AIBU to think that her ds might not really have food allergies?

[UsedToBeAPaxmanFan]

I know someone whose ds is friendly with my ds. The boys are now in their teens, but have known each other since nursery.

Her ds has multiple food allergies and a very restricted diet. So, no dairy, eggs, gluten, plus assorted other foods like peppers. He was diagnosed at about the age of 8 or 9 so has been on a restricted diet for several years now.

There was an article in The Guardian yesterday about children with food allergies, so I dropped it round to her thinking she'd be interested. We started talking about her ds's allergies and I asked her if her DS'consultant thought he would have them for life. It then transpired that he had never been diagnosd by a doctor but by a private nutritionist who had carried out the allergy tests by putting the trigger foodstuffs in a glass vial on her ds' hand. The foodstuffs had never come into contact with his skin.

I had never realised before that there was no formal dianosis, and think that this boy probably doesn't have multiple food allergies. I'm not saying he might not have one - he used to come up in hives occasionally when he was small, which is why his mum started trying to find the trigger in the first place - but that he's unlikely to be allergic to the amount of foods the "nutritionist" claimed.

Her ds is likely to go through adulthood with this very restricted diet when maybe he doesn't need to.

AIBU to suggest to her to review this and that her ds should seek a genuine medical opinion?

She doesn't sound clueless at all

My DD is lactose intolerant but hasn't been formally diagnosed through testing. GP wasn't remotely interested in helping my DD out for pretty much anything. We've done this through elimination as it was suggested (by another GP informally) it may be a contributing factor to her other medical problems. We tried eliminating it, her symptoms and other problems improved. We tried reintroducing it, her issues come back. I don't have her completely lactose free, because there is a likelihood she will grow out of it, but she's very lactose limited.

As its an intolerance it wont be life threatening if she does drink some normal milk or have some other dairy product, but it does make her ill for a few days. Other people assume that we're making it up, but they don't see the fall out.

Ironically last month DDs consultant, who told us to leave our GP and never look back, went through a list of things the 'should' have been suggested to us, one of which was eliminating dairy.

the kid and how he will grow up stunted and nutrient deprived

So do kids with genuine, diagnosed allergies all end up stunted and nutrient deprived then?

< gazes at 15 year old 5'10" DS who has had no dairy since the age of 1 when it resulted in a trip in an ambulance >

You do realise that there are such things as calcium supplements, don't you?

I have a 30 year old who is lactose intolerant. It seemed easier to get him an appointment with a dietician, than it has ever been for 19 year old dd who randomly gets hives for ten minutes, three hours or three days. We know what some of her asthma triggering allergies are. Other than that, we keep an eye and note down anything we know for definite. Frustratingly, she can sometimes develop an allergy to something she's had before, eg. she likes mints but has had to change brands after her lips swelled eating one from a brand that she'd been eating for years. We carry antihistamine around. On talking to the GP he has (quite reasonably imo) stated that there is no point going back to the hospital as things are a) transient and b) unpredictable. Point being that I have an official diagnosis for Ds1 but not for Dd1.

OP, ok I understand that you don't like her method. I personally would take my DC to do the glass vials test (even though I did it a long time ago) as it is not a approved medical route. What I did do on myself was eliminate these things (as a result of the whacky test) which resulted in me realising that I probably have cows milk protein intolerance. But it was not severe enough for me to eliminate in the long term. Several years afterwards I was experiencing severe reflux after eating for 2 months. Saw GP who offered me meds. I declined and said I'll try eliminating cows milk. It worked. I was not offered any help other than medication. DC who has severe gastro probs has not been offered any NHS dietician help. Even privately I was struggling to get a referral to dietician for DC. Then one of my friends got a referral to dietician (took about a year) and said dietician was pretty useless and didn't seem to know what they were doing. So it seems, unless you are lucky and get referral to a good specialist, you are left to figure it out on your own. You having a chat with this DC about his allergies and suggesting he goes back to GP to reintroduce these foods is interfering. I would be very annoyed if I found out you were having this chat with my DC. It suggests that you think the mother is being negligent and a bit crap and that you know better.

Also there is a misconception that you can't have lots of allergies/intolerances. This simply is not true. There are conditions where one cAn be intolerant to lots of food groups and the only way is to eliminate. I applaud the mums who manage to crack the respective diet as I haven't managed it yet and my DC is not thriving, eats hardly anything and in pain everyday.

*restrictive diet not respective

And I meant I wouldn't take my kid to do the vials thing. Stupid phone

Bingo, I don't think you read my subsequent post properly. I said that I might mention it obliquely, not that I would talk to him directly and suggest he goes back to his GP. Why would I do that? I also said I'd talk to his mum more, as I might have misunderstood. I don't think she's ever done an elimination diet to try to identify which food (if any) was the problem. She just cut out a huge range of foodstuffs based on a non-scientific test. But, as I say, I might have misunderstood.

OP ok understood. Tread carefully and maybe get more info. The reason why I'm not keen on questioning generally is because I get a lot of comments from people most of whom don't know the full story, have no experience of DC medical condition, but seem to think they know better. I really wish they would just leave me alone. I've even had people insisting on cooking for DC saying he will eat their food (DC refused as predicted by myself) then told me there's nothing wrong with him (she apologised profusely when I explained he's been on meds for years to stop him vomiting and under the care of a paediatrician). This kind of thing happens to me much more than it should, and tbh makes you feel a bit rubbish.