Is 18 months too young to have allergy testing ?

[MummyBear32]

I gave my daughter some peanut butter to try and 10 mins later her face went red with white lumps. Called emergency doctor who advised to take her to A & E as her face and eye lids started swelling. At hospital they gave her piriton and she was much better an hour later. The doctor advised that we get an epi pen which have now got but said that she was too young to have allergy testing. Am now worried what to give her as most food products may contain nuts. Am considering sending her to a private doctor for allergy testing but not sure what is involved. Will it hurt her ?

[chipkid]

looks like she is nut allergic! don't know why they can't test her. My Ds was 22 months when he had his first recation and was immediatley referred to the allergy clinic for skin pirck testing-which unsurprisingly were positive.
Can you ask your gp to refer you both to the allergy clinic at your local hospital?

[hillary]

Yes certainly a nut allergy! I cant see why you cant have allergy testing now, my dd was 9 months old when she had the same reaction to egg yolk, two days later I took her to BUPA and she had a blood test which was put against more or less everything - to see what she was sensitive to.

If she eats an egg now she stops breathing, your dd will have an anaphylactic shock if she eats it again! you need to have an epi pen in your house and you need to be trainned in using it - you should get one on perscription tomorrow.

Each time your dd is exposed to the allergen (peanut) she will have a worse response.

[amidaiwish]

my DD2 is 17 months and we had a blood test last week and are having skin prick tests in April - for egg, dairy and nuts. This is at our local NHS hospital, referred by GP as she has had hives from egg and has had excema from dairy.

the blood test didn't hurt her, (choc buttons distracted her sufficiently) though she didn't "like" it when they put the magic cream on.

[MummyBear32]

Did ask for her to be referred but my doctor didn't seem to think that the NHS would pay for an allergist !! We have private health care any way so might as well use it. Quite surprised in our area there only seems to be one allergist who does two mornings a week. How was your child with the testing was it traumatic ? Forgive me !! not sure what Ds stands for exactly !! Not ever been on a chat thing before today.

[hillary]

Bless you!

Its not traumatic at all, we went to a bupa hospital in london, the consultant checked my dd over, asked alot of questions and gave us advise on how to manage it, like keeping a food diary so you can eliminate new triggers. My dd had her blood test - she didn't like it but it only took a few moments and that was it! You will probably find your dd is a little hypo - something we were told is related to allergies!

How old is your dd?

Did you know you can claim disability allowence for anaphylactic children?

[katzg]

my dd has a rare skin condition which would make her prone to anaphaltic (sp) if she is allergic to something, she has never shown any allergic responses and our doctors have given her blood tests for allergies

[brimfull]

my ds was allergy tested at 18 months,using skin prick tests.

[chipkid]

mummybear32 ds stands for deearest or darling son!

Hillary-nut allergies are different to others in that they donot necessarily worsten with repeated exposure. My ds has not had an anaphalaxtic (sp)! reaction-and I am told that he is therefore unlikely to-however it cannot be ruled out hence the epi-pen.

Unfortunatley most nut allergies are lifelong-they are not easily outgrown.

MB32 you really need some advice on how to handle this-it is so unfair to leave you to figure it out for yourself. Go private if you have to!

[MummyBear32]

She is 17 months at the moment. Felt so guilty when it happened she didn't even like it spat it straight out !! Where do I find out about the allowance ? Also heard there is a show - will have to check out on google later to see when the next one is. the nursery have been brilliant they showed me how to use the epipen and advised me to have 2 pens at nursery and 2 with her at all times. have changed my doctors over this as they were useless.

[hillary]

Chipkid my dd is also allergic to nuts & wasps/bees/pineapple/melon/oil and much more - she goes into anaphylactic shock upon minutes of exposure, her first reaction was identical to that of MummyBear32's dd, we were told that each exposure would be more severe and it was in our case right.

An anaphylactic allergy is not something which you grow out of unlike an intollerance.

[chipkid]

did A and E say that she had had an anaphalaxy?

[chipkid]

hillary I know that my ds has an allergy not an intolerance however he has not yet been anaphalaxic. I was told by his consultant that unlike wasps and bees and other foods, nut recations don't become more severe with repeated exposure.
If he is wrong then I am seriously worried here

[hillary]

When you have seen a consultant and received your official diagnosis phone your health visitor and she will organise for someone to come and fill in the claim form with you, you can pick up a claim form from your local job centre, you must seek guidance in filling out the form as it is studdied word for word - these people are specially trainned in filling them out.

[MummyBear32]

No they said there are 3 types of reaction - mild, moderate and severe. My DD had a moderate reaction. he said that she will have more reactions in the future and they may become more severe so I guess she doesn't have anaphalaxy ?

[hillary]

You still need to seek advice, my dd reacted to all her allergens in the same way as your dd upon first exposure but now she is on the life threatening level, everyone's different.

