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Contamination Nut allergy


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I thought I was doing ok with this.  My son has a nut allergy.  He is ok with food that says 'traces of nuts'.  He has an epi pen never used.  Anyway I have never paid attention to bath/beauty products but for some reason I bought something new and ingredients listed hazelnut (face serum).  I freaked out starting to think I had to then check everything I had to make sure it did not have derivatives from nuts.  My husband (who was trying not to pander to my worries) said he's not digesting anything and the risk would be basically 0.  My anxiety went up to the point I could not sleep at night wondering how I was going to manage this problem.  Even reading up data on internet said no risk of this but maybe be careful!

 

When I go to use a products to wash with or make up I cant do it and anxiety stops me with thoughts like 'how could you do this to him' etc.  I know its not the be all and end all but I wish I could be like I was before.  I even phoned the doc for advice, she wasn't sure.  I phoned makeup company.  Everything is in latin.  I make a list of prodcuts by latin name but this is too much.  Any advise please.

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How allergic is your son? I have a sibling with a nut allergy which could be fatal so I DO read the ingredients of everything, ring the manufacturers etc and access nut free lists that Sainsbury’s, Tesco et al have online. Or email them/ring them. I had to ask my sibling about what they would do in terms of avoidance in restaurants, public transport, cleaning of utensils, what not ever to have in the house and use those as a bench mark. I know this might seem contradictory to ocd advice, but this is one of those situations where you can’t take chances. In my situation anyway because of deadly allergy. If your son is not allergic like this, then you’re probably being too careful. You need to know what the benchmark is however, find out the REAL risk rather than overestimating or underestimating the perceived risk.

Edited by Orwell1984
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thank you.  I have read these.  Been reading a lot on Google.  My son was diagnosed over 5 years ago and I've never even considered/ worried about this.  Consultant didn t say anything about products.

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3 hours ago, Orwell1984 said:

I know this might seem contradictory to ocd advice, but this is one of those situations where you can’t take chances.

I know your intentions are good Orwell, but I have to tell you that this is not the case, even thought it seems like it might be.  The truth is every situation in life involves taking chances.  How much chance you take varies but there is always risk, we can't eliminate it completely.  When someone has a serious allergy, yes, you need to take fewer chances, you need to be more careful, because obviously the stakes are higher, but really (and as you've hopefully learned from talking to your siblings) there is such a thing as being TOO careful.
 

6 hours ago, loulou said:

My son has a nut allergy.  He is ok with food that says 'traces of nuts'.  He has an epi pen never used.

I'm in a similar situation, I've had a mild peanut allergy since birth.  I can generally eat food that is marked as "made in a factory that process peanuts" or similar, though sometimes it bothers me a little.  I've never had or used an epi pen.  Though annoying, I consider myself pretty lucky as far as allergies go in that regard.  For myself I do my best to check new foods for allergens, but I'm not religious about it, I keep some antihistamines with me at all times just in case, but even then I usually end up replacing them rather than using them.  I can understand why this concern about your son would be something your OCD latches on to, and I'm sorry it has.  Its good that you have recognized that this behavior is not normal and are trying to get help for it.
 

6 hours ago, loulou said:

My husband (who was trying not to pander to my worries) said he's not digesting anything and the risk would be basically 0.

This, I think, is the best indication of what you should do.  Presumably your husband also loves your son and doesn't want him to come to unnecessary harm right?  Since he also, presumably, doesn't have OCD you can use him as a model of what a more reasonable and rational behavior is.  It will be hard at first, true, to ride out the anxiety, but thats what is necessary for overcoming OCD.  Take his lead and go from there.

Meanwhile as someone with a similar allergy but who has yet to have any sort of OCD concerns about it, my recommendation would be that if you are concerned, you check the ingredient label on the product, if you don't see any obvious signs of nuts, then treat it as ok.  Your sons allergy is seemingly mild and your husbands thinking is right, since your child isn't ingesting the products the risk of reaction is therefore much lower.  If a product causes irritation or something you can discontinue its use and go from there, just like you would absent any allergy!  Good luck and I hope you can get back some control and relief from this latest OCD spike.

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