how do I get dd2 tested for allergies??

[sparklymieow]

I know that dd2 is allergy to cheap tomato soup, some orange juices (normally cheap stuff) and red colourings, she comes up in hives, it used to be contact allergies, and was just a bit red on the skin that had come into contact with the soup etc, but now its coming from inside, hence the hives, but somethings she comes up in hives for no reason that I can see. I want her allery tested but the GP won't do it.

I guess the only option then is to go private - or seek another GP's opinion.

How old is your dd2? I know a lot of young children get this from time to time (my dd included) with no real explanation. I just assumed its down to sensitive little bods and will grow out of it.

I had allergy testing done (in fact a variety of tests)as a child and despite now being armed with a long list of perservatives, animals, trees, plants, etc etc that i am allergic to, i still get excema, rashes, sneezes to which i cannot find the culprit!

she is 4. Her first reaction happened when she was 4 months old, I sat and watch the rash appear all over her body, I rushed to A&E where we sat in the waiting room and another lady watched the rash spread further, it covered her head to toes. We were put in a side room as they thought it was meningitis, then measles, they then decided it was an alleric reaction. After that we have had reactions nearly every day. Her nursery know not to used red food colouring in the water or playdough, but I get the feeling she is allergic to more than just red colouring, just don't know what.

My son had a terrible attack of hives about a year ago when he was 7. We tried all the usual and eventually it cured itself but we did manage to get him tested. We paid privately and went to Harley Street but still had to wait 8 weeks for an appointment despite telling them how distressed he was. It turned out he was allergic to shell fish. We had never given any to him but think there may have been cross contamination in a restaurant we had eaten in. I did see outside of a Chinese Herbalist last week a sign for allergy testing, just walk in. But no idea if they do the standard scratch test or their methods/price. CazH

I'm going to tell you something that I have been told, even when I felt like hiting the doctor who said it, because I know, now, that is true:

"If you can clearly apreciate that your child reacts to something, avoid it, that's more accurate than most testing."

And so I went and spent hundreds of pounds in private tests, allergicians and dieticians to be told exactly what I already knew

I would try to avoid cheap stuff, DS reacts badly to Supermarkets' own economic ranges. The truth is those products are really bad, and as I have had opportunity to see, they often are not well labeled.

P.S> we have been in the witing list to be tested (skin tests) for DS for a year, we are not expecting to be seen before he is 5 yrs old unless he has an anaphilactic reaction.

I do avoid the cheap stuff, just forgot the other day while shopping, and picked up the smart price tomato soup for myself, and the asda soup for dd2, and when I used it for her, I cooked the smart price stuff, so within 1/2 hour she was covered in hives [bad mummy]
I think its one of the ingreaints (sp??) that she is allergic to, rather than the actually soup, juice, beans etc.

DS had a bad reaction to Sainsbury's own Baked beans although the label didn't mentioned any of the things DS regularly react to. After much negociation (I mean weeks) with Sainsbury's customer service they escalated the thing and came back to me saying that the beans' sauce had indeed milk. Although, considering the reaction, it must have been something else as he reacts differently to milk so... still in the dark.

How old is your DD? there are plenty of people allergic to tomato, DS had the allergy but now has outgrown it, would it be possible to be the tomatoes as well?

she is 4. I remember one bad reaction, while on holiday with my parents, my mum had cooked breakfast for us all, and used cheap beans (possibly asda) and she was covered in hives, had to rush her round to the camp's nurse.

MAy I suggest something that may end up being cheaper than the tins but more tasty and nutritious? (and the better, not so much work )

yep.

Ok. Here it goes. Do you have a microwave?

Ingredients:

• Dolmio Original Bolognese Spaguetti Sauce -Family size(DS react to every tomato sauce but Dolmio Original so it may be very mild)
• A 500g packet of mince (try to get the lean one, but, if you use the lighter in colour is still OK but you will need to use far less oil)
• Some oil for frying
• 2 medium size onions

Chop the onions in litle cubes and fry them with a bit of oil until they are slightly transparent (they should taste sweet). Then add the mince and stir it until all it's browned. Add the Dolmio sauce, bring to the boil and then lower the heat. Allow to simmer for 10 min. Let it cold and freeze in portions of 1/2 cup each. (you can freeze it in plastic bags if you want, they are also easier to fit in the freezer).

