london allergy clinic - allergy testing

[valentine]

Has anyone had their child tested for allergies at the London Allergy Clinic in New Cavendish Street? If so, were the doctors there helpful? My son reaceted v badly to scrambled egg a few days ago (he developed hives over his body and vomited 4 hours after one teaspoon of egg - it being the first time he had tasted egg or any egg product...). I am now going to get him tested for all allergies at this centre...terrified of what else he might be allergic to as well as eggs. He did have amoxicillan a week earlier and finished the course a few days before he tried egg so it is possibel that he is allergic to that antibiotic and not to egg but i think it is unlikely.....

Haven't been to the clinic but would be interested to hear how you get on with the testing. I suspect an egg allergy in DS 13mths who had hives but did not throw up so not such a violent reaction as your DS. Please post to say how things went.

Valentine, yesterday both my kids had allergy testing just round the corner at the Portland. I imagine it will be much the same at the London Allergy Clinic. Your ds is almost certainly allergic to the eggs. Your description of his reaction to the eggs is classic. My dd is moderately allergic to raw eggs (she used to be allergic to cooked eggs, too, but grew out of that apparently), whereas your ds sounds severely allergic to eggs.

They'll probably test your son for a few other common allergens--nuts, etc.

They most likely won't be able to do a test for amoxycillin/penicillin, just to warn you. I think that's a more complicated test that goes on for several days.

Chicpea, your ds is probably also allergic to eggs. I think egg allergies manifest themselves in different ways. In my dd's case, for instance, her face swelled upher eyes were nearly squeezed shutand yet she had no rash anywhere on her body.

On a positive note, kids tend to outgrow egg allergies, or so I was told yesterday.

Expatkat, DS's left eye was swollen and went all slitty with red face - didn't mention it on this thread. Just wondered, did your DD have the MMR out of interest? I am now at the stage of thinking about the above or the single vaccine and was told about the egg connection to the jab.

Chicpea, the MMR thing is interesting. My practice nurse refused to give my dd MMR until we knew for sure if dd was allergic to eggs. But according to the allergist we saw yesterday, MMR is definitely OK, even for children with egg allergies, due to the fact that the MMR vaccine is incubated slightly differently to the way it used to be. It's only recently official now, which is why not that many people know it's OK to have the MMR with an egg allergy.

We went to the London Allergy Clinic and saw Ms Sloper. She's a good doctor, but can be a little gruff (or that was my first impression - but I had just moved over from the US and everyone seemed a bit gruff!). I don't know how she is in handling all of the initial questions people have when first diagnosed as my son had been diagnosed a couple of years earlier, but was very nice on follow-ups.

Antibiotics don't show the same reaction from what I've heard. Don't know about that. Good luck with the allergies - get yourself an epipen if you can in the meantime. If your GP won't give you one, call the London Allergy Clinic and explain that you'd like one while you're waiting for the appointment.

Also - it's good to know that there can be false positives with any type of allergy testing (skin tests or RAST), so don't panic if you see him swelling up to something he eats regularly. Just the nature of the game, unfortunately.