Children’s allergic reactions to nuts spike at Halloween and Easter

By Layal Liverpool

Individually wrapped sweets may contribute to increased nut allergies seen at Easter and Halloween

Image by cuppyuppycake/Getty Images

On Easter and Halloween each year, severe allergic reactions to nuts spike in children, according to an analysis of data from emergency rooms across Canada.

“I’m not so surprised,” says Moshe Ben-Shoshan at McGill University in Canada, who led the study. As a paediatric allergist who regularly works in the emergency room, Ben-Shoshan says he had already noticed that cases of severe allergic reactions among children tended to go up at certain times of the year.

“I remember these cases of …