low grade allergies

[numptymark1]

hope you don't all think this is very trivial as I know many of you have children with very serious allergies but....

my DD was described as 'looking atopic' by a paediatrician when we were there for repeated UTIs

she has never been tested for any allergies

however

she has hayfever and mild eczema
she looks pale, has large purple bags under her eyes, random itches, snores like a trouper and post nasal drip

her sister has severe eczema and hayfever, I have eczema and my sister has asthma, eczema, hayfever and a variety of diagnosed allergies

I'm pretty sure she is having fairly constant reactions to things as she improves with piriton which she has for her hayfever, but I don't want to contantly medicate, I would rather not expose her to the allergens if that's what it is

can I insist on allergy testing or will they think I'm being very pfb

not sure if it's environmental or food related

They will probably not test your dd :-(
My ds spent the first 10 months of his life covered in hives, allergy to milk, various fruits and carpet fibres. GP and hospital would still not test for definite allergies as 'it's like looking for a needle in a haystack'
He had an episode where his face, mouth and lips swelled to a shocking degree but they still wouldn't test him ..
Good luck, hope you get further than I did.

Thinking about the needle in a haystack idea... might be worth keeping a detailed food diary and including any environmental changes (new washing powders, sitting on grass (that turned out to set my DD's eczema off), going somewhere dusty etc etc, you think might be playing a part. That might help you start to narrow down some culprits you can try to avoid and might also help with asking for testing when you can say what you suspect DD might be reacting to? I guess this will be impossible to do if she seems to be reacting 'constantly', but if you think there are good days and bad days, it might be worth a shot.

Problem is they don't always react to things straight away. My GP said they can either react immediately, within a couple of hours or even after 24 hours! Therefore keeping a diary is virtually impossible. We spent 10 months continually racking our brains, thinking of all sorts, keeping diaries, all to no avail. Happily for us, ds outgrew his allergies literally overnight at 10 months. Something I would not have believed at all if it hadn't happened to me! I just don't understand why they can't just do prick test for common allergies then go from there? ....

You could try kiniseology.

You'll get a lot of people here saying its BS but it was accurate for my son and I. We'll be getting him tested too though as he has serious as well as mild allergies so I cant and wont go by kiniseology alone.

However, if you're open to that kind of thing it certainly helps find that needle amongst the hay.

duck I've never even heard of that! I've just googled it though and it doesn't sound up to much ...

How exactly do they test for allergies? ...

Fair enough.

No duck, I'd really like to know ... Genuinely interested

most gps can do blood tests for some allergies. its called a RAST. you could ask for that, or simply get reffered to a hos pead who can do the environmental blood tests in hospital.

as for the hay fever, and other symptoms being resolved by the antihistamine, its worth considering taking a non sedative anthisamine at night, during the worse periods. but start taking it at least 2 weeks before that.
Its hard to concentrate on school if your sleep is disturbed by hay fever, or sit in a class room with such symptoms.
btw your child should not be snoring.
that might need investigating, rhinitus can impact greatly on health quality,from general health, to fast foward to concentrating on gcses with a body that long term has not had a the deep quality of sleep iyswim.

I wouldnt bother with the kinesilogy. most food and enviro allergies are from common culprits. unless you have money to burn. and if you do see one, dont bother with any cures.

i would ask for all enviromental allergies, but with the continued nose drip would really push for test for dustmite allergy.

i agreee with a vit D issue, my son with his many allergies is vit D lacking, its also a safe vitamin to take and if you live in the uk its worth taking for everyone, esp in winter!

eragon I think it must depend on where you live, postcode lottery again! My gp point blank refused to test, we even saw an allergy paed but they wouldn't test, despite the swelling episode above. Looking back I wonder if I was just too easily fobbed off... I didn't stand up for myself hard enough. We're now seeing paed again and I won't be so easily fobbed off. I hope OP has much better luck than I did, or just stands up to medical profession to get what she needs ...

thank you everyone

never heard of the vitamin D thing

might be worth looking at though -she's very fair so I tend to cover her in sunblock
and she's not a huge eater of things with vit D

think I will see how that goes then back to the docs we go

It's recommended now that children have I think 10 mins (maybe 20) of sun before putting suncream on to let their bodies absorb vit D