Walnut Challenge!

[GoingNuts]

Yay!  Fantastic news!

[PurpleCat]

Follow up test results!  Super promising!

Total IGE 1055!!!!!!!  Holy cow!  For DD this is low and I am so excited to see this.  Last year she when we hoped it had dropped she was still over 1300.

Pecan -  (0 W, 2 flare)  <.10 class 0, she can try pecan at home...actually the doctor said, just start eating pecan
Sunflower - (1 W, 2 Flare)  1.19 Class 2
Almond - (3 W, 10 Flare)  .73 Class 2

Doctor wants to challenge those 2 this summer!

[spacecanada]

Congratulations on passing the challenge and for promising test results.  Yay!

[MaryM]

Great news!!!

[PurpleCat]

So, DD has been eating English Walnuts by themselves or in foods like stuffing.

Today she had cookies I made using Black Walnuts.  She came home from school and said she did not eat the cookies because the first one made her mouth itch.  I am glad she did not.

But now what?  Are Black Walnuts that different from English Walnuts.  They are from Hammons, a company that only processes Black Walnuts, no other nuts.

I messaged the allergist.  She is not sure and is wondering if DD might have OAS to Black Walnut.  She is going to get in touch with some colleagues at Children's Hospital to see what they think.   

Sigh.....it's never easy.  And now if I have to add the question, what kind of walnuts are they....manufacturers are really going to roll their eyes and be annoyed.

[hezzier]

I don't think I knew there were 2 varieties.  It will be interesting to see if the Dr. comes back with any info.  Are you going to go back to giving her the English ones?

[PurpleCat]

Yes, the allergist said she should continue to eat those.

[gvmom]

http://www.aaaai.org/ask-the-expert/cross-reactivity-black-walnut-english-walnut

I found the link above...... don't know if it is helpful or not.

This sort of reminds me of the old thread from ages ago about drupes/tree nuts.......

.... I have a feeling to really "know" you almost have to become an expert ..... and in your case, an expert on walnuts!

[GoingNuts]

Good Lord. English vs. Black - who knew?

[gvmom]

Just in skimming around, it does look like there could be big differences between the two types of walnuts. 

What I wonder is if typically whatever is used for FA testing is English, and that then is theoretically supposed to cover all Walnut..... when what they should do is break it up into Black and English.... separately tested. 

I would imagine, given that DS2 was allergic to "egg".... but then tested for the white vs yolk ..... because some things weren't making sense with his allergy.  He was allergic to yolk, which somehow was confounding.

Anyway..... do you have any of the lab results that list the info about allergens?  Is there any sort of listing of Walnut.... and if there is anything like English or Black as sort of a sublisting with separate numbers for each? 

[ajasfolks2]

Black walnuts are not so readily available in many areas and usually more expensive, is what I've noticed.

I would suspect that English walnuts are what is in most stuff made with walnuts?  (Have not googled, just assuming due to cost and availability)

Having said that, who knows what other nuts (or peanuts) might be pacakged on same lines with either of those types of walnuts.  So that might complicate things for some?

FWIW, Black walnuts are more flavorful to me than reg Eng walnuts.

[gvmom]

So, just for fun, I dug around and found the last labs for DS1.  On it they had Walnut (F256) ... which when you just plug that into a google search comes up (first result) http://www.questdiagnostics.com/testcenter/TestDetail.action?ntc=3489 and it lists Black Walnut.

Now, most info I can find talks about most people eating and using the English Walnut.  I'm sure it is that typically light brown walnut meat that you just find in most packs in baking aisles right?

What were your DD's numbers again for walnut that led to her taking an oral challenge?  Were they low, but low enough to make the doc think an oral challenge was okay, or were they at 0?

I'm wondering if you could lab test low, with Black Walnut, and not be allergic to English Walnut.  So, if you do the oral challenge with English then you pass, but still have an allergy to Black Walnut..... because low numbers don't always mean you pass the oral challenge.

Is there a way to get more specific labs done? 

[ajasfolks2]

Have they isolated anaphylaxis causing walnut protein component yet (like they have for peanut) and do they test for that yet?

Just wondering . . . rusty on testing stuff these days.

[PurpleCat]

http://www.aaaai.org/ask-the-expert/cross-reactivity-black-walnut-english-walnut

I found the link above...... don't know if it is helpful or not.

This sort of reminds me of the old thread from ages ago about drupes/tree nuts.......

.... I have a feeling to really "know" you almost have to become an expert ..... and in your case, an expert on walnuts!

According to this link there are 4 kinds of walnuts!!!! "There are scant data regarding cross-reactivity between the four walnut species (English, black, Asian butternut, and American butternut). The data that do exist imply that there is strong cross-reactivity between all four (see abstracts copied below). Thus, one would not expect to find isolated sensitivity to black walnut."

[gvmom]

Thus, one would not expect to find isolated sensitivity to black walnut.

Until the allergy world somehow can explain a lot of things that are not expected that somehow we have ended up dealing with I am not sure I would necessarily think a person couldn't have an "isolated sensitivity" to anything.

But, yeah, it is crazy to find out just how much there is to know about walnuts.

Did you hear back anything from any docs?