ALLERGIES: Luke’s Peanut Reaction

This allergy reaction story was submitted by Melinda in Virgina.

My son, Luke, was 15 months old when he had his first anaphylactic reaction.  His older brother was eating a peanut butter sandwich, and Luke was fussing, wanting it.  We had been to the allergist the day before because I had been suspecting food allergy issues for a few months, and had been told that Luke had no food allergies.  I allowed Luke to try the sandwich, and after two bites he pushed the sandwich away, and began vomiting.  While I was cleaning him up, I noticed he was rubbing his eyes a lot.  I pulled his hand away, and saw that he had a few hives around his eye.  He also had a couple on his belly, so I tried giving him Benadryl while I called the pediatrician.  The pediatrician’s office said to just monitor him, and to call back if he had trouble breathing. 

When I got off the phone, I noticed that he was very quiet, and realized he had fallen asleep, sitting up and leaning against me.  Once we moved out to the living room again, he was awake, but very lethargic.  (I now know that he wasn’t asleep, he lost consciousness due to a drop in blood pressure).  I kept listening to his breathing, and it didn’t sound like he was having trouble, but continued to be lethargic, and he was losing all color in his face.  At this point his face was completely white, and his lips were starting to turn blue.  I also noticed then that he had angry red hives from his chin down to his groin.  I called the pediatrician again, and they told me to call 911.

When the paramedics arrived, they were very nonchalant about the situation because Luke wasn’t wheezing or struggling to breathe.  They wanted us to take him to his pediatrician, but the pediatrician said NO.  It wasn’t until we pointed out that his lips were blue that they agreed to take him to the hospital.

Once we were there, it took several hours, several nurses and two doctors to stabilize him.  His oxygen levels were in the 60’s.  The EMT that came to our house came in to check on us a couple hours later, and was shocked to see how much was going on in the room.  I think he honestly felt that I was over reacting and that it wasn’t a big deal.  My biggest hope is that he learned that day that anaphylaxis can happen even if wheezing, throat swelling, etc, isn’t present.