1st visit to allergist today

[lightheart]

I need some understanding about what a skin prick test told us.

1st visit to the allergist/immunologist today, he did the skin prick test on the back that told us whether or not little guy was allergic to 54 foods.

The scores he said could be from 0-4

Little guy had 1
wheat, pecan, brewers yeast, banana, grapefruit

2 was on
walnut, peanut, strawberry, coconut, cantaloupe, orange

3 was on
corn

there were no 4's

the doctor highlighted all the 2's and the 3 and said to "avoid for 6 months"
he also said well cooked food is better

... I literally just walked back in the door from the doctor's visit so I haven't had time to comprehend and mull through all that is going through my head..... I do plan on calling the doctor's office later this afternoon to ask my questions but I wanted to post here in case you guys sparked some more questions I should be asking in addition....

why is it that we should not avoid the 1's also for little guy if they came up a number?

What exactly does it mean to avoid... should i be purgeing the whole kitchen of the 2's and 3's?

the corn... friends of ours use a corn stove to heat with? should he not be going to their house at all? can he touch corn? can he touch the #2's on the list or are we looking at little guy just not ingesting these foods?

he wants to do a blood test... sending us to the children's hospital where they are better equiped to draw the blood plus he has some other bloodwork that I am wanting them to draw for that his primary wants.

on that script he has written
IgG
IgA
IgM
Immunoglobuins subclasses
Pneumococcal Antibodies
Dx Immunodeficiency

what all is this bloodwork going to tell us?

He also wants little guy to see an endocronologist.... is this typical for allergy patients to be seeing... little guy has a whole slew of other stuff going on, and we have a pretty big team of specialists already on board so I don't know if the endo. is direct linked with the allergies or if this doctor is looking at little's guy's big picture and just thinks it's a good idea for total health. I have a call into our primary about getting a referal to an endo. did that on the way home from the appointment.

We go into the allergist in 2 weeks to see him again.

[kjbrown92]

Did he give you an epi-pen? I would ask about ingestion vs. touching vs. inhaling. If he has a corn allergy, I would be worried about the corn stove, but maybe that's just an overreaction on my part. I think of when someone is allergic to poison ivy and if someone decides to burn it and the fumes get in your lungs, but maybe that's not the same thing. Corn is hard to avoid, but if you do a google search for corn allergy, you'll find multiple pages/sites that tell you what to avoid. Some common ones that people don't think of: iodized salt, baking powder, vanilla extract, powdered sugar, white vinegar.

Are they going to test him again in 6 months, before you try anything?

Cooked foods change the structure of some foods. A friend of mine is allergic (epipen) to most legumes, but as long as they're cooked, she can eat them. Which I find fascinating, since with intolerances, it doesn't seem to matter whether they're raw, cooked, or extracted, or whatever, my kids still can't tolerate them.

[lightheart]

he did say that it is better for him to eat his foods cooked rather than raw, my first thought there was that the foods lost all their nutritional value... then I thought chemically they change too... so maybe that's the reason.

ohh... it just hit me, corn starch, a thickener used in lots of things... wow this is going to be an adventure.

the corn stove, i called our friends and they said they aren't running it now that it is warmer so currently no smoke coming from it presently, i hope their house isn't going to be off limits for little guy because the ladies are like grandmothers to him and if he isn't able to visit there.... we'll find a way though...

with the testing is the test typically repeated every 6 months or year to see if things change?

Are they going to test him again in 6 months, before you try anything?

so far I have it in my head to just get rid of the 2-3 foods from his diet and see where that takes us

Did he give you an epi-pen?

no he didn't

[kjbrown92]

Originally Posted by lightheart

he did say that it is better for him to eat his foods cooked rather than raw, my first thought there was that the foods lost all their nutritional value... then I thought chemically they change too... so maybe that's the reason.

ohh... it just hit me, corn starch, a thickener used in lots of things... wow this is going to be an adventure.

It's in a lot of medicines too. Dextrose, citric acid, maltodextrin...

with the testing is the test typically repeated every 6 months or year to see if things change?

I don't know. The one person I knew with a little kid with IgE allergies, had her DS retested. And once it didn't show up anymore (eggs), then she introduced them cooked in something first, besides plain cooked by themselves.

so far I have it in my head to just get rid of the 2-3 foods from his diet and see where that takes us

corn, walnut, peanut, strawberry, coconut, cantaloupe, orange is 7 foods if you're doing all the 2s and 3s. Or does he just not eat some of them anyway?

What have his symptoms been so far?

