Advice - cancel allergist appt or not?

[jasperc163]

Can anyone who has been for one of these appts help me here? We have an appt with a paed allergist in just over a week as a month or 2 back my LO (who is already suspected CMPI) appeared to be reacting to various fruit/veg that i was trying to wean with - quite bad face rashes and general lack on interest).

Anyway the situation seems to have improved quite alot and the rashes (where they happen at all) are now relatively mild and not so much of an issue.

I dont know if i should either cancel or try to postpone the appt (its private on insurance) until we have tried more foods out or if i should take LO anyway? do they test for foods you havent yet tried? Will they think i am wasting their time? Just dont want to have to go back to GP about it IF she suddenly starts reacting to stuff again.

help!
thanks
alice

That is a conundrum. Why don't you ring the office and try to talk to the nurse?

I'd still go - she is obviously atopic and you may find something useful. There will be lots of things she hasn't tried yet and so it would make sense to still have those skin pricks.

thanks - do they do skin pricks for all the main allergens then, regardless of whether you have been exposed to them yet?

I just dont want them to think i am wasting their time. Bottom line is i wouldnt be asking for an appt now on basis of how she is at the moment

alice

I would definitely go - we are in a similar situation and I was about to cancel the appointment but then it suddenly got worse again this morning so I am definitely going to take DS anyway, as it took so long to get the private appointment in the first place! Also I suspect DS is allergic to nuts and want to find out how allergic exactly - ie: should we be worrying about anaphylaxis etc in the future although right now it only comes out in the eczema form.

Thanks konya

Can anyone confirm if they test for stuff not yet tried ie nuts, eggs etc etc?

They did a blood test for DS, not a skin prick. And found that he was reacting to the small amounts of egg that he was getting through the breastmilk, and also tree nuts in general. Not sure if they can check for things that the babies haven't tried yet though. Good luck!

Message withdrawn

So it there a 'standard' set that they test for (plus anything specific you think you have a problem with )?

If your baby was breastfed then they can test for the common allergens, because they would have got exposed through the milk. Stuff like peanut oil can be in nappy rash creams.

Whether the test is neg or pos. it is a good idea to follow a slow introduction of allergens.

Dairy, wheat, tomato, kiwi - 1 year
Eggs, fish - 2 years
Peanuts - 5 years

threebob

thanks - she was breastfed but only for 7 weeks - i assume this is enough? She is now 9 months.

It is so difficult to know what to do - maybe i should speak to his secretary? I am just aware that if we cancel this then we may not get another so easily (partic as my oh is likely to lose his health insurance soon).

hi, id just like to add that my ds is cmp allergic and now egg. he is 7.5 months. my paed said that he could not react to foods in my milk as they dont pass through. i am so glad that it has been mentioned onn here that they can. if anyone has more info on this that would be great as i have an appt for blood tests in 2 weeks and basically id like to prove to paed that things can go into milk.

Not sure if it helps but I guess we are 'living' proof. The blood test is called RAST. After they found out that DS is allergic to peanuts and eggs I completely eliminated them from my diet and the eczema got so much better within about two weeks. Then had take out from a Thai restaurant and he broke out again although we had specified absolutely no peanuts, we think they may have used a bit of peanut oil or something. there is an article about it in case you need something to show the paed: www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn590
but, i am really surprised that a doctor could say that allergens would not pass through breastmilk - if the HIV virus can be transmitted through breastmilk i can imagine so could allergens.. Hope this is helpful

thanks very much konya, the paed said that the proteins are broken down into too small a particle to affect ds through milk. when i questioned him and stated that ds projectile vomited within half an hour of a feed when id eaten alot of dairy he lectured me and basically said he was right and i was wrong.

i will print this article and definately ask for a rast test

thanks again

Hi Vnmum - I really hope it goes well. I am attaching another link to an article that you will find helpful as it specifically mentions cow's milk proteins passing through the breast milk to the baby and causing allergic reactions.

www.lalecheleague.org/ba/Nov98.html

I also found this site quite helpful:

www.alphanutrition.com/children/infant.htm

Take care

As my DS has a lot of food allergies when I had DD I was advised by paed to eliminate all traces of the things he was allergic to from my diet while I was breastfeeding her as they can be passed through breastmilk.
I therefore was taken off dairy,eggs,soya,fish,sesame,nuts and had to get calcium suplements from the GP under thier advice.
I was told to gradually start eating normally at about 6 months as I began weaning and if no reaction by DD to this then I could introduce these items as and when into her diet.
She has no allergies whatsoever and of course I will never know if she wouln't have anyway or whether this did help to prevent it.

The midwife (not the paed) did tell me that even while pregnant thse things can affect the unborn baby - not sure about any research on this though.And she tlod me t about 38 weeks pregant too late to do anything about it then.

Well we went for our appt last night. She was skin pricked for dairy, soya yogurt, sweet potato, egg, cat.

All negative. Not a huge suprise (except perhaps the dairy) as i thought it was intolerances rather than allergies.

One useful thing - we hadnt fed egg yet and he said that if they dont react to egg skin prick then its highly unlikely they will have a problem with it (as its pretty much always an allergy not an intolerance) so we can go ahead and feed it.

He also said he always advises no nuts til 6 or 7 yrs!!