Questions

It has been suggested that I offer a page for questions. Each page and posting on the home page has an opportunity for comments and I have had many great questions. Lets see how this special page works.

Fred Leickly

Does a child with walnut allergy (tree nut allergy) need to be careful around walnut trees?

This was a question that came through one of our area pediatricians. The school has walnut trees and the family was concerned if the trees pose a threat to the tree nut sensitive child.

The child has a reaction to the ‘fruit’ of the tree. The wood, bark, and pollen of that tree would not pose a problem. The pollen of the walnut tree has a very limited season. Depending upon the area walnut tree pollen would be in the air for only a few weeks. The pollen is the male part of the plant and has unique proteins that elicit allergic responses. These responses are usually respiratory with allergic rhinitis and asthma as the main presentations.

I would suggest that the child stay away from the fallen fruit of the tree.В  He/she should not play with the material.

FEL

My 7 year old daughter has asthma and severe dry skin she has temps that stay at 100.0-104.6 for several days can this be caused by an allergy?

This is a very frequent question. Type 1, the typical IgE-mediated allergic reaction, does not cause fever. These are immediate responses by the body to a protein for which an antibody (IgE) has been made. There are other immune reactions that can cause fever.
In the world of allergy there are misnomers- Rose Fever and Hay Fever. These refer to nasal symptoms in the month of June (due to grass) when the roses are in full bloom. During the haying season, August until 2nd frost, it is ragweed causing the problem. In both cases the problem is not due to roses or hay and the reaction does not cause a fever.
During a severe asthma attack there may be fever associated with what is called atelectasis or collapse of some of the smaller airways.
Recurrent fever has a different set of diagnostic possibilities- recurrent infection, rheumatologic issues.
We will see dry skin in the context of a child who has atopic dermatitis. The dry skin is part of the symptom complex.
I would doubt that dry skin in isolation of other skin issues would be due to an IgE-mediated type-1 typical allergy.

FEL

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