Anyone been told their allergies or their dc's allergies are "non-specific"?

[neolara]

I took my dd for her yearly allergy check up yesterday. She has a confirmed peanut allergy. We had a long list of things she's reacted to over the last 12 months - melon, red pepper, pineapple, broad beans, chocolate with traces of nuts, bread sticks made in factors that use nuts, grass. Reactions have been limited to rashes, hives, huge dark circles under her eyes, pain where juice has made contact with skin, pain / itchiness in mouth, vomiting and some facial swelling. It has not tipped over more serious responses. We already carry piraton and epipens with us all the time.

Unfortunately, my dd made such a fuss (she's 3 1/1 and stroppy) that we were unable to do skin prick tests. The consultant we saw is the head of the allergy department at Addenbrookes, so I assume absolutely knows her stuff. She said that as my dd had previously not reacted to grass pollen on skin prick tests she was unlikely to have oral allergy syndrome. She suggested that as my dd had reacted to such a long list of disparate triggers this might mean she has "non-specific" allergic reactions. This, I think, means that she just randomly reacts to certain things sometimes, but not others. Which sort of fits - she has eaten melon, pineapple, red pepper and tomatoes loads of times without any problem but has on at least one occasion, sometimes more, had weird reactions to each of them.

I was slightly fraught by the end of the appointment having failed to get my dd to co-operate, so I didn't really ask the questions I subsequently realised I should have. The main one being, does this mean my dd could basically just react "allergically" to anything at any time, whether she's eaten it in the past or not? If anyone has any thoughts, that would be great.

It is possible - idopathic urticaria. However, she could be wrong. I expect she's exploring this option because she couldnt get the skin prick test done.

If you were to touch her arm with one of the offenders, what would happen?

For example, my son suffers with chronic urticaria so he was falsely reacting to lots of creams. It wasnt that he was allergic to them, rather that his skin was reacting because it was reactive - overly sensitive.

However, if I was to put a raw potato on his arm he'd come out in huge hives and that is a true reaction (if I did it with cooked it'd never happen).

Yes, DS's last consultant spoke of children with multiple allergies and how the skin orick and blood tests are non specific and difficult to interpret with significant degrees of accuracy and reactions can vary depending on what else the child has been exposed to and the state of their immune system on that particular day.

DS's latest consultant believes if you can reduce a child's sensitivity by detoxing heavy metals and excluding grains and dairy, the allergies will reduce. I wait to see how successful it is but since DS's triggers have multiplied and his reactions have increased in severity in the last 6 months, so we will try anything!