Allergy blood tests vs. skin tests
Hi everyone, I had posted about my son's allergy saga yesterday, and followed up with the Dr. today about his actual blood test results (I had gotten something in the mail that said he "might" have allergies, but it wasn't specific or clear). Turns out I beat them to the punch cause they were going to call me today anyway.
So according to his blood test results, he may be allergic to dogs, milk, wheat, peanuts and eggs. We are not surprised about the milk, egg or dogs at all, but I've been eating wheat (he's EBF) this entire time, and he eats it too (puffs, cereal, etc.).
So long story short, we're being sent to an allergist, which I'm happy about, so they will be able to determine the severity of the allergies, right??
Also, just wondering if anyone knows anything about skin tests vs. blood tests. Our doc did say that the blood test is not 100% accurate because it's so sensitive that it may come back saying he's allergic to x,y,z, but basically we will still go by what he can tolerate. (i.e. maybe he can't eat eggs alone but in a cake would be fine....)
Re: Allergy blood tests vs. skin tests
Atopic patch testing is more accurate than blood tests, especially in LOs under one year or people that have delayed or IgG type reactions. Just for reference, IgG tends to be more GI issues, fussiness, eczema type symptoms - IgE tends to be more hives, rash, anaphylactic type symptoms. Most food sensitivities in LOs tend to be IgG.
Ari has had 3 rounds of patch testing. His allergist recommended food challenging anything that was mild to medium reactions. Ari's worst patch was dairy - it was so irritated it bled & took nearly 3 weeks to totally heal. Wheat was nearly as bad. Surprisingly soy was medium but his actual reaction is pretty high. Rice he showed mild reaction but can eat it w/o issue.
As far as the egg thing, your pedi may mean that some foods he may react to raw but not cooked (cooking breaks down proteins), or in small amounts, like a bit of egg in cake.
Well, I know dairy allergy kinda goes hand in hand with gluten/wheat allergy. They're both really aggressive proteins for the body and if you're allergic to one, you have a pretty good chance to be allergic to the other, too (of course, it's not ALWAYS that way). My son has both.
I know blood tests can test for various types of allergies...there's IgE (the typical "hives" allergy), IgG (the so called delayed "sensitivity"...as in behavioral changes, mood swings etc.) and IgA....and I don't remember this one now...it's been a while since we did the tests.
I am personally allergic to eggs, but you're right....I can eat a cake with eggs in it, but I can't eat scrambled eggs or an egg by itself...that would give me a big stomach ache.
We just had DD's skin testing this morning, and our allergist said that he doesn't typically do blood tests in children DD's age because he doesn't food challenge such young children. We found out from the skin testing that she is allergic to dogs, cats, and peanuts. We will do the blood test at 2 and food challenge anything that comes up at that point. Until then, we are eliminating peanut and tree nut products from our home, learning how to read product labels for different peanut and nut-containing products, and educating those who care for her or spend a lot of time with her. We were already carrying an epi-pen, though.
ETA: When we were discussing the blood test, he said he typically avoids them with the little ones because the trauma from the testing isn't really worth it if you don't follow it up with an in-office food challenge. He doesn't see the blood test results and immediately diagnose an allergy because the blood tests tend to be very sensitive, which is why he takes those results and follows up with the challenges. He said with the little ones, he wouldn't want to risk a food challenge reaction so he prefers the skin testing until 2 or 3 years old.
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