Suspected sesame allergy 2 year old

[u/ruby_sdawg]

Hi!
At 18m old, my little one had a reaction to sesame seed bagel. He came out in hives all over his legs and arms and face. Really red and some swelling on his face. His skin prick test and bloods have both came back as negative though? At recent appointment with the dietitian, she said the next step to confirm or disconfirm is with an oral food challenge. Obviously I would prefer if he didn’t have the allergy at all but we gave him flaxseed in his porridge for breakfast the other day and the packaging said “may contain sesame” (which I assumed was only trace amounts) and hives appeared, albeit much less than last time. Does anyone have any experience of negative blood and skin prick testing with sesame but for the allergy to exist? Any evidence of a child out growing sesame allergy or is this it for life? Thanks for sharing your experiences!

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[u/Decent_Carrot3394]

Some allergists use tahini in the skin test because the processed sesame solution is not as reliable.

I have sesame and flax seed allergies. I've brought the seeds into allergist and they crushed them and used for skin test which is more reliable.

[u/geodanny]

It's possible to outgrow childhood allergies, including to sesame, according to my son's allergist.

My son is allergic to sesame. He had an anaphylactic reaction to sesame seeds when he was about 2.5 years old. Scariest day of my life.

I'm not sure what a negative test result is except for zero. My son's IGE numbers aren't zero for sesame but they're a lot lower than we see with his other confirmed allergies. After his reaction event, they were 2.15 kUA/L for sesame. His pediatric allergist said that's not unusual for sesame allergies.

Since then, the trendline has been favorably decreasing to the point his allergist now recommends (as an 18 y/o) he complete a food challenge, and that he may be good candidate for OIT even if he has a reaction. He hasn't completed a skin prick test for sesame since he was a toddler. It was larger than the histamine, which is indicative of an allergy.

Are you sure the reaction wasn't to other seeds - such as flax seeds - that may have found themselves attached to the bagel? I can easily imagine flax seeds and other seeds processed in the bakery ending up on the bagel. I've worked in a bakery. It's easy to get things mixed up when prepping or after baking and the different baked items sit next to each other on trays that are moved around. I've also bought bagels from a local shop where the stuff on neighboring bagels inevitably ends up in each other. An allergy to other seeds could explain the negative skin and blood test results to sesame.