Allergist Question

PrncesWife

I have a 2 year old who is allergic to peanuts.  We found out about a year ago when I put some peanut butter on her pancakes.  About 2 hours after she ate it she started throwing up, and that lasted for about 2 hours.  We followed up at the pedi with a blood test.  Her number came back at a 2, which we were told was midly allergic and she's a good candidate to outgrow the allergy.  We were given an epi-pen and told to avoid all nuts, including tree nuts, as that was her best chance of outgrowing it.  So for the past year we have been avoiding all nuts, not just foods that contain nuts, but also things that have been processed in the same facility or on the same equipment as nuts or foods that have been cooked in peanut oil (which really hasn't been too bad).  Pedi said she would retest when DD was 3.

So my question is, should we be seeing an allergist?  We were not refered to one, the pedi handled the blood test and prescribed the epi-pen.

terpsfan

I probably would.  My allergist takes a very hands off, "if it ain't broke don't fix it" sort of approach to exposure.  For example, my DD tested positive to peanuts (her reaction was to a tree nut) and I'd been giving her peanut butter and she'd eaten roasted peanuts at the baseball games, etc with no reaction.  He advised us to keep on exposing her until she does have a reaction and to pretty much just stay away from the stuff that caused the first reaction.  So you may be avoiding things that you really don't need to be, and there are many schools of thought on this, but our allergist believes that even if they've *tested* positive to a substance/food/item don't necessarily stay away from it if they haven't had a reaction as the allergies can evolve and change over time.  We just keep ourselves on our toes by watching her after she eats something potentially reactive and always have our epi-pen...

nancyandnate

I would.  Our pedi did a blood test, but the allergist also does a skin test and a food challenge, as needed.  Also, the pedi we had when DS was first diagnosed with a dairy allergy gave us bad advice related to food allergies.  Some pedis are more knowledgable with FA than others.

CareBear0607

I would.  The allergist will prossibly do skin testing and/or a food challenge.  You will also get an action plan as to how to handle a reaction should it ever happen again.

Ciarrai

I would.  I'd also ask more about the "2" designation.  Our pedi says he's seen kids who go into anaphylactic shock and never test positive at all on the test.  He has other kids who test the highest number (can't remember right now what it is) who don't react at all.  The number doesn't matter as much as the reaction.  But I would see if you can get a referral to an allergist.