Are allergy tests and/or applied kinesiology worth it?

[DevaMajka]

And if so, which one should I do for ds (8 mos old)?

Where does applied kinesiology fall?

We highly suspect salicylate sensitivity, which I know can't be tested for. But we have no idea if he has any other sensitivities or allergies. If testing might give us a good idea of what else to avoid, and it isn't too expensive, it would be worth it. I'm tired of completely guessing about what to avoid (other than sals), kwim?

I have absolutely no idea how much any of it costs- $50? $200? more? I'm not sure if insurance pays any of it or not (any Canadian mom's know?) Our insurance will pay a small portion of a naturopath visit though, and will pay for the dr's visit, but maybe (likely) not for the test itself.

[Sandrine]

I had my oldest two tested for allergies and we went thru the doctor. He refered us to allergist that did the testing. That was covered by the gov. health insurance.

Our naturopath is covered by dh`s work insurance. I fill a form after everytime I go and get reinbursed.

I`m in Ontario.

[BirthKathy]

Hi Becky,

I have been paying out of pocket for my son's testing, and I think it's worth it. I have probably spent more on wasted foods, lotions and supplements than on the testing. I hate the guessing game!

We did the Alcat, which gave us some intolerance items to avoid (108 foods for about $340), and then we did food and environmental IGE testing (about $350 each) that tested for the top allergies (milk, egg, soy, wheat, corn, peanut, walnut, fish, shellfish, sesame) (molds, pollen, animals, dust). Since my son tested allergic to milk, soy, corn, wheat, walnut, peanut, sesame, dog and cockroach, I would say that it was very worth it for us. It was also nice to hear that he is not allergic to egg and fish, though I haven't added them back in to our diet yet. I plan to do so this week.

Because we are still not at baseline and because he was allergic to so many items in the IGE test, we are going to do an expanded IGE/IGG test through USBiotek. My doctor is going to order it for me, so I'm not sure of the cost yet, but DirectLabs.com offers it for $300. It tests around 96 foods for IGE and IGG, so it sounds like a pretty good deal compared to what we have already paid for.

Right now, we are doing something called SRT through our Naturopath. It is explained here:

http://osteomed2.com/allergies.aspx

We have done 2 treatments so far. I'll let everyone know how it turns out.

If you do get testing, let me know what kind and what you find out!

[DevaMajka]

Since it seems to be covered by insurance (yay!), I made an appointment with ds's regular doc to get a referral to an allergist. Hopefully we get some answers either way!

Does allergy testing cause any pain or discomfort? I'd rather keep on the ED than do something he'll hate.

I have been paying out of pocket for my son's testing, and I think it's worth it. I have probably spent more on wasted foods, lotions and supplements than on the testing. I hate the guessing game!

Yeah, I was thinking about that too! All the vitamins that I already have, but don't want to use because they contain soy/wheat/whatever, so I have to go buy more. Special food that I then decide he might be sensitive to, etc.

[Sandrine]

Originally Posted by DevaMajka

Does allergy testing cause any pain or discomfort? I'd rather keep on the ED than do something he'll hate.

It doesn`t hurt like it did many yrs ago. My girls had them and it didn`t bug them at all.

hth

[mamafish9]

Just know that the allergy testing a traditional allergist is likely to do will test for IgE ("true") allergies, but not food intolerances. (And not sure how accurate they are for a babe, out of my area of knowledge, but I think this is a concern). And most traditional allergists think food intolerances are bunk, never mind sals sensitivities or troubles with high sulfur foods .

[changingseasons]

Standard (IgE) allergy tests are not accurate before about 2 years old, unfortunately.

IgG/intolerance testing might be more accurate at that age- I've heard conflicting answers. (We did it at 8 months with I think pretty good results.) It can range from about $125-$3000, depending on which lab you use. If you have a doctor order it, there's a good chance that you'll get some insurance coverage (although I know nothing about the Canadian health plan.

[BirthKathy]

The tests we did were all blood tests. It took three different people before we found someone who could get a blood draw from my son (he was 7 mos when we started testing). Once we found the right guy, we went to him for all the draws. He said that babies this young have veins that roll around so it's quite a challenge to get into them. My son was very stoic every time, though. Just a little whimper toward the end each draw.

[bean-e]

We have a pediatrician who specialized in food allergies and GI stuff. He works out of BC Children's Hospital. He only tested our 7 month old's stool as she is too young to be tested for other things, according to him.
Both DH and myself went to naturopath to get allergy testing done, and that was covered by his extended health insurance. My extended health reimbursed me for $8 for my intake session, so there is a wide variation in the extended health coverage.

[DevaMajka]

Ah, it does not sound promising for the allergy testing. hmmm...
I think I'll try out AK- ins will pay a portion of it, and maybe we'll at least have some ideas.

