Doctors advice?

[nikkie]

My dd1 has been developing some allergies (mainly asthma/sore/swollen eyes) and as we were seeing the paed about other things we decided to ask about these allergies as they are getting worse and we are not sure of the triggers.

The paed said the best thing to do is log everything and then avoid any known triggers.
I am very dubious about this way of 'testing' and wondered what anyone elses experiences were.
TIA

We have done this with DD3 as she has environmental allergies, the doctor refused to send her for allergy testing as he said it could take forever and a day to find the cause of her reactions.

So far we have found cats, house dust mites and pollen to be a factor, and also certain kinds of sun screen. Although she is on a daily dose of antihystamines she is still having minor reactions, not sure how she will cope when she comes off them in March

The problem is that the NHS hasn't caught up with the explosion in allergies over the past 30 years and has only a handful of specialist allergy consultants. There are consultants in respiratory medicine, or dermatology, but very few who deal with allergies across the board. And you have a hard time getting hold of any of them!

Since it's mainly asthma, take a look at the National Asthma Campaign website - they are a large, respectable expert charity and may be able to point you in the right direction. NAC

In the paed's defence, it is very difficult to isolate what could be causing a general allergic reaction with absolutely nothing to go on. Of course, they could test for something generic like dust mites but there are loads and loads of other allergens that could be causing problems (any type of food, animals, trees, grass, flowers, cleaning stuff etc.) that it would be completely impractical to try and test everything.

In terms of the log, the best way to do it is to record every day what dd1 eats, where she goes (this could highlight if a particular place is causing problems like a dusty hall for ballet for example) - I also found it useful to note whether I had done a major clean or not (cleaning products) and whether her eczema was worse with clean clothes on (washing powder).

It is a huge pain doing such a detailed log but if it brings up a pattern (say that asthma gets worse after milk products), it will save you a lot of trouble and help identify the cause of her problems a lot quicker than having her tested for everything under the sun.

Do you have any animals? These are also common triggers for allergies.

n allergy consultant would do skin prick tests. Where you aren't sure of the cause they do a general allergy screen for dustmites, pet dander and a few I don't remember. However the tests don't necessarily work very well and are only used as a guide. Therefore they prefer to have something to go on and test for. Have alook on other recent threads and you'll find a good book on allergy and a guide to an allergy free house.

Gps advice was to go with same allergies as me to start with as her asthma reacts to the same things as mine. I was blood tested last year and some environmental factors found to be triggers.
We have no pets but my mum has a dog and my x-inlaws have cats.
My allergies are dust mites, dogs, cats, horses, grass pollen (all varying degrees) Her asthma is triggered by pollen/grass cuttings.So far we have narrowed the eye probs to some plants/trees.
Still unsure about the animals.