Too young for Cat allergy?

[tatty33]

My 7 month old has been wheezy on and off since starting with a childminder who has got a kitten, so we're keeping him at home until the results of a blood test testing for allergies. He's had no other symptoms apart from the wheeze

MY GP said today she didn't think it could be the cat as he's to young to be allergic. I'd love to believe this as he's really settled with the childminder who seems fantastic, but does anyone know different?

Thanks

Can you really be "too young" to be allergic to cats?

Gosh that's such crap!

Too young to be allergic? WTF?

DS had an anaphalactic shock at 7 months.
Sounds completely plausible.

Allergies can start at any time - being young doesn't mean you escape them. For example my daughter was allergic to anything with dairy/protein/lactose etc etc from the age of 4 weeks!

I think at that age some children do seem to be more sensitive to these things, i know my ds gets a little wheezy when he goes to his grandmas house and she has cats and it is also a bit dusty
but then again he has been wheezy other times and seems to suffer with his chest when he gets colds
it could be anything these days, traffic polution or hayfever etc... little lungs are bound to be sensitive to things i think imo
hopefully it will turn out not to be the cat as you seem lucky to have found a great child minder

i forgot to say in that post (i started to waffle..) i dont think hes too young to have allegies

Sorry I should have been clearer, she was saying cat allergies don't start till around 4 years, not other allergies.

My fault - frantically trying to post before his oh so short nap ends!

I don't know about cat allergies but I've not heard of a child so young having an allergy to cat fur. I used to work for an animal charity and we'd often have animals come in for rehoming because children had developed an allergy which they hadn't had before and from what I can remember they were children much older than yours.

Oh, maybe she's right then - not heard of that. By the way I would take any test results with a pinch of salt - ds is apparently 3/6 for cat hair (that's pretty high) and he's shown no reaction to any cats he's come into contact with. Similarly he came up 2/6 to chickpeas and that's what he had the anaphalactic shock to.

his little lungs could just be sensitive. So dust mites mite set him off, not saying childminders house is dusty just that he might be sensitive, if so he will grow out of it

Ds who's 2 has developed a really serious allergy to cats which has been confirmed with skin prick tests.

This included wheezing puffy eyes and swelling

Don't think children can be too young for an allergy

DD has always reacted to cats from about 4 mths, puffy eyes and asthma gets worse - if that's not a cat allergy I don't know what is !

I did say earlier I know nothing about cats and allergies with children but having read everyone else's posts on this thread I'd say there is a strong possibility you have a problem here. Definitely worth investigating a bit further.

My daughter is 8 months and she was very wheezy also and then suffered form excema....we have two cats and thought the same as you. The doctor said the same to us and that she could not be allergic to the cats as she was too young!

However, we bought a humidifier for her room (with some karvol drops added) and in a couple of days her wheezing and snuffliness stopped.

Don't know if this will help?