Now, here comes the good part:

De-freeze one portion in the microwave (about 1m per portion) and:

• Add to a cup of boiled pasta, and you have 2 child portions of spaguetti bolognese.

• Boil a tablet of egg noodles and add the sauce for a "express" bolognese pasta- 2 child portions (it takes, in total, about 3 minutes to do)

• Toast 4 pieces of bread, add a bit of the sauce (hot) and cheese for 4 italian bruchetta. You can also add ham to it. Pop it under the grill if you wish. This is again enough for 2 kids.

• Spread over a wheat tortilla, add cheese and some ham or bacon in pieces, pop it under the grill until the chese melts for a medium size pizza.

I believe that preparing the sauce should take around 30 min but it really saves time and money,to have it as a staple, and you only have to do it once every two or three weeks so not time consuming in the long term.

HTH

P.S. You can also hide broccoli, carrots, beans and other vegetables in the sauce if your children are a bit fussy about them.

I agree with the others, either see a different GP for a second opinion or go privately. Also, what Chandra said is very true, there is alot to be said for mummy intuition. Although we had ds RAST tested, we had already been avoiding milk & egg for a few weeks becuase I KNEW that it caused him to react. I won't say that it's not worth spending the money to get tested, as I also learned about a nut allergy that I hadn't a clue about and wheat, which I wondered about but wasn't sure.

My eldest ds who is nearly 5 also reacts to red colouring (jam is a good exampe), just where it touches around his mouth.

i think my dd3 is reacxting the same as yours mieow. i gave her a jar of baby food (mediteriian vegetables with pasta) and her face flared up where the sauce touched her face. she also reacts to eggs.

could it be worth seeing if she is allergic to your cats or dog?

Oh yes sparkly, if you have pets, they could be high contenders of the cause.

I am allergic to most animals, can normally cope being in the same room as them, but if i stroke them (which i obviously don't anymore) i flare up extremely bad itching all over, sneezing and in the past have experienced swelling around my neck.
If people have longhaired animals that moult a lot then just entering a room can set me off.

My son had a bad reaction to Humous (Swollen Lips and tounge). A&E Doc said that's ok next time he is exposed he will have a lesser reaction. I was not happy. I suspected I would get little help from Doc so I wrote her a letter detailing my concerns and it worked I got a referral. I suspect that they would e afraid of legal action had he ever had a serious reaction and I had a copy of a letter asking for testing.

After referral we were told that each exposure can bring on a worse reaction which is the complete opposite of A&E doc and we discovered through blood tests and food challenges that DS was allergic to more things than we knew. My advise is write a letter to your GP asking for a referral and teling them that you are afraid for your child's safety. DS's consultant told me how she is shocked at how long it takes some children to get through her doors.

I used to have horrendous hives as a child. It lasted most of the summer and I never knew what caused them. You can't always know and blood test can be a good place to start.

Drosophila, the idea of the letter is a fantastic one!

just addding that asda baked beans have a nut warning ( or did have last year ) and that baked beans are related to peanuts. as is houmous, which is made from chick peas the closest in relation to peanuts.

Read the labels!!

good idea about the letter , even better to look at allergy web sites like the anaphylaxis campaign, or allergy UK . get some names of some pead immuneologists, as its quite likely your doc will find it hard to find one.

I hope this helps someone. When i started weaning my ds now 3 at 4 months he started to get excema on his face went to doctors given cream and told to go away, it started spreading and when we went to my parents he would always come back with hives/welts on his body. This happened so often and everytime i would take him up the gp because we couldnt see the connection, wewere told yet again that it was a viral rash but it aways looked the same and that it wasnt a viral rash and it was an allergy. I was getting annoyed because he wouldnt believe me but i insisted on getting refered to a allergy clinic and we got seen and it turns out that ds is allergic to eggs and nuts. Neither of which are fatal at the moment but could turn at any time. the allergy specialist did say go away and give him eggs and see if the test result was correct and surprise surprise he can up in welts so now i dont allow eggs in his diet but very wierdly it seems to be a protein in the eggs as he can eat my cakes but not shop brough