Yey dd's consultant has bought her allergy testing forward, what to expect???

[mummytopebs]

DD has been having food allergies, allergies to antibiotics, well to most things for aroung 3 month. Her consultant who she sees for other health problems has waved his magic wand and is getting her in next Tuesday for tests. So what shall i expect? And most of all will it hurt her and will we stay in overnight?

We've had a couple done. First of all we saw the consultant to discuss what reactions DS had then we waited to see the nurse in the treatment room. She drew a little grid on DS's forearm with a biro, scribbled each type of allergen in each box, dropped one drop of solution into the correct square then used a tiny needle to prick it into his arm.

He then had to go and play in the play room for 10-15 mins and I had to keep an eye on the hives developing on his arm and make sure he didn't rub it all off.

When we went back into the room the nurse measured each hive (if there was one) and made a note of it. The bigger the hive the worse the allgery.

DS's has had several hives come up each time, only the big ones (1cm wide) made him feel scratchy. He had a strong (but expected) reaction to pine nuts and kiwi and the nurse got him some Piriton to take the itch away.

Once the skin pricks were done we went back to see the consultant to decide what care plan needed to be put in place and to sort out epi-pen training.

It's taken about 2 hours each time.

It doesn't really hurt that much, the nurse pricks the skin quite fast but she has to twist the needle a bit and obviously DS gets a bit upset with it. By the last couple of squares he's been grizzly and I've had to resort to holding his arm very tight and comforting him.

Our DD has had tests so many times so don't worry, it's not that bad. It's more to do with their age though because you have to be still for the tests and that's what upsets our DD.

Skin prick tests are normally done first where they out drops of solutions onto the skin and then lightly prick the skin and wait to see if there's a red raised seal that appears. And they normally do blood tests too. You shouldn't need to stay overnight. Good luck!