1st year of college---too paranoid?

[lakeswimr]

Were the peanuts heated or agitated in some way?  Had your child eaten anything before that? 

Contact ingestion is far, far more likely than inhalation reactions to room temperature foods that are not being agitated.  And once people are your daughter's age, they are better able to keep their hands from their eyes, nose, and mouth to prevent contact ingestion reactions.

My child has had many contact ingestion reactions including some that were ana. 

I understand a very small % of food allergic people feel they or their children have had ana from inhalation.  However, this is not something common by any means.  To live a life so very restricted based on something that happened that long ago would be a shame if it isn't necessary. 

My son's allergist only did the smell test in order to convince people they could not react to the smell, not with any question about whether or not they would react.  Room temperature foods that are not being agitated are very low (as in close to zero if not zero) risk if the person doesn't have contact ingestion.  Contact ingestion is a whole other story and even that is not a common cause of ana (speaking as the parent of a person who has a child who did have contact ingestion ana.)

[ninjaroll]

I'm guessing that the problem is rooted more in the location of the food and eating on a college campus.  While our children are in K-12 they go on college campus often to their grandfather or father's office or to a community event.  It's nearly impossible for us even as parents experienced in negotiating food in K12 schools, camps, movie theaters, the gym, airplanes, and so forth, to really negotiate a college campus with them because food is being consumed everywhere there's no real management without any clean up whatsoever. 

Because I go to a college campus often with kids who have LTFA I just wanted to say that to put myself in OP's daughter's shoes, this may not be the case for daughter what it comes across to us on a forum.  We might think it's smell based on how this is written but when you walk across the campus it becomes really evident how food filled it is compared to many other places.  Particularly the trail mixes and peanut items because they're portable, cheap and sold (and consumed) nearly everywhere. I'm not convinced that the anxiety is tied to smell despite the compensating behavior making it appear to us as if it's smell.

To boot, it's not uncommon for the smell to actually be from heated peanut.  Food carts and courts are perfect places for peanut sauces, hot food with peanut - unlike schools that serve PB.  There may be a mix of that on campus where OP's daughter doesn't have time to consider is this just harmless PB smell or is this from the satay cart that I wandered next to without noticing?

[lakeswimr]

My DH's allergist told us of a food challenge where the person was allergic to seafood.  It was a double blind placebo challenge where the doctor and patient did not know if the first doses had any allergen in them or not.  The person seemed to react to the first dose of a broth with anaphylaxis.  The doctor was convinced it was a reaction and moved to get epi to give to the person who was coughing and having breathing issues.  it turned out the dose was just salt water, placebo.  As soon as that was announced, the person went from what looked like anaphylaxis serious enough to warrant the epi pen to being just fine.  So, fear can cause people to have a false 'reaction'.  I'm not saying that people shouldn't trust themselves, but it is good to know that this can happen.  If one is walking by packaged peanut products, like candy bars, jars of pb, and feels that causes a reaction, it could be that is psychological (since there should not be detectable food protein being released from these foods.).  My son's allergist did the smell test on a person who used to feel that packaged candy bars were making her react.  The person smelled from a jar of peanut butter with no reaction.  When DS did the smell test I had heard the medical reports from FAAN that said it was impossible to react to just the smell.  I had also read things from people who claimed they or their children reacted to smell.  I was scared because I didn't know what to believe.  A lot of allergists back then seemed not to believe a person could have contact ingestion ana and I knew that was possible since it happened to DS.  He passed the smell test with not any sign of a reaction.  It made our lives a lot better and a lot less anxiety filled than they would have been had we sent him to school thinking the smell of pb could make him react.