Grr.

[sakon76]

Anyone happen to know whether or not shea butter is counted as an allergen under the category "tree nuts"? Wonderful Husband is highly allergic to tree nuts (as in, they will land him in the hospital or kill him) and I bought some soap (which, granted, only I would use) with shea butter in it. It doesn't have a warning on it (though, granted, it's not a food product) and NOTHING I can find on the internet will give me a solid yes/no as to whether it's an allergen in that class or not... but I would rather be sure.

Comments

[taselby.livejournal.com]

People with latex allergies and nut allergies can react adversely to shea butter. I'd err on the side of caution just because of the severity of the allergy you describe your husband having.

[mmouse15.livejournal.com]

*raises hand* I have a latex allergy (which totally sucks), and I googled 'shea butter latex allergy' and got 15,200 hits (ouch). Seems that shea butter is made from a tree nut and contains natural latex, so both nut/latex allergies react to it.

Nasty. Thanks for posting this in your journal, because otherwise, I might have been ignorant enough to try using shea butter lotion, and I shudder to think what might have happened...so, thanks, taselby, for your info, and thanks k, for your question.

[taselby.livejournal.com]

I'm happy to help! I'm a biological sciences student who was previously employed in health care, and have acquired a "latex sensitivity" as a result of long exposure.

Latex allergies do totally suck.

[okami-myrrhibis.livejournal.com]

I totally agree!! I was in a endodontics (Root canal) dental office for 2 years, and assisted for most of that time - and by about 16months, I'd developed latex sensitivity - although it was more likely the powder used.

But good info to know about shea butter - I'm not allergic, and almost passed on Sakon's entry - but was curious on the answer. Glad I did read!

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

This sounds like it would probably make his skin break out, or worse. Your skin is part of your immune system, and if your immune system overreacts to an agent, any location is susceptible to the allergen.
My perfume allergy usually makes me sneeze, but I thought I'd give the tube of Happy perfumed lotion I'd been given at the Clinique makeup counter a try. It had perfume, but it wasn't near my mouth and nose, right?
Wrong. Seconds after I rubbed the perfume into my hand, the affected skin turned as painful and red as a scald burn.