[chlochlo]

my Ds has had several anaphylatic reactions and will always be classed as high risk but even so he has also had many moderate reactions too so its just a case of being careful and to try and find out as much info as possible.

Its worrying at first but their is so many people out there that can help

[vnmum]

my DS was tested at 8 months as he had a reaction to milk and what i perceived as a bad reaction to egg. with the egg within minutes he got hives, started screaming with pain, vomited, went floppy with purple tinged lips and then had diarrheoa. my paed said it was not an anaphylactic reaction and was only a mild reaction. we are not allowed an epi pen and have not been referred gto an allergy specialist.

DS was tested for milk, egg white and egg yolk and the results were positive for all three.

we are currently living with the forces abroad and are very disappointed with the care we have had. we are hopefully moving back to the uk and are hopefully going to get a refferral then but i worry about the length of waiting lists. we are also considering going private but have yet to research where we could do this as we are not members of bupa etc

[chlochlo]

vnmum cant believe they still haven't allowed you an epipen it must be such a worry.

[vnmum]

yes it is especially now he is 15 months and going to toddler groups etc where he can easily pick something up he shouldnt.

we have just had to be very vigilant. we were told he could probably tolerate eggs in cakes etc but after reading that each reaction can get worse we have just avoided anything with egg in it.

he even reacted when i ate a soft fried egg then breastfed him about an hour later. the reaction was a slightly milder one to the one he has if he eats egg. he didnt go floppy but was sick and seemed in pain and was abit weaker/floppy.

does anyone know if we could see an allergy specialist through bupa by paying for it

[tatt]

some allergy consultants will not see private patients, you'll need to shop around. Allergy uk or the anaphylaxis campaign may be able to help. There is a website www.bsaci.org/clinics.html where you can look up clinics and then phone the secretary to ask about private appointments. You need a referral letter from a gp but they are much easier to get for private appointments. The clinics can possibly suggest a private gp to refer you if your NHS gp is useless.

According to our consultant reactions to nut are unpredictable. Our child is ananphylactic and no-one has ever mentioned disability allowance! Would have made a big difference to us, I'll look into whether we can still get it. Presumably we should be claiming disability allowance for child tax credit as well?

Some children do grow out of peanut allergy - about 20%. It's less likely with a severe allergy, I'm afraid they may develop others like sesame or tree nut. But you get used to it, you just don't eat much prepared food. The anaphylaxis campaign run sessions for parents and produce excellent training videos. they can also sell you or give you a trainer pen, which is invaluable.

[MummyBear32]

Thanks everyone for your advice its been extremely helpful - really hope VNMUM gets the epipens. I didn't ask for mine - i told my gp that the A & E doctor had said i needed one so they couldn't really argue. you need 2 just in case one doesn't work properly.

[tatt]

had a look at the disability allowance website and I suspect you can only get it for a young child, by secondary age it's probably reckoned they don't need extra care. That's not true - you still have to put in effort on things like making sure school staff actually know what to do. It's possible to claim online so I tried a claim anyway because it does add quite a bit on the food bill. Then there are medic alert bracelets/ ananphylaxis campaign subscriptions/ extra insurance . I really wish someone had told me earlier.

Forgot to mention that its always worth taking anti-histamine to the clinic to give them after the tests as their arm will be itchy and uncomfortable if they are allergic. The clinic may have antihistamine cream but an internal dose would help. Don't give any antihistamine before the tests as it may invalidate skin prick tests, even if it was given several days ago. It doesn't invalidate blood tests.

[hillary]

Just thought I'd mention too..

I'm allergic to horses now, I'v been around them for the last 25 years and am a quilified instructor but now if I go near one I have an asthma attack, I used to take piriton on a daily basis for years, I became immune to it and had to go from one to another, I'm now on my last brand so my advise is try and keep away from what your allergic to and take piriton when you really have to (obviously if you need it you need it but when its your life line prevention is better than cure) IUKWIM

Just my experience - I'v since sold my horses

[forevermore]

dd is 20 months and has excema, i suspect dairy isn't helping and now she is older i want to try to eliminate it from her diet. she can do without yogurt and cheese but what do i substitute the milk with?

i have found rice milk, but its low fat! i think i need full fat rice milk if there is such a thing. and also organic

anyone have suggestions or know where i can go to buy a good milk alternative with addedd calcium etc.

also as a little add on, do you know where i can get allergy testing done?

[Heartmum2Jamie]

My ds has rice milk, there is no full fat alternative in the rice milk range, although it has added calcium.

If you are trialing dairy free, could you try goats milk instead, that should be much higher in fat than rice milk.

Apart from that, I have to say that ds has been on rice milk since he was 18 months. At the time he really needed calories in any way we could get it thanks to his heart condition, but we just apply spreads thickly, give fattier meats and foods. he was prescribed a calorie supplement, but at 2.9 he is maintaining his weight well with no additional help.