Know Your Child’s Allergies and Risks
Kids love peanut butter and milk, but for some they can cause food allergy symptoms such as hives and swollen lips, or a life-threatening anaphylactic reaction. How can parents prevent that scary scenario? Read on for the Health Detective’s findings...Minutes after downing a Butterfinger candy bar, a sixth-grade boy from Kent, Wash., experienced severe nausea, stomach pain and belly cramping – classic food allergy symptoms. The boy had a peanut allergy, and the candy contains roasted peanuts.
“I gave him Benadryl [an antihistamine], but it didn’t help,” says his school’s nurse, Sheri Siedentopf, R.N.
Fearing a life-threatening anaphylactic reaction, she injected him with epinephrine and then called 911 and his parents. “Thankfully, he improved in a few minutes,” she says.
Read more: A Mom’s Guide to Deadly Allergies
