Peanut Aware - Did You Know

Accidental ingestion's are a fact of life- always be prepared!

The majority of allergic reactions in children occur when they are under supervision of someone who does not fully understand how to prevent any exposure to peanut product. You must educate them - go to the Tools section for printable forms to supply potential caregivers with to support them in taking care of your child. Protect your child!
Companies who have many nut-free products (such as Dare) may have products that use almond flavouring. Apparently there is a way to extract the almond flavouring but leave behind all of the protein so that is is non-allergenic. As always, check with the company first - but most of them have written guarantees from their suppliers that their almond flavour is non-allergenic.
Products that are known to be nut-free may have nut-contaminated unsafe products by the same name – such as seasonal or mass produced versions.
Be wary of any facility or school that calls itself nut-free as it could cause a less intense awareness level for the staff members. It is better to be peanut-friendly or peanut-aware - this allows you to feel safe but not allow anyone to get overly confident and let their guard down. I would like to see all schools and other facilities become peanut-aware – and by definition of that – I want NO children to be allowed to bring nut products to school at anytime.
After eating peanut contaminated/containing products, if you kiss an allergic child it could cause a reaction. In December of 2005, a 15 year old girl died in Canada after kissing her boyfriend who had eaten nut products. (they have since surmised that the death was caused by an asthma attack- not peanut residue)
If you share a drink with an allergic child after you had been eating a product containing peanut this could induce a severe reaction.
If you don’t want to take special events such as Halloween away from your allergic child, let them go door to door collecting the candy – but they are not allowed to touch it until they get home. You could have your child collect candy in a shopping bag and when they come home, trade them for a shopping bag full of safe candy. This way they get the fun of trick or treating, but you don’t have to worry about the unsafe candies.
Nutmeg and water chestnuts are not nuts. Coconut if fruit of the palm and generally not considered to be a tree nuts.
Cross-reaction to legumes is rare but possible. Legumes consist of many varieties of beans and lentils.
Many brands of insect traps use peanut butter as bait.
For more tips, see the Peanut Allergy Handbook.

Peanut Aware Inc.
Last Updated 07-Apr-2008
Canada

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