[lightheart]

By 2-3 I ment the score he tested. Those are getting cut. When I talked to the nurse she said I should limit the score 1 foods also and if he was to eat one of the 1's not to combine it with one of the other foods that he also tested 1 for and to cook it.

He does have some food aversions, and difficulty swallowing different textures so his diet is limited on what he is willing to eat.

symptoms... little guy is 5 yrs and he has a genetic skin disorder called Focal Dermal Hypoplasia, it effects many parts of his body, structurally organs are different and he has a whole slew of symptoms/diagnosis but are they related directly to the FDH and the affect that has on his body or are they actual allergy related?

basically - skin stuff, congestion, watery eyes, growth, sickness would be the big ones on my list of symptoms

[melixxa]

My DS1 is severely allergic to peanuts (ate 3 at a friend's house at the age of 2 and had immediate anaphylactic symptoms as well as a body covered with hives; the allergy was later confirmed by the skin-prick test). I was supposed to get the blood test done but totally chickened out since 1) he is still for the most part in a 'safe,' non-peanut environment, and 2) he is soooo sensitive.

But just now I had my DS2 tested - negatives on all tests. However, the allergist still wants us to get bloodwork on BOTH boys, and then later try a peanut challenge in the office with DS2 if his bloodwork is clear.

I just wanted to add my family's story since I am really hung up on getting blood drawn from these poor little ones and also do not understand what it is exactly that the blood panels will show us. If we already know that DS1 not only showed a severe reaction to eating actual peanuts AND tested positive (strongest reaction) to the peanut skin test?

Any input/support appreciated!

[lightheart]

Thanks for adding your story! I think that is how we all learn and get through these things.

That is really allergic, I am sooo thankful we are not dealing with anaphylactic.

What the bloodwork will show.... well for us he didn't specifically test little guy for food specific, he did not come back and say oh now that we got those blood tests done this is info about the foods. That is what I was hoping that the bloodwork would show... he was testing for his total immune system, I am all confused about the Ig's... the IgA, the IgE, IgG, the IgM... My head is still in a dizzy spin trying to figure out what everything really deterimines... for us the doctor was happy with the results of his bloodwork and doesn't want to anything else for now, he wants to see us back next spring and we will retest the food allergies then, any other problems arise to give him a call.

Something to update our story, the reason he wanted the endo to be on board is that just looking at our son, without charting or anything he is extremely small. The endo has nothing to do with determining what the allergist thinks in his treatment or plan with our little guy is right now. He did say that if we went to the endo and were to start growth hormones or something like that we should check back with him, the allergist because those type of drugs can/will?? effect the immune system which is the allergist thing. I have no idea if we would even go down the hormone path... probably not, I don't think it's going to hurt to get baseline/opinion from the endo so we are keeping that apt, it's not til fall so we have a while to think about the what ifs...

Back to your little man, I know I read somewhere that many times they will do the blood type testing for allergies if the reaction the person presents with is severe so that they don't want to create that type of reaction in the patient, sorta like it should be the 1st step if there are severe reactions.

Bloodwork, I don't know if it's a good thing or bad, but for us and little guy it's easy peasy with him, he has had it done so many times for other things that things like that are just a part of normal life. We have an older son who is not acclimated to the medical environment so I do understand the flip side of what "normal" really is. He, I worry about when there is a needle involved.

The best advise I can give with having blood drawn in kids is to go someplace that works with kids and make sure the person doing the draw does kids regularly. It's okay to go someplace else or to come back when someone more experienced with kiddos is there.

[melixxa]

Thanks for your reply, lightheart! The doc gave us a prescription for Lidocaine, to numb the spot on the arm where blood is drawn from, and I plan to promise ice cream after ... And I MUST get my DH to go with me. I just can't do that alone.

All those tests confuse me too. The allergist did tell me already that, based on my DS1's initial reaction and the results of the skin prick AND his age (nearly 6), he did not appear a likely candidate for 'growing out of' the peanut allergy. I guess the bloodwork results will just give us more certainty and facts, which is good.

I have to tell you a funny story to close. After my DS2 got all his tests and there was great rejoicing in the allergist's office (he even came in and said: "We nearly never get a *completely negative* test here! That's great!"), the two of us went grocery shopping. He immediately went over to the peanut butter isle and picked out peanut butter and tried to put it in our cart. He was determined to eat peanut butter that very day!! That cracked me up, since I wasn't sure until then how much of the whole process was actually clear to him. But we don't keep peanuts or peanut products in our house, because of DS1. And he didn't get the thing about the blood test, the challenge, etc. It was just funny to me. He was somehow ready to move on with his own life or something.