gave him a healthy dose of Benadryl and watched him to see if further intervention (steroids, epinephrine) was needed. His lip began to return to normal size in a few minutes. We were asked to wait in the office for an additional 30 minutes.

No further medication was required.

While the challenge was labelled "unsuccessful", we learned several things:

• he is allergic to peanut
• he did not have any breathing issues related to the ingestion of a small amount of peanut
• the small amount of peanut he ingested did not require the use of epinephrine

So, avoidance of all things peanut continues. The allergist did share that their office will begin offering peanut immunotherapy in the coming months.I am excited about this area of new treatment and plan to explore it further.

I'll keep you posted.