[changingseasons]

Your insurance will pay for that?! Man, I am jealous.

[DevaMajka]

Well, it will pay $23 of a Naturopath visit. lol. Not much, but at least it's something!
I did find an office that would do a 15 - 30 minute AK for a lot cheaper than a whole workup. I'm pretty sure that's what he said, anyway. If I do that, I won't be out much $ at all. Do you all think it's worth it to pay $100+ more for the full office visit/workup/whatever it is? Might a naturopath be able to shed more light on this than I can with my ED and food diary?

[bean-e]

Our family has tried three different naturopaths in the lower mainland and we haven't had much luck.
One tested me for allergies and told me to stay far far away from dairy, but can have soy. Dd ended up getting really bad reflux from this advice. She also told me there is gluten in glutinous rice -- not true.
The one that I brought dd to see was really nice, but basically told me to keep on doing what I am doing and that's the best I can do. She did, however, order me some professional grade probiotics and charged it to me as a session so that it would be covered by our extended health.
The one that saw dh seemed somewhat inexperienced as well, but also nice.
It could be that we just had really bad luck with them though.

Do you mind sharing where you are thinking of doing your AK?

[Sandrine]

We are seeing a naturopath right now, and she seems to know what she's doing. We only been at it for 4wks, and i'm seeing a difference with dd3. She's feeling better. So i think that if you have irl that goes to naturopath, check out what they think of the naturopath and see where they would go see. I knew with mine, that she had already dealt with food allergies and that she probably cold help dd3 with our issues.

hth

[DevaMajka]

Good info- I'm feeling more optomistic about a naturopath vs. allergy doc atm.
Too bad I already have a dr. appt for ds2. Oh well, ds1 needed to go anyway, and the appt's are back to back.

Bean-e, I pm'ed you

[gigismom]

we did the allergist route first and found out about his IgE allergies. however his allergist said he should be eating dairy since he tested negative (we had been dairy free due to my observance of reactions) so we tried dairy and he went 14 days with no poop... then we went to a chiro and had AK she said stay far away from dairy and she also identified all of his IgE allergies without knowing what they were before hand. we continue to see her every couple of weeks and am constantly amazed by the accuracy of the AK in pinpointing our sensitivities and things that weaken or strengthen us. my ins covers it. good luck with your decision

jen

[DevaMajka]

Well the allergist is a no go. The Dr pretty much said there's no way it's food related, since it's only in his diaper area. Maybe she's right, and it's just a coincidence that it gets better (but doesn't go away) when I really limit my diet. I haven't gone long enough eating only our "safe enough" foods to really know.

sigh.

What about IgG blood tests? I bought some vitamins from a naturopath really close to me (I could walk there), and she does IgG blood testing (I swear the box she showed me said *something*Gspot) and Electrodermal Screening (MSA system), neither of which I know anything about. She was really nice, and seemed like she'd be really helpful with any questions I had.

So it's either that, AK, or just keep up the ED without knowing if it's food or not.

[BirthKathy]

My son's eczema is on the his face and back of the knees and elbows. Our doctors say those are the classic food allergy spots. He has never had it under his diaper.

[DevaMajka]

Anyone know what the IgG test is that just uses a drip of blood? She said it was a just a prick like the PKU test.


Yeah, I'm really doubting the whole thing today. Like maybe I *want* to see a food sensitivity even though it's not there. Not that I want him to have a sensitivity, but at least then there's something I can do.
But it must mean something that for the last 3 days I've eaten nothing but my "safe enough" foods, and his rash has been barely there for 2 days. Right? I mean, it could be a coincidence, I guess. I'm giving it another few days on just these foods, then testing another food in and seeing what happens.

[DevaMajka]

Just got back from the Applied Kinesiology. I'm not sure what I think. lol

Ds2 (who we are very sure is sensitive to salicylates) came back not sensitive to sweet potato, or even anything that has sals in it. I don't know if sals would "work" in AK anyway though.

It said he was sensitive to wheat (not other gluten), milk (not cheese), turkey, onion, mushrooms, chocolate, peanuts, banana, lemon juice with added sulfites (that I took in), shea butter (I do think he reacted to either this or cocoa butter. He showed not sensitive to cocoa butter). Ds and I have both been eating loads of bananas!
So....yeah. lol.

Ds1 showed sensitive to milk, cheese, eggs, peanuts, broccoli (but he said just a little bit), and possibly almonds.

Dp is still totally skeptical, but *really* wants me to add more foods. Eh, maybe I will. I have my "safe" list that I can always come back to. So maybe I'll add everything but moderate sals and higher, gluten, and the other stuff that the AK said.