Babies: 0 - 3 Months
anna2029
member
allergy testing?
anna2029
member
Do they have tests to see what they are allergic to? I'm just thinking this would be SO MUCH easier than trying formula after formula until one works. I mean, it's been 4 weeks, and we still haven't figured it all out, or found the right formula..and 4 weeks of no sleeping for me is no fun!
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Re: allergy testing?
They have blood tests and scratch tests they can do to determine food allergies, but the problem is that they are really inaccurate. Blood tests can give a lot of false negatives and scratch tests can give a lot of false positives. The only way to truly determine if you have a food allergy is having an actual reaction to a food. Once you have a reaction a doctor will usually confirm it with one of the tests.
But in your case, I would talk to your doc about it and see what they think. If your LO is just have GI problems as a result of the formula, that would indicate an intolerance and not an allergy. Allergic reactions tend to produce rashes, troubles breathing, swelling, etc. When my soy and dairy allergic son had formula with those allergens in it that is what happened to him. You'd hate to get a false positive for a dairy or soy allergy when it is really just an intolerance and spend years avoiding a food when it isn't necessary.
Yes, they do have testing they can do but I had two different peds refuse to do them with dd. They said it wasn't worth the discomfort to her since she was so small.
She had blood in her stool and we tried a few different formulas. The doctors felt that it was clearly an allergic reaction but thought it was just much easier to put her on the Nutramigen formula, rather than do the testing. Sure enough, the Nutramigen did the trick and within a week the blood was gone and she was a happy baby.
We also had trouble with her having greens when we went to jar food. She would break out in a NASTY, nasty diaper rash when she pooped them out. At about 15 months, we started giving her milk a little at a time and eventually she could tolerate it. She has outgrown all of the milk, soy, and green issues now.