First appt at allergy clinic - what to expect?

[Tex111]

DD is six months old and has a cow's milk allergy/sensitivity/intolerance. I've been weaning and I've noticed that she is also quite sensitive to a number of foods so I'm taking it all very slowly.

We have our first appt at the allergy clinic at Kings College Hospital, London in a few weeks. What should I expect? Should I be asking for specific tests? I'm at a real loss as I;ve never had allergies myself and would appreciate any advice, tips, etc.

My DD recently had allergy tests at Guys for the same reason. Basically we saw a doctor first who asked lots of questions about her health, any reactions she's had, what the reactions were, when, etc,etc. The Dr the decided what to test for, she said she could only do 6 skin prick tests on a baby at a time so we have to go back in 3 months for further tests. They then did the skin prick test which didn't cause any distress as all to my DD (who is VERY easily distressed). We waited 20 mins then saw the Doctor for the results. If you think your baby is intolerant the skin tests won't show anything up though, I don't think, I think they just show actual allergies.

There are lots of people on here who have a lot more experience than me, but your situation sounds very similar to ours. My DD has been taken off cows milk for a while to see if this helps her.

Good luck and keep us posted
p.s. this is all new to me too!

Hi Dreamchocolate. How old is your DD? My DD has been off cow's milk for about three months. She was on soya but started reacting to it and is now on a hydrolysed formula called Pregestimil. What is your DD drinking instead of cow's milk?

Thanks for your comments. I'm finding it all a bit tough as it's such new territory. I do wonder if I'm at the beginning of a very long road. Does your DD react to anything besides the cow's milk?

Hi

My DD is 12 months now. She has had quite bad eczema since she was tiny, she also had a bad reaction to egg which is why she was referred for allergy tests. We have no history of ezcema or food allergies in the family so this is all new to me too and I know exactly what you mean about feeling as if you are at the beginning of a very long road.

How does your DD react? As I say, mine just has ezcema and she goes very very red with certain foods such as tomato (I think). She also gets red patches under her eyes. It is all trial and error for us at the moment. She has been on Infasoy soya milk for a month and at first her skin was much better but now it is getting bad again. I actually don't think she is truly allergic or intolerant because she has no tummy problems, maybe just very sensitive to certain things.

We are going to the Allergy Show at Olympia next month, why not try and get along to that (I'm guessing you live in London) and talk to some experts there?

All the Bestx

Rosie is just the opposite, no skin problems but lots of tummy trouble. She has gotten a little red rash under her chin with a couple of foods (mango and sweetcorn) but that's about it. Otherwise it's vomiting, swollen tummy, painful wind and runny poos. It was blood in her nappy that finally clinched the diagnosis of a problem with cow's milk.

Thanks for the tip about the allergy show. Sounds like I could get a lot more info and guidance there.

Hi Tex111 I have been directed to this thread by my friend Dreamchocolate.

My DS2, 23 months, had lots of problems when he was younger. It is a very long story and if you can bothered you can read about it if you search the MN archives! I was mamaoftwo then. Anyway, he vomitted severely from about 4 weeks old. I stopped breast feeding, he went on to formula, then thickened formula, then soya formula, then eventually on to Nutramigen at about 6 months IIRC.

However, for him the drs think with hindsight that we wasn't strictly an allergic or intolerant baby - he had (and still has accasionally) gastric reflux. And the symptoms you described for you DD COULD be due to reflux. Although they could be milk intolerance/allergie related too. I dont want to worry you unecessarily.

What I found most tiring was that I never really found the answers at the tiime, and no one (medcial or otherwise) could do anything to help, and it is only now almost 2 years on that I am starting to get my head around it. DS2 was weaned on a dairy/egg/soya/gluten free diet. But now he eats some of those things. He had numerous tests etc and all were inconclusive. But I always insisted that his problems were not diet related at all - merely physical to do with his reflux.

I dont know if any of that helps you. But do ask me anything else if you think it might help. My only practical advice for you now would be to take the weaning process VERY slowly. DS2 lived on the blandest of diets which was hard work and tedious and even now he eats very simply - but it helped him/me.

I'll try not to be too trite and say 'good luck', but from my experience it does get easier as they get older. But from where you are sitting with a child who is sick and in pain and you dont know how to help I know how frightening and lonely that must be. Keep talking on here if it helps

naswm

tex, glad you got to the bottom of the blood in the nappy problem.

She's still very young and quite often, they wait to do lots of the tests until they are older. Taking the weaning slowly is a good idea - hopefully, they will refer you to a dietician who can give you lots of good advice. WE found the dietician great - she gave us meal ideas and helped us work out if dd was getting enough nutrients from the food we were giving her.

If it gives you any hope, we had a terrible time with dd when she was a baby. She had a diagnosed milk, soya and egg allergy and displayed lots of other reactions to food like peas, fish and chicken - she was never truly allergic to them, I think she had a very sensitive digestive system and used to react to a lot of things.

