Hello Windom Allergy Family! As you know, Windom Allergy always strives to be cutting edge in the realm of food allergy, so we are constantly reading up on the newest literature. We believe sharing these studies with you is very important as well. Below is a summary of a recent article published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology examining whether or not peanut-allergic patients should truly be avoiding tree nuts.

The authors acknowledge that if peanut-allergic children are proven to have tree nut allergies already (i.e. previous history of a reaction or positive food challenge) then these should obviously be avoided. However, peanut-allergic patients are often instructed to avoid tree nuts without any testing or challenges “to be on the safe side.” While the intentions behind these instructions are well meant, the impact on quality of life can be significant. The study pointed out that the prevalence of coexisting tree nut allergies in peanut-allergic patients is actually quite low, and often the sensitivity is only to one nut. Challenging to tree nuts at home and or in the office can significantly improve quality of life, especially in terms of being able to add back foods that “may contain tree nuts” or “may be processed on the same factory as tree nuts.”

In reality, Windom Allergy has been operating according to this study for years. We believe in adding back as many foods as possible that children and adults can tolerate to give them more freedom and fewer worries. We also offer multi-food oral immunotherapy (OIT) for peanut-allergic patients who have other co-existing food allergies to provide the broadest protection possible.