Breaking out in hives for 5 days. Too reactive for allergy tests Monday AM?

[iamme]

I would love to hear your opinions about this topic. My dd is 13 yo. She has had hives for 5 days after a bout with a virus. BUT, she broke out right after shge was eating nuts, and when she was 3yo had a rash after eating PB.
If she is having hives on Sunday, would you advice to go through with allergy testing first thing Monday AM?

And...I'm not aure if we are talking RAST or SPT. I am requesting both.

THANKS for any input, advice, etc...

Em

[sbgrace]

Yes, I would. RAST isn't going to be affected by her hives. I wouldn't expect skin testing with a child with hives and if they do skin testing I wouldn't trust the results/you'd have a higher rate of false positives in my experience. My son was testing under similar circumstances years ago and we had a large number of false positives on skin. Our current allergist would not do skin testing when my son had skin reactions to nuts and we waited for skin testing. RAST is a go though for her and hopefully you'll have answers soon.

[iamme]

Originally Posted by sbgrace

Yes, I would. RAST isn't going to be affected by her hives. I wouldn't expect skin testing with a child with hives and if they do skin testing I wouldn't trust the results/you'd have a higher rate of false positives in my experience. My son was testing under similar circumstances years ago and we had a large number of false positives on skin. Our current allergist would not do skin testing when my son had skin reactions to nuts and we waited for skin testing. RAST is a go though for her and hopefully you'll have answers soon.

Gotcha. Thanks so much!

[iamme]

Originally Posted by sbgrace

Yes, I would. RAST isn't going to be affected by her hives. I wouldn't expect skin testing with a child with hives and if they do skin testing I wouldn't trust the results/you'd have a higher rate of false positives in my experience. My son was testing under similar circumstances years ago and we had a large number of false positives on skin. Our current allergist would not do skin testing when my son had skin reactions to nuts and we waited for skin testing. RAST is a go though for her and hopefully you'll have answers soon.

Saw the allergist and he ran the RAST, but he said it was an improvement of the former RAST-just more specific and more accurate. He agrre with what you said. No SPT until the hives are no longer an accute issue.

For now, so dd can get some relief, eat and sleep-he wants her on Zyrtec twice a day for three days, then Claritan during the day and Zyrtec at night. He said to see him in a month.

Thanks!!