good news after allergy clinic visit

[Portlypenguin]

After waiting for months and months DS (now 19mo) and I visited the allergy clinic this morning. We were pretty sure he is not able to tolerate dairy or soya (started at 5mo) - due to diarrhoea, eczema and poor growth - and my GP/health visitor/ dietician had all told me to keep him off those. However we were told we didn't need to go to the allergy clinic initially as he did not have anaphylaxis. DS hasn't grown fantastically - born on 25th centile, on 0.4th when came off dairy/soya at 5mo and now on 2nd - and I wasn't sure about egg, nuts , when to reintroduce stuff etc so pushed for referral.

Consultant was great, she answered all my questions. DS had skin prick testing for a load of different things - he came up allergic to CMP and soya bean (no surprise) but NOT to egg, wheat, legumes, groundnuts or tree nuts. Whoop-whoop! He has been nut and egg free as 'a precaution' but the consultant said we could cautiously introduce those now!!

Egg-sited (!) about the slightly bigger range of food options now....

[Notquiteinsane]

That is such good news for you!!
Can I ask...will they routinely do skin prick test for intolerances? My DD is 2 and has CMPI, stayed off soya as a precaution, diarrhoea with eggs and I also think citrus fruits are a no go, so have cut them out where possible (first solid poo of her life was a month ago) but introduced soya a week ago and we are back to yucky leaking nappies and potty training is just impossible!!!!!
Basically, should I push for allergy testing, or will it not be accurate enough unless she is allergic? I get the impression from what you're saying that actually it would be useful! So fed up of second guessing what is upsetting her all the time!

[Portlypenguin]

I think the risk is that your DD will be tested for all sorts of things and come up allergic and you won't know where you are. I specifically asked for some things not to be tested as I think DS is fine with them and I didn't want to muddy the waters. I really wanted to be clear on what he is not allergic to and what I can give him. A couple of times DS has had runny poos for a day and I have tentatively linked it to food but the consultant said to me that that is normal for kids and to not get caught up in putting everything down to intolerances!
I would ask the GP for a referral and see what they say at the clinic.

They did say that most kids with a longstanding problem (not just a few weeks after a tummy bug) won't 'grow out of it' til age 3-6. 90% by age 6 though so there is hope!

[freefrommum]

The problem with skin prick tests is they will only show results for IgE allergies, not intolerances or non-IgE allergies so they are simply no use for those with intolerances or allergies which don't involve the immune system.

[Portlypenguin]

Very true...I was reassured by the consultant that it was safe to try nuts/eggs with DS as he isn't going to have anaphylaxis. If he gets terrible diarrhoea or something then I will assume an intolerance rather than an allergy. My stress levels re intolerances are rather less than an IgE based allergy.

[Notquiteinsane]

Hmm, so realistically, perhaps not so much help as, touch wood, all reactions to date have not been anaphylactic!
Thanks for the information though! And once again, congrats. Happy eating! :)