I submitted a detailed response in reply to Ulster’s first post (or at least I thought I did) but it’s disappeared – must have pressed the wrong button
– so will try and reproduce the gist…
Many thanks for responses so far! The diagnosis is definite, I'm afraid - he attended a clinic some years ago and tested positive for peanuts, cashews and (to a very small extent) Brazil nuts, but OK for all other nuts and other common allergens. Even though his symptoms had been relatively mild he was sent along for testing with his sister who had suffered a serious reaction requiring hospitalisation, so if not for her then he might never have been diagnosed in the first place. (Apparently a sibling of an allergy sufferer has a higher chance of developing the same allergy). There must be many people walking around with this condition who never have it diagnosed, or are at least aware they have a problem but are not prescribed Epipens – these are the cases you tend to hear about in the news. Something like 1 school-aged child in 70 now has a peanut allergy, so it's a bit of a time bomb being stored up for the future.
Anyway I'm going to ask the GP to refer our son for retesting, as there’s a chance he might grow out of it. We’ve considered desensitisation treatment but I don’t think this is available on the NHS locally so will probably have to look into going down the private route.
I’ve followed your sage advice and have e-mailed the CAA to ask them about this, and will let you know what they say when I hear back.