Anyway, she is now 5 and although she has eczema and asthma, she has completely outgrown her allergies so there is hope!

I know gina ford is not well liked on here but I did find her weaning guide quite good as it introduced all the foods very slowly and I could use her plans to mark down which foods dd had reacted to so I could try them again at a later stage. This was several years ago so there may be better books out there.

Naswm, it's interesting that you mention reflux. That was the first diagnosis and we used Gaviscon in her bottle, which helped in that it kept more milk down. She still had the other symptoms though. Once we switched to soya formula the symptoms went away within 24 hours. It was amazing. So, I do think there's some connection to the cow's milk. I totally agree about the lack of information. That's what I'm finding most difficult. As for the weaning, I'm happy to take it slowly. At the moment DD has a lot of baby rice and single food purees like apple or carrot. My only concern is that she becomes a picky eater but then, if she has lots of allergies, that might work out OK.

Hi Foxinsocks. I'll definitely make sure we speak to a dietician. Thanks for the tip. DD definitely has issues with milk and soya. I haven't tried eggs but the GP said to avoid them so I'm avoiding them now. Would your DD react if she ate something with eggs in it or just to eggs on their own? DS gave DD some baguette to chew on yesterday when I wasn't looking. She enjoyed it and didn't have a bad reaction and I'm wondering if baguettes have egg in them. That was definitely her first taste of wheat. I've wanted to try Weetabix but was warned off of wheat. Think I'll try it now. I'll have a look at GF. Sounds very useful. I've started a spreadsheet of what DD can and can't eat and put it up in the kitchen after DH gave her some mango, which gives her a rash and makes her vomit! He had forgotten, but I guess it's not taking up quite as much of his time as it is mine.

And I'm just rambling now! OK, off to watch some TV.

Hi Tex111 - re ther weaning and picky eating habits. It never worried me. I was more concerned about making sure my DS2 was eating 'safe' foods. He had exactly the same meals day in day out. I used to have to combine puddings with main meals etc to make them more applealing etc.

I would reiterate though that I would take it slowly. I never gave my DS2 anything that I didn't know the exact content of until in the past month. And even now only if I have to! And introduce food slowly. Dont rush too many differnet things at once. Leave egg until after 12 months if you can, aas it is a known allergen, and as you have already had problems you never know. (My DS2 has never had egg). I will introduce it soon, but not yet.

Stay in touch naswm x

tex, dd has turned out to be a fantastic eater. One thing about these allergy children is that their diet is often very full of fruit and veg because they don't contain milk, egg, gluten, soya etc. etc....so you end up giving them loads of fruit and veg for snacks and they get a lot of variety that way.

By the way, dd had reflux aswell that improved a lot when she was swapped onto nutramigen (she had a soya allergy aswell).

When she was a baby she reacted to things with egg in, once she was about 1ish she could handle things that had cooked egg in (like cakes) and this weekend she had her first taste of cooked pure egg and was fine (yippee!). She still tested positive to an egg allergy when she was about 2 even though she could manage things with egg cooked in them (as long as she didn't eat too much) but not egg itself.

Hi foxinsocks. I agree totally about the fruit and veg thing. My two are incredible fruit and veg eaters!

Good news about your DD btw. I cant wait to try my DS2. I;m sure he'll be fine but am still waiting for the 'right' time.

sorry for the mini hijack Tex111 !

Hi Tex, my dd's milk allergy was confirmed by skin tests at around 9 months, although we had taken her off cows milk completely, and I had also gone dairy free as I was breastfeeding. She had similar symptoms, no athsma or excema, but lots of tummy trouble, wind, constipation (for which she was initially prescribed lactulose, which is derived from cow's milk!) and reflux, it is amazing how much of an impact it has on your child when you stop the offending food. She is now 3, and tells me that her ears and tongue itch when she inadvertantly has dairy.

Seeing a dietitian will help, but TBH, unless they are specifically trained to deal with allergies, you'll kind of be on your own, knowing that your child can eat certain brands of fish finger is not going to make a massive difference to your life. You need a specific list of ingredients that are milk derivatives, and try and work out how to adapt recipes and come up with new ones. Would be happy to give ideas if you like.

You mention that your dd seems sensitive to a number of foods, and that rings a bell with me, as I was constantly thinking that my dd was allergic to allsorts, this is just my opinion, but I think that after the onslaught of reacting and having to deal with an allergen for so long, her body was sensitive to things, and I'm still much more careful about her diet re additives and coulourings than I think I would have been. Keep a food diary, and note any reactions, but don't be afraid to try things again. HTH, good luck with the testing, if you're unhappy with the results of the skin prick testing, you might be able to ask for blood testing, which is more accurate and sesitive, but if you're kind of already aware of the allergens involved due to the food diary etc, then it's more of a confirmation process rather than a dx IYKWIM.