Benefits of ELISA testing?

[Taryn237]

Help me convince DH. Sage called me back and they are willing to accept half my deductible ($300) as full payment! So I want to go for it! But I need to convince my hubby first. Who's had good results? ( good as in you got some answers, not necessarily 'good').

[changingseasons]

We did Sage for DD's ELISA. (And we actually never got a bill from them for our deductible... I just realized that.)

DD tested positive for about 30 foods. And we had some false negatives. Overall I think it was somewhat accurate, and it gave us a good starting point for further eliminations. They also send a rotation diet, which can be helpful, and about a million emails from their in-house chef with recipe ideas.

So... I think that if you've already tried an elimination diet and you're just reacting to a million things (like DD was) and can't figure out where to go next, it can help. But if you're only suspicious of a few foods, I don't know if I could justify the cost for Sage. On the other hand, they have a guarantee that if their results & rotation diet don't help you they'll retest for free.

hth!

[Hedwig_Fly]

We had an ELISA test with Immuno Labs run for our 2.5 yr old DD. The panel tested ~ 115 different foods and she reacted to ~ 21 of them. We did have a few false negatives - corn for example. We have seen her react strongly to corn but it did not show up on the ELISA, RAST, or Skin Prick tests. After we started her elimination diet we saw her react to raw red and yellow peppers - her lips swelled and she said her tongue was itchy.

All in all I am very glad we had the test run - there were some foods I was definitely not thinking she was reacting to. We were shocked to have such a long list. On the positive side she is doing much better now on her new elimination diet. She has been on the diet for about 1.5 months now. We haven't started trialing any foods - although last week she ate some of her sister’s peanut butter (She tested +4 on a 1 to 4 scale) and we definitely saw the reaction and ended up with a not so fun week as a result. She actually was asking if she could go to the doctor to get the peanut butter out of her tummy, cute and sad at the same time.

Good luck with your little one and with convincing your husband. I can say having black and white answers has made a difference for us and had definitely helped our extended family understand we aren't making this up.

[Taryn237]

Thanks! Since after this we'll have met our OON deductible, we can have the whole family tested for $300. Now that seems like a deal. DS acts out a lot, doesn't sleep well, and has excema so I'd love some answers about him too.