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Food Allergy
mjune3881
member
Allergy Testing?
mjune3881
member
in Food Allergy
Did your child get tested for allergies, if so, when?
I had a lot of food allergies when I was younger 6 weeks until about 8 years before I grew out of them (milk, soy, wheat, rye, egg, etc). I would constantly cough all night - no skin problems. DH has celiac on his side of the family, so that is also a worry for us.
We kept DD off pure milk (we gave her small amounts of yogurt and cheese) until after 1 year and we also kept her gulten free until that point. At about 13-14 months we noticed her breathing through her mouth a lot while playing. Also her sleep has gotten more erratic - waking up more often than before and snoring.
At her 15 month appointment, given the time of year it was, the doctor said it looked like she hafd seasonal allergies and if it was a food allergy that she would have skin issues. She recommended I give her children's Claritin until it frosted a couple of times. At that point her problem should be clear. Well, I did this. Claritin helped a little, but was not a miricle drug. And after it frosted a couple of times, I stopped and it went right back to where we were.
DD had to go back in after 6 weeks for a weight check so I mentioned this to the doc. They said stop the Claritin if it is not really working and if I think it is a milk allergy to replace all milk products with goats milk or soy or almond, etc. They said within 3 weeks or so I should see improvement if that is the problem. Its been about that time, and I again see a little improvement, but it does not seem to solve the problem completely.
It seems a little rediculous to me that they are just guessing as to what the problem is and will not give her an allergy test. I want to insist on an allergy test, but wanted to know what the youngest age was that they do this? Or am I being rediculous because its not severe?
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Re: Allergy Testing?
My daughter had it done after turning one. This age seems pretty standard for testing from people I've discussed it with. We never did a scratch test (this was not recommended at that age bc apparently there can be lots of false positives) but instead had blood drawn to measure antigen levels against the most common allergens.
Both our pedi and allergist also mentioned to me that seasonal allergies rarely show up before age 2. This could be something that depends on what the air quality is like where you live though. Still, if I were you I think I'd rather see an allergist and get some answers rather than just using Claritin if its not even necessary.
My daughter had the scratch test at 12 months. We now follow rast levels every 6 months. Do u need a referral to a pediatric allergist? I would not trust a pcp to manage food allergies. Good luck.