Skin prick / allergy testing questions

[AmberM223]

Hello all,
I have decided to take my little boy privately for allergy testing. We were told at 8 weeks old he had CMA (just by his bowel movements and bad eczema) His bowel movements did improve but his eczema never has. He has a dietitian and dermatologist on the NHS - both uslesss. He’s now 20m and no sign of allergy testing so that’s why i have decided to pay private.

He has the test next tuesday - a prick test. But i just wanted to hear from people who have had it done on their toddlers. How do they decide which allergies to test for? How many can they do at one time?
Did you end up finding out they had loads of allergies you were never aware of?!

We go on holiday 3 days later so i’m slightly nervous i shouldn’t have booked it so close.

Any tips or advise would be welcome. Thanks!

Skin prick tests are not always reliable in young children. There are children in a local allergy group I am part that were 4 before their confirmed allergies were all detected in skin prick and blood tests. At this age confirmed reactions trump negative blood tests

The skin prick tests also only detect immediate allergies and those that are delayed and have gastric symptoms don't show up. My daughters symptoms are loose stools etc so she has never been sent for skin prick tests as her symptoms are not consistent with allergies that will show up in testing. We identified her allergies by carefully removing and testing different foods and seeing if symptoms reappear

I had 2 anaphylaxis reactions in my early twenties and underwent skin prick and blood tests. I think they tested about 10 common allergens based on typical allergies - dust etc as well as allergies related to the foods I had eaten prior to the anaphylaxis all were negative. The consultant went through the food lists prior to the reactions and concluded they were non-immune anaphylaxis caused by high histamine foods and diagnosed a histamine intolerance rather than an allergy.

Tests are always clear cut unfortunately!

Seems quite poor from these clinicians to take your money for a test but not explain it to you.

@Superscientist thanks for that info - that all makes sense! And absolutely something i am worried about is delayed allergies, if anything i do think that’s what he has! I have tried to start the ‘milk ladder’ that the NHS tell you to do, but they like you to be 1000% well - no cough, runny nose, no excema at all. It’s just not possible! he goes to nursery so had a cold all the time and has ALWAYS had bad skin so matter what we try and nothing ever seems to match up with food etc. I’m finding it really difficult and such a minefield which is why i decided to go private. I will be very surprised if he does actually have a cows milk allergy though as i just don’t think he does!

@Unseenentity yes i agree, i did think after paying so much money i would get more info from them beforehand but they just told me to stop all antihistamines 4 days prior and take a list of meds! Hmm