Exclusion diet + Piriton. Does this make sense?

[Laugs]

Just back from GP. DD (21 months) has a suspected, mild food allergy.

He has told me to exclude the suspects (milk, yougurt, cheese) for a few days, then reintroduce one by one. But he's prescribed Piriton twice a day at the same time. So will the results of my tests show?

The other thing I don't get is that he seems to think she is allergic to milk, yogurt or cheese. But surely if you're allergic to milk then you'll be allergic to all three? Or is this not the case?

Can any wise women help me?

Hmm, I agree with you. But I'm not an expert, just a mum of a ds with several allergies.

When ds goes for allergy reviews he is not allowed piriton for 3 days before his appointment. If we are in a situation where he has to have it, we have been told to cancel and re-schedule his appointment.

Could you phone the GP and ask for clarification? Would be interested to know his reasoning.

I know I should do, but he is very hard to talk to.

I asked once before about the possibility of a milk allergy in relation to DD's (suspected) asthma and he told me this was not possible. I know that's not true because I have asthma and as a toddler was not allowed cow's milk for a year because of it.

So I'm sort of not sure if he knows what he's talking about...

Could you change your gp?

Sounds extreme but if you have no confidence in him and he is difficult to talk to, I think that is reason enough.

Ask around if there are any approachable gp's in the area.

I think there are probably quite a few gps who don't know anything about allergies and the worst ones are those who think they do, imho. (that's not to say he doesn't of course, because i'm no expert either!)

I would ask for a referral to a specialist dietician exclusion diets should be closely supervised.

He's not actually my GP. The surgery has 4 GPs I think, and you just get assigned to whoever has a free slot. I just happen to keep on getting him!

mrz - I did ask if she needed allergy testing and he said no, because her allergy (if she has one) is mild and the testing would upset her.

Maybe he just thinks I'm a neurotic mother and wanted rid of me?
Maybe I am?

hang on a min....................are these food allergies intolerance or IGE classic allergies?

If its for classic food allergies , then yes , stop using antihistmaine before hand ( I thinks its a least 2 weeks before, but am hazy on this..........)
and also DONT re-introduce the food, before formal testing.

If tests are for intolerance, teating wouldnt be affected by antihistmaine.

why is a young child being prescribed piriton ?

if its for ezcema etc, consider changing to a milder daily antihistmine with less side effects like all day sleepyness, and loss of appeitite.

If you want to go forward for classic allergy testing and see an immunologist, the tests are performed happily on very young children, and are not that distressing.

Milk cheese yoghurt - can help you on this one - I'm lactose intollerant and the form I have means that I can have cheese and yoghurt but not milk - the process that makes it into cheese or yoghurt changes the lactose sufficiently so that I can have it, at least in moderation. I personally can't have goats milk or sheeps milk though.

I have a friend who is specifically allergic to cows milk products, which is different, so he can eat goats milk and sheeps milk products, including milk (and even buffallo milk products) without a problem, but cows milk results in immediate bounce...

With ds and exlusion, the advice was to remove all of these products (including all traces including butter!!!) for 4 weeks and then gradually add things every 2 weeks. He was never on piriton though. Normally with an intollerance you'd notice a change when you introduced things that are not good provided that you got to a 'good' situation by the end of the 4 weeks.

Wow, it's very complicated! Can't work out if that means your gp does know what he is talking about, or not..

williamsmummy: piriton never makes my 2 dcs sleepy, unfortunately!

If you are suspecting an allergy then you should not reintroduce the foods. You have to avoid until you know if it is an allergy or not.

I would get an appointment with a different GP and in the meantime read up on allergies and things on the net so you don't get bamboozled the next time.

Good Luck.

erm, I think I would make GP make a referral to a specialist, and take the piriton for just in case situations,. go along with the elimination diet and see where you go from there...keep a food diary, that then will show the specialist what you have been doing and what rections there were, etc....

piriton was given to my son when he was 12 months old to help him sleep and control the bad eczema.

always a poor sleeper, ( as most classic allergic babies are) the piriton had a slow build up effect.
didt really help with the sleep, only helped a little with the eczema.
however, noticed that he spent a great deal of time sitting on sofa, looking 'dopey', somtimes rubbing tummy or head, and his food intake dropped.

which we found worrying in a child who was ( and still is) underweight.

we stopped giving it to him, and although skin worsened, he was a more lively child, and happier, less grumpy.
As we discovered the allergies, both the food and environmmental , we changed our homes, and his diet , and that made a huge difference to his life.
allergy bedding for instance worked very well.

if piriton is being prescribed for the allergies, its classic allergy, and do not re introduce foods at all.
we are talking about potential serious allergies, rather than intolerance.

( not to diss intolerance..........have a few of them with a good smidgen of IBS..........sooooo not fun quality of life)

Ok, I spoke to GP again yesterday. He said:

carrying on taking piriton for 2 weeks to get rid of immediate symptoms.

one day at a time reintroduce one of milk, cheese and yogurt. If there is a reaction, stop immediately and come back and see them. If there is no reaction, introduce the next food.

He said the piriton will prevent the reaction from being strong, but if it is an allergy, it will still show.

I don;t know if this is a serious allergy or an intolerance to be honest. The GP said 'mild alergy'. She has been happily eating milk, cheese, yogurt for around 10 months. Her reaction was a rash around her mouth after mealtimes for a few days, which went away after an hour or two. The day before I went to GP it flared around her cheeks too. She didn't even notice it herself.

I think the problem may be that in the last two weeks I had actually made a conscious effort to give her as much dairy as possible (feel quite stupid about that now) - I'd stopped breastfeeding about a month before and only just remembered I should be giving more milk.

This makes me think it is more an intolerance, as they tend to be foods that form a large part of your diet. The only thing that stops me thinking that is that the reaction ws quite quick - maybe 10 minutes after eating the food, which makes me think of an allergy

That makes a bit of sense to my simple brain, laugs.

So did he say, when to start re-introducing the dairy foods. i.e. during the two week piriton phase?

I guess you just do as recommended and go straight back if any bad/worse reactions.

Would def want a dietetic referrel though if looking at cutting out dairy completely, don't you think?

Maybe the gp knows that wait for allergy testing in your area is dire and thinks this a good way to start.

Well done for having the guts to phone. Hopefully gp's bark worse than his bite

Williamsmummy at your little ds on sofa in a daze. Glad you've found ways to help alleviate symptoms

okay...............I personaly would question this home testing idea.
its sounds more dodgy than a 'nigella' idea to me.

its more than likely that your child does have a mild allergy.

Based only on facial reaction= a rash, on face ( reddness?, nettle rash? or just eczema?) that responded to piriton.

But, for an imunoligist to tell you that a child has a mild allergy , that has a great chance of outgrowing, they normally still tell you to avoid.
and they base their dignaosis on family history, childs history, blood and skin prick tests.

so, for me, the idea of a GP saying that its a mild allergy, without any previous medical back up, is very questionable.

allergies by there very nature are unpredicitable in reaction severity.

You can develop alleriges any time, even if previously the food was enjoyed safely.

the reaction severity depends on allergic persons health at time of injestion, and the amount ingested.

How is the doctor asking you to proced?
is he asking you rub a little on face first and wait?

then rubbing a little on lip and waiting?

then trying a small amount?

or is he just suggesting you just give your infant cup of milk?

I have to add that any gp who was trained over 10 yrs ago will have had very little to no training in allergy , both classic or intolerance.
A recently trained doc would be a better bet for info.
or one who personaly has under their wing a large amount of allergic children/adults.

If you are really concnered, please ring the anaphylaxis campaign and ask their opinon.

i agree. I wouldn't do home testing and if I did, I would ensure that I have a couple of epipens not just piriton. Apparently allergy, ezcema and asthma are related. Google "atopic march"

One specialist told me that many in the medical proffession are in denial about allergies/don't have a clue about allergies

Hi, thanks for your advice. I'm not sure what to do, but know a youngish doctor so will speak to him.

Williamsmummy, I wouldn't say DD's facial reaction responded to piriton - it went away of its own accord after a couple of hours and piriton wasn't prescried until the next day.

I didn't realise allergies could develop at any time.

Does anyone know if food allergies are different to airborne allergies in the way they develop?
ie I know I have a strong allergy to horses (would go nowehere near them), a medium allergy to cats (would go in someone's house with a cat, but wouldn't stay there) and a mild allergy to dogs (would stay in a house with dogs but would take anti-histamine/ extra beclazone). This never changes.

Just rang Allergy UK and they agreed with GP's advice.

Allergies, asthama, ezcema all related to the immune system's response. So is Lupus and MS and it seems that many of these conditions and the immune system is not well understood. Beware, that first reaction can be mild, second worse and then third can be anaphylactic. He was very unlucky but better to play safe? I know a grown man who died from allergy that he developed late in life.

My dd developed an allergy to peanuts at 4.5 despite having eaten peanuts many times before. I also agree with WM that you shouldn't be reintroducing the foods yourself at home.

Look at this about Kate Silverton. She almost died from an allergic reaction to prawns which she had never eaten before

www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1038817/How-prawn-salad-Royal-Ascot-nearly-killed-TV-news-beauty- Kate-Silverton.html

we have DC in ambulance three times for BAD reactions

I've been looking into this too - see my post tonight.

I found this, which I found useful and will explain (I think) why doc is talking about milk / cheese as possibly causing reaction. They are made with differnt bits of the milk and therefore have different protein.

My understanding is that if you have a rash then its an allergy as intolerances are to do with your digestive system and therefore won't give you hives.

www.allergysa.org/milk.htm

thanks. Hmm, hmm my son son has had anaphylactic reaction to milk with rash, hives, breathing difficulties, fat lips, diarrhea but i am no expert

Hi Toughdaddy,

That sounds truely frightening. I hope all is OK now? Have the specialists got things under control for DS?

all okay now thx. We are experts. See allergistt every few months. 2DC may grow out of some of allergies if you believe the skin tests but things don't look good for the other. But DC are all diligent and don't accept food from anyone and read labels etc