What to expect from allergy clinic appointment

[Jojo109]

Hi, ds 18 months is going for allergy testing next week. Anyone been through this? What should I expect? I'm scared of the results as his reactions have been getting worse at every exposure and I'm worried it's heading towards anaphylactic shock. Would it be unreasonable to push for an EPI pen?

Has anyone experienced a skin reaction that gets worse each time? I would be grateful if anyone with experience would look at my photos of ds's reaction and reassure me that they've experienced this too. I'm fairly new to posting so if you have experience and want to see my ds's reaction please pm me.

Thanks

They usually apply different solutions to the skin, labelled, and see if any of those give a reaction.

I've seen it done, never had it done myself though so I'm not of much help unfortunately!

What have his reactions been like so far?

My friend had one done because something was giving her daughter a very sore and rashy bum. They found nothing.

It was only after eating strawberries one day and it got really bad she discovered it was them!

we havr had it done. they will most likely do skin prick testing on arm with several allergena then prick the skin and leave you for a bit and see if any swell up. obviously being careful about anaphylaxis. ds wasnt bothered as didnt hurt much.

They will do skin prick tests like tequila said and may also take a small amount of blood. Depends on what your son is allergic to and the Dr you see to whether you will be prescribed an epipen. DS2 has never had an anaphalactic reaction but has had an epipen since he was your sons age, he was allergic to eggs and is still allergic to sesame. He started off with skin rashes, then progressed being sick as well as having a rash.

They will give you a careplan for what to do uf your son has a reaction and if they do prescribe an epipen you will be taught how to use it. Be prepared to be there a while, it can take a couple of hours!

Hi, thanks to you all for replying.

Nettie - this started as small skin reactions and is now major skin reactions and he is sick sometimes too but I have never linked that until you said.

Reassuring to hear that the skin pricks don't bother them. I was clearly picturing hundreds of dentist style needles =)

We asked the consultant about the risk of a serious reaction to the skin prick tests and she said it was possible but so rare she'd never know it happen. Good luck.