New to allergies forum, some questions

[wagamama]

My 14-month-old DD has had "mild" eczema, mostly on her face but a bit on her body, for several months now. Admittedly, I had been in denial about it, hoping it would just "go away". Instead though, it got worse, and she started scratching a lot at night, so I took her for allergy tests. We had RAST blood tests, and she scored "2" on a scale of 1-6 for egg, dairy and wheat.

So my questions are:

1. How accurate are these tests? From what I've read, false positives are common. Also, does this mean her allergies are IGe (the serious type?).

2. Are these allergies "all or nothing"? i.e., do I have to take out even the tiniest bit of wheat (thinking soy sauce here as we live in Japan), or can a bit of wheat be OK for some allergic people?

3. I've been off dairy, eggs and wheat (Except for soy sauce) for only two days now, and her skin looks much better. Is it possible for it to clear up so quickly? Or is this just a coincidence ...

Any help appreciated. TIA!

[changingseasons]

Yes, it is possible for it to heal up that quickly, and that's a pretty good clue that you're not dealing with false positives (or at least all of them.) I personally would take those things out of her/your diet 100% for at least a few weeks. Then do a trial of the soy sauce and see if she tolerates it. When you remove a food for a while and then reintroduce, the symptoms are usually much more obvious.

There is a possibility of false negatives and positives. No test is 100% accurate. The only way to determine for sure is to remove the foods and then do a trial of each (one at a time, no more than one new food per week.) Also, be sure to keep a detailed food diary so that you can look back and see what you've already done, and how her symptoms have changed.

Welcome to the allergy forum!