Allergy questions....

[soonermomma]

I took my 2 year old ds yesterday because we have been battling bad eczema and they finally did the blood allergy test after I pushed for it. They called today and said he is allergic to all grasses, dogs, cats, peanuts, walnuts, corn, milk, soy, clams, corn, sesame seeds, and WHEAT. The only symptoms we have ever seen is the bad eczema and what we think have been a few hives. We now have to carry an epi pen and will see an allergist within the next few weeks.

 

Has anyone had a blood test show an allergy that the skin test did not show? I'm hoping this will be the case. Also, has anyone had children with food allergies that only have eczema and maybe a few hives for symptoms?

 

Any input or advice is greatly appreciated as this is all new and a little scary.

[emmn]

My son has eczema and we have had him tested. It showed the common seasonal allergies, but no major food allergies that are linked to eczema. My dr. said the most common are eggs, milk, and wheat. We have never been able to figure out what it is that is causing it and maybe never will. We use Robathol oil or olive oil in the bathtub, and triamcinilone and elidel for meds, and vanicream for lotion. When he is real bad we use hydroxyzine ( antihistimine) at night to help him sleep and not itch. I also have a daughter that is allergic to peanuts and tree nuts. SHe carries an epi-pen. I have not had any experience with the blood test vs skin tests. we have only had the skin tests done, but dr is wanting to do blood test on daughter for just nut testing to check for changes.

[Paz]

Our whole family did a blood test for food sensitivities not really allergies. They were incredibly accurate. My ds tested severe for wheat/gluten. He cut this out of his diet and his migranes went away. He had migranes often since he was bout 8 years old. My dd cut out here problem foods and feels so much better. When she eats a food that she is sensitive too she feels really out of it. I would think that the eczema could definately be caused by food allergies. I hope your appointment goes well and these findings lead to good health for your child.

[*LC]

Yes, one of my children showed tons of food allergies via a blood test. He did have a number of food allergies, but not to everything that tested allergic. In addition, my child tested allergic to all the foods you listed except corn and clams, which I don't think was tested. Further food challenges revealed soy to be the only true allergy from your list. We already knew the child was allergic to milk, because of a serious reaction to formula at ten months.

 

My child also had eczema, but age helped with that more than removing any foods. And, this child was on no foods for months as a toddler. One thing I remember the food allergist saying was skin testing was useless in a baby with excema, because they will react to everything. We had seen that at the first allergist we saw after getting the blood results at age 13 months. Your son is older, so I don't know if that applies to him or not. It is something to keep in mind in case skin testing shows lots of allergies.

 

Last month, I had another child, age 7, have skin testing done after a blood test and this child also reacted to a lot, because of sensitive skin. However, the doctor could tell the obvious ones. There are no foods involved, so it isn't critical to know exactly what causes the seasonal problems.

 

Good luck finding a doctor to help you sort through everything and help your son's excema.

[weddell]

You can definitely have things that read positive on the RAST blood test and NOT be allergic to them. Both my children and DH have food allergies. DD's RAST shows several things as positive that she can eat with no problems. She has a very high over-all IGE (the total anti-body count). She is just a very allergic child and reacts to all the tests even if they aren't things she is really allergic to.

 

If a child has both a positive skin test AND a positive RAST then you will either want to avoid the food or do an in office food challenge with an allergist.

 

Here is a link to a NYTimes article I read a while back that confirms what dd's allergist told us:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/health/research/12allergies.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=food+allergies&st=nyt#

 

Here's a quote (the IgE antibody test is the blood test your child got):

 

The chairman of the guidelines project, Dr. Joshua Boyce, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard and an allergist and pediatric pulmonologist, said one of the biggest misconceptions some doctors and patients have is that a positive test for IgE antibodies to a food means a person is allergic to that food. It is not necessarily so, he said.

 

During development, he said, the immune system tends to react to certain food proteins, producing IgE antibodies. But, Dr. Boyce said, “these antibodies can be transient and even inconsequential.”

 

“There are plenty of individuals with IgE antibodies to various foods who don’t react to those foods at all,” Dr. Boyce said.

 

The higher the levels of IgE antibodies to a particular food, the greater the likelihood the person will react in an allergic way. But even then, the antibodies do not necessarily portend a severe reaction, Dr. Boyce said. Antibodies to some foods, like peanuts, are much more likely to produce a reaction than ones to other foods, like wheat or corn or rice. No one understands why.

[grace'smom]

My daughter has the same type of thing as your child- eczema with just a few hives from time to time. However, she has very loose stools up to two days after eating too many allergen foods. She has a long list, but the ones I know give her issues are: barley, corn, rye, milk, pineapples and tomatoes all give her bathroom issues. All nuts and strawberries give her tiny hives that look like bug bites. The eczema shows up in the spring with all the pollen. We live in a high pollen area. Right now there's yellow powder coating the outside world at our house, LOL.

 

I wish we could find the underlying cause of allergies. My DD's allergies change from year to year. I don't understand why. I have noticed that since she's gotten old enough to refuse her vitamins her allergies are MUCH worse than they used to be in the spring. I'm actually considering taking her back in for testing because she keeps telling me her throat itches when she eats apples.

[Mom0012]

We have had things test positive on the RAST that did not on a skin test and vice versa. My son tests allergic to almost everything on a skin test, but he's always had eczema and I think his skin is super sensitive. I will never do a skin test on him again.

 

I have a friend that had her son tested with the skin test and the RAST at the same time and got almost completely opposite results from the tests.

 

It is in no way an exact science. I was told by the allergist that if there was a positive result (at least with the skin test), it meant there was a 50% chance that the allergy existed, unless it was a very strong positive. He said if there was a negative result, then there was a 95% chance the allergy doesn't exist.

 

The best thing you can do is eliminate the foods that he tested positive to for a number of weeks and see if you have improvement. If you do, add one back at a time every few weeks and see if you have worsening of symptoms. Eczema is very hard to figure, but my 1 yo niece had terrible eczema that has completely gone away with the removal of wheat (after a RAST test).

 

And, yes, my food allergy nightmare with my son began with eczema and hives. He had eczema as early as a month old to the point that he had to wear socks on his hands or he was a bloody mess. He would often get hives. Then, when he was teething, we gave him a frozen bagel to chew on and he had an anaphylactic reaction. He is 11 1/2 and he was at the beginning of the epidemic of food allergies, so none of the doctors knew what to make of him. No one even thought of allergies and when I took him to the allergist after the anaphylactic reaction to wheat, he was so surprised at the results. The good news is if you can remove the allergens now, your child could likely outgrow them rather than have them become worse. My son did outgrow some of his.

 

Good luck!

 

Lisa

Edited April 14, 2011 by LisaTheresa

[teachmejoy]

My ds had what they call severe "baby acne". It was horrible and we thought it was allergy related. I didn't know about the blood tests. We just cut things one at a time from MY diet (since I was nursing). Nothing worked. I had a ped. tell me that I should use Selsum (sp?) Blue on her face.:glare: I thought it would just dry her out bad. He told me to get the one with conditioner in it and to be careful about her eyes. Can you believe it actually worked!? We used it for a long time and it really did clear her up. Very strange, I know!!

[The Girls' Mom]

My dd tests postive for all those things (except the animals) with the RAST. We took all the foods out of her diet and we did notice some changes with her "foggyness" but that was about it for her. She's had 2 skin tests and the first one was positive for some of the food allergies, and the second was only positive for peanuts. The last was after a "clean" diet for 6 months.

 

What does it all mean? We aren't sure, but since she's 14 I gave her the choice as to what she wants to do food wise...except on peanuts.

 

Now the grasses, pollens and molds...those she is blazing allergic to on ALL the tests. :001_huh:

[Murmer]

The RAST is one part of the puzzle. It needs to be taken into account with skin tests and reactions. Sadly the only way to know about reactions is to remove everything and just give 1 thing at a time. I know that we were given an epi-pen based on a 3 skin test, a positive (but not extremely high) RAST, and increasing in reactions that stopped when milk was removed from her diet and returned immediately when reintroduced. That was how our allergist made the choice. I do recommend talking with the allergist they are more experienced with this.

[bagel270]

There are different levels of sensitivity on the RAST testing. Did they give you a printout of the results? My ds tested slightly sensitive to many things that do not bother him.

[hsbaby]

From what I understand from dd's allergist, a persons reaction to foods they are allergic to can worsen with every exposure. My dd is severely allergic to peanuts/ tree nuts. It started as a minor rash, next exposure was major hives (we finally got herctested after this), and the last exposure (accidental), led to swelling of her entire face.