Allergy testing for 3 month old?

[mum2be]

We might end up going to see an allergist soon about my 3 month old dd. I won't go into detail because I would have to write a book about it, but she has MANY sensitivities and my extreme elimination diet doesn't seem to be cutting it either.

If we take her to one, what can we expect? What kinds of tests will they do and what will they entail? Will she be in pain?

Any info will be greatly appreciated!

[Butter]

Some doctors will do a RAST test which is a blood test, others will do the skin prick test. Ours did the skin prick test on Fritz (he was 4 months old). The doctor first marked the baby's back while he was laying on his belly and then the doctor quickly pressed 4 things preloaded with allergens on tines onto Fritz's back. That does hurt. Fritz cried quite a bit. But once we sat him up on the table and sang to him he calmed right down. Unfortunately nursing during the test is pretty much impossible since you can't touch the baby's back for at least 20 minutes. Once Fritz stopped crying he didn't seem to really care about what was going on on his back though I know those tests are not comfortable and do itch terribly in the places where the result is positive (there were several of those for my baby). After about 20 minutes the doctor came back and "read" Fritz's back and wrote down the results. Then the nurse cleaned off the baby's back and put some lotion on him to soothe the welts. Then the doctor took us into his office and told us the results and discussed with us treatment and what not. It's not the most pleasant thing, but I would definitely choose to do it again because it really explained a lot and has helped us effectively deal with Fritz's allergic reactions. It also helped ease any worries over whether he might be SO allergic to something that he could have an anaphylactic reaction.