Discovering Peanut Allergies Accidentally

Filed in archive Food Allergies on September 20, 2007

I was going through this article, which started by telling how his parents discovered that the now-15 year old boy discovered that he has peanut allergies.

He doesn't remember much of how he discovered his allergy to peanuts, but his mother, Joan Stewart, remembers everything.

During a visit with family in rural Missouri, McKay's aunt gave the then 3-year-old boy one of the candies. After he bit into it a few times, he began wheezing, coughing, and his nose was runny and eyes teared.

I find it rather puzzling that he was already 3 when they first discovered his allergies. Could it really be that the child was never exposed to peanuts before then? Or is it a case of very slight symptoms during the first instances of exposure, and then one day, bang, a reaction so bad it leads to anaphylaxis?

Incidentally, these candies were the same ones that took the fun out of our Halloween trick-or-treating two years ago. He was also three at the time, and though we already knew for a fact that he has peanut allergies, it happened, and I am just thankful it was an anaphylactic reaction.