Considering doing the milk ladder without a food challenge day

[RedRobyn2021]

My DD 19 months had a mild reaction to butter at 6 months (her first taste of cows milk dairy) and later on 7 months an unpleasant reaction to scrambled eggs (first time having egg).

She has had both a skin prick test and a blood test, both negative. The doctor said they are 90% accurate.

When I asked how long it could take for an appointment for a food challenge day, the doctor said A LEAST 3 months.

What would you do? Wait? Or just get on with the ladder?
L

I think you should wait or if you do the ladder do you have the support of a dietican?

Have you thought about buying an allergy testing kit on wowcher when they come on offer ? , usually £19

I wouldn't imagine this would be more accurate than a skin prick test and a blood test

I don't know about them sorry . But my dd and Ds both had the wowcher ones and food was graded with different colours for severity of allergy , it was very accurate for both of them .

Allergy testing kits bought online are just rubbish, blood tests and skin prick tests are used by hospitals for a reason.

I know three months sounds ages when they're little but that's not a bad waiting time for an appointment. However, I'd try the milk ladder, slowly, and with antihistamine liquid on hand. The allergy clinic will ask you to try this if the skin prick tests have been negative. Food challenge days are usually for children who are growing out of an allergy that has had positive test results.

Dd2 had a food challenge test for egg as she had severe peanut allergy and tested positive for egg and we didn't know how bad that reaction would be. All they did was gave her a tiny tiny tiny bit of cake with baked egg in and monitored her every 20 mins they'd increase the dose. So basically I'd say if your child didn't need hospital admission on their first try then you could do this yourself at home or you can wait for an appointment but don't be surprised if it takes ages to come through. If your child can tolerate the egg or milk they'll then ask you to try and ensure they eat it regular and if all is good they'll move you up the ladder and the process starts again. I'd say it's up to you if you do it at home or progress. We're slowly progressing at home with egg 😁

@PragmaticWench her reaction for dairy wasn't even severe enough for a referral, it was a rash on her chest that was gone after 10 minutes, the GP said because her face was fine it would be better to do the milk ladder but I decided to wait. Then she had a reaction to scrambled egg at 7 months and she had a rash and swelling on her face and chest that disappeared after an hour, which resulted in a GP referral to the allergy clinic.

It just seems like overkill after both a negative skin prick test and a negative blood test.

I'm a mum to a child with multiple severe food allergies. Feel free to pm me if you want any additional advice. My generally advice would be to wait for the food challenge. It's not worth the risk in my opinion.