DD may be allergic to sesame. Anyone here w/ exp?

MrsBeckO

DD's RAST scores came back, and we were surprised that Sesame registered. It was a low number (a 2, I think), but since it registered at all, her allergist wants to do a skin test to see what happens there. She also came back with a low number (3?) for pumpkin, but we suspected that would happen after a reaction to pumpkin bread last weekend.

Pumpkin does not seem hard to manage, but sesame has me a bit worried or overwhelmed. At least with her (what we now know to be severe) peanut allergy, we have labeling on our side. I am so afraid sesame will be hidden in a lot more foods, and we'll have to retrain ourselves on label-reading.. and it seems so much harder to advocate for with family and friends, not as obvious as peanut products I guess.

We have our fingers crossed that we won't have to add it to our list of allergies.. but in case we do, does anyone here have experience with sesame allergy? Any tips or info?

Her skin test is Mon the 26th.

Thanks! 

MrsBeckO

I guess there will be a learning curve with sesame just as there was when DD was diagnosed with her peanut allergy last year. Thanks for the tip on breads.. I'll look into that. 

luvmagoldn

Sesame was added to DS #3's list at 2 years. As pp mentioned, it's made finding commercially made breads even harder (he is also allergic to milk, egg, peanut and tree nuts). Sesame oil is another concern but we already avoid Asian dishes unless we make them ourselves because of the nut issue.As far as I know DS has never reacted to sesame so I am going to speak to the allergist about doing a food challenge to confirm. I don't want to be any more restrictive than I absolutely have to.

thiswillbe

A severe allergic reaction to sesame is what originally led to our kids being allergy tested (their numbers are 19+ for sesame, and they're also allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, and chickpeas). It is definitely frustrating to not have labeling on your side, but we do the best we can reading labels, and avoid the item when in doubt. We don't let them have any non-home-prepared Chinese food, for example, because of the potential for cross-contamination. And we make sure we have their epipens with us always.

magdusia

my son had a level 2 allergy to sesame (he outgrew it a year later).  I do agree it was a big pain to avoid b/c it seemed like it creeped up in so many things.

It's also in make up so people should avoid kissing your childs face!  But we actually figured due to all of his allergies we dont want anyone kissing our child's face. 

Make it simple.. "my child has sever food allergies and we don't allow anyone to touch or kiss his face and please don't feed him without my approval".   Kissing the top of his head is ok -people get use to it. (grandparents have a harder time, but eventually they get it).

So be careful of make up (lipstick is the worst one). 

Look out for Tahini.. sometimes they don't specify that's sesame.