RAST test advice

[osd]

Hi my dd 4 has asthma and has had allergies since 7 months, egg which she has now outgrown, dustmite and shellfish. She is also combination allergic but they're not sure what to.

Anyway had a curry from supermarket set off a violent reaction and triggered massive asthma attack. On the packet the only thing I could blame was cashew nut paste. Because of the severity of the reaction she had repeated attacks to food usually tolerated so on a high dose of antihistamines and steroids for asthma. GP said 48hrs before hospital appointment stop the antihistamines, so we did. On day of appointment we let them know the drugs she had been on and they said the drug in question took more like 72hrs plus to be clear for skin prick test to work, so they did blood tests to check for allergens.

We got the results today and I am not sure about the RAST results she came up level 3 for cashew and brazil and other nuts, level 2 for peanut and almond and level 1 for walnut.

What is confusing me is level 3 high? and at a level 2 she tolerates peanuts unless unwell or if she has had an allergy attack, have to leave it couple of weeks otherwise and can antihistamines affect the RAST test?

Thanks i am now being given an epipen and training as she is combination allergic and because of the RAST test. Not sure what these levels mean though, any help would be very appreciated, and sorry thought this was quicker to explain.

[feynman]

Hi, under 1 is normal/no allergy, 2/3 represent mild allergies. My son is between 1-3 for most nuts but 12 for peanuts. His lips start to swell as soon as he touches peanut, but not with other nuts (as far as we know). I was told to avoid all nuts, as apparently expose now will potentially make the allergy worse (hes 4) He's also about 14 for wheat and the consultant told me these were classed as level 3 (severe) allergies. Although you can go over 100 with really severe allergies so I guess its all relative.