First appointment at allergy clinic - what should I be asking?

[AngelDog]

2.2 y.o. DS has had blood tests done by the GP which show he's got allergies to 5 different nuts, including peanuts.

We've a first appointment at the allergy clinic next week and I want to have a list of the questions I should ask. So far I want to know:

• does he need an epi-pen? [two?] (GP has given us one for the time being)
• how serious might the allergies be?
• is there any possibility of outgrowing any of the allergies? (unlikely, I know)
• should I continue to abstain from nuts? (DS breastfeeds)
• how paranoid should we be about nuts in the house etc
• is there any likelihood of problems with other legumes?
• can we give him 'may contain nuts' etc.
• what's the advice on eating while pg to avoid allergies (I'm 6 weeks with DC2)

Anything I've not thought of that I should be asking?

Have you had your appointment? I'm a bit late on here, sorry. I think you've covered everything I would have said though!

From the 'may contain' point of view, yes you do I'm afraid. And in pregnancy (I have an 2 mo DS and 2 yo DD with multiple allergies including nuts) I was to to eat everything. But once DS was born and developed eczema, we were told to make sure he has no exposure to nuts. And we have a completely nut free home, but everybody does things differently, it's just what we were advised because of DD's severity.

Ime we didn't need to ask anything at Guy's -the appt was about 2 hrs and they were very thorough and covered everything in your list.

Thanks for the replies - I had chance to read them this morning before we went, but I didn't have chance to reply.

It was an interesting appointment. The consultant isn't convinced that he does have the significant nut allergies that we were told (the IgE levels were very low) and is going to do skin prick testing to investigate further. In the meantime, we're supposed to give him all nuts except the one to which he's had an observable reaction (as long as he's well and we have AHs on hand). I'm not entirely convinced about that myself as I'm reasonably confident they make his eczema flare, but I'll wait till his skin is more under control before giving him any nuts.

The skin prick tests are very revealing - ds's came up SO big immediately.