Dr. Hive: Allergy questions

[Element]

Ds's pediatrician ordered an allergy blood test (this one) for him last week. We got the results back yesterday and, according to the test, the only thing he was allergic to was mold (cladosporium herbarum and alternaria something.)

 

How do I handle this? Can I still have a bath mat? Does the fabric shower curtain have to go? I currently wash both in hot water once a week and dry on high. I don't know of anywhere else around the house mold could be.

 

He has a pretty strong physical reaction (watery eyes, runny nose, lots of coughing) after being around cats. Why wouldn't a cat allergy show up on the test? Also, he sometimes gets hives on his legs after playing in the grass. Yet he showed no grass allergies either. :confused:

 

We have an appointment with an allergist in about 3 weeks, so I'll get the opportunity to ask a professional soon. I just wanted to see what the Hive thought.

[sbgrace]

A HEPA unit has helped my son loads with his allergens. We have this one. http://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-50250-S-99-97-Round-Purifier/dp/B00007E7RY

 

My son does do allergy meds too and needs them. If you don't want to do that I can suggest some alternatives to try.

 

Mold can be in things like carpet pads and heating/air systems. Do you have a basement?

 

 

I read some interesting things about healthy vitamin D levels (50 and above) reducing actual mold allergies. I don't know about those specific strains but vitamin D is beneficial in many ways so I'd make sure the levels are good and consider supplementing with D3.

 

Cat and grass should show up (given he was tested for them, right?). The allergy tests have a pretty low false negative rate but, always, reactions you can see trump results. There aren't a lot of things you can do about those allergies unless you have a cat. You could do benadryl before a visit if there is a home he visits with cat issues. Grasses can have mold in them so it might be hard to tease out what is causing that reaction. Did they test all the common grasses in your area though? Again, you couldn't do a lot except allergy medication and HEPA inside to combat grass anyway.

Edited June 6, 2012 by sbgrace

[Element]

A HEPA unit has helped my son loads with his allergens. We have this one. http://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-50250-S-99-97-Round-Purifier/dp/B00007E7RY

 

My son does do allergy meds too and needs them. If you don't want to do that I can suggest some alternatives to try.

 

Mold can be in things like carpet pads and heