Any advice for chatting to consultant about food challenges?

[lukewarmmama]

We've got an appointment to talk about possible food challenges for DD (4, dairy, egg, maybe lentils) - which I pressed for. Her skin prick results recently were improved, but that doesn't really mean anything.

Are there any questions I should be asking him, or points I should be making sure he considers, when he is deciding whether she should go forward for challenges or not?

All I can think of is:

• she's asthmatic, so that's a mark against....
• her skin prick results were improved, so that's a mark for....
• but she's on regular steroids for her asthma now and its well controlled, so maybe that's why her skin prick test were better? Don't know if this would affect it?
• she's likely to find the whole thing pretty traumatic, so maybe wait till she's old enough to cope with the disappointment or any allergic reaction...

Any advice gratefully appreciated, especially as this consultant is the old fashioned type (abrupt, patronising...)

Thanks (again!) BB. Good point about it being traumatic at any age. Think I can see another big treat for DD coming up if we do end up doing the challenges....

Is your DD on inhaled or oral steroids? If she's having the tablets then they greatly affect the results (steroids suppress the immune system so you would have a less significant reaction on skin prick tests if on them) so it may not be the right time for a food challenge.

I agree with BB in that it might actually get more difficult to do food challenges as they become more knowledgeable and maybe more reluctant. We had food challenges on DD recently when she was 14 mo and we just hid foods in her favourite things without her being too suspicious. The violent vomiting and feeling unwell I'm sure she forgot about because the next time we were there she was happily playing with the staff.

Just the beclamethasone inhaler (brown one) - and I think (I need to try and find the records to check) that she'd actually come off that completely when the SP tests were done, as her asthma consultant suggested doing a trial to see if she could do without it for the summer (which she can't unfortunately).

If it's inhaled steroids then the smallest amount get absorbed into the blood stream so it shouldn't alter the results much. So I'd say that should mean the challenge looks more possible and maybe worth a try. Good luck with the old fashioned consultant!