Testing today...............fingers crossed!!

[mymama]

Ds2 has his annual testing with allergy specialist today (Tuesday). We will be testing egg, peanut which are his known allergens and some newbies to eliminate other tree nuts.

ds2 is 3 now so testing will be interesting . His specialist uses skin prick method.

A number of our "allergy" friends have had poor results at this age so I would be happy with no change at this point. An improvement would be great.

bump

good luck tomorrow mymamma.
My ds is 4 and was due to be retested last august(tree nut allergy)but the appointment letter came through in september for NEXT july!!!

I'm secretly hoping he's only going to be allergic to a few types of nuts but have to wait sooo long.

A big fingers crossed ,where is your clinic?

Thank you ggirl. I am in Brisbane. Allergy Clinic is at Royal Children's Hospital. Had a thought this morning that ds2 has had dimetapp which has histamine in it. Hope it does not affect the results.

noon here now so will post results when I get back. Could be or !

Well we are back from testing and .

He was retested for his egg and peanut, all of the treenuts and dust mites.

His specialist indicates a + score per mm result.

The tree nuts tested negative.
The dust mite tested negative (was also negative previous years).
The egg tested the same with a ++
The peanut tested slightly. She would not call it positive but indicated + as a safeguard. He tested ++ last year.

She has booked him in for testing again in August 2007 with a food challenge in hospital in September.

Oh that is good news!

Hi mymama... did the specialist ask if he had had any histamines/antihistamines... because as far as I know antihistamines affect the result.

I did let her know he had 4ml of Dimetapp. She said it would not affect it and as far as we can see it hasn't - his egg result was same as last year.

He has done realy well with it all. Initial testing in June 2004 (9 months) he had wheat, dairy, fish, egg, peanut. Nov 2005 he had outgrown wheat, milk, fish. This year sees another improvement. We are v v lucky.

ggirl forgot to say that is shocking re appointment time. Our wait list here is long for initial appt (18 months) but follow up testing is an annual appt that you book at each appt iyswim.

Hi mymama..
"His specialist indicates a + score per mm result".... does he measure them with a ruler like in the UK?

Hi Rummum. No she doesn't measure with a ruler. She is UK educated/trained though. She just knows what she is doing. One of only two specialists servicing whole of Queensland in Australia. Each time I see her she amazes me with her expertise and manner with the children. You may have heard of her she guest speaks at international conferences and is "known" to be one of the leaders in this field. I am extremely grateful to have access to her. Her name is Jane Peake. If you google her she crops up quite a bit.

In the UK Ds get tested every year for dairy, eggs and peanuts. I was told anything above a 7mm reaction is concidered to be potentially fatal.
Anyone else heard this?

God rummum,ds had a 24mm reaction !That was to cashews.

Mymama,ds's appointments are supposed to be annually but they are so busy it seems to have become biannual

Rummum - no I haven't heard that. Guess it could be true though. I also think it depends on allergen. Consultant told me yesterday that egg is highly unlikely to be Anaphylactic. She was speaking in general not relating to ds's result.

What does your ds results measure??

ggirl - my ds is only 3 so has testing annually. I think from 5 on it changes to 2 years apart as any change is going to be minimal in one year at that age. Although a child at school changed from 2+ to 7+ age 4 to age 6.

my son measured I think about 14mm for some of his results, which was up a bit from last year... and I stupidly said " oh, does this mean he's more allergic" and the consultant said "you can't get more allergic than potentially fatal"... (silly me)... It just meant for DS, that he is still allergic and not growing out of his allergies, most 8 year olds grow out of them by this age apparently.
I don't think the reaction measurement is a good indicator of what their anaphalatic reaction could be... although I stand to be corrected
wow ggirl ... 24 mm is a big reaction spot....

My consultant says "allergic is allergic - there is no sort of allergic". My ds has not measured higher than 3mm but that was at 9 months.

When he was 7 months he had 4 teaspoons of weetbix and within half an hour he swelled until his eyes were almost shut, hives all over and projectile vomited several times. His score at 9 months for wheat was 1+. Going on that result I figured 3+ for peanut and egg was going to be life threatening. At 15 months his wheat result was negative and started on to wheat based foods such as pasta, bread. He had weetbix at about 21/2 yrs and was fine.

mymama,my ds was 4 in september so he is still supposed to be annually,but I'm guessing new referrals get priority,rightly so,so c'est la vie!

Adding to this thread to clarify that the reason the Dimetapp did not affect his testing was because it was non drowsy elixir. Normal dimetapp/cold remedies with histamine in should be stopped 48hours before testing.

At what age is it recommended to do the prick allergy test? I know that the results are not conclusive if done too early. My DS is 15 months old. Should I ask for him to be tested? Thanks for your replies

debliz5 my ds was 9 months when he had his first skin prick tests. This was based on a history of several reactions over several months. My ds was having reactions whilst I was bf him before weaning. He was reacting to proteins in my milk (unknown to us at that time). I am in Australia so not sure of guidelines elsewhere.

Thanks Mymama for your response. I live in Amsterdam and here they never mentioned sending my DS for testing and I'm beginning to wonder whether I should insist on having them. The thing is I have contradictory information about their validity at his young age (15 months). Are the results conlusive in the things he's allergic to but not conclisive in the degree (how allergic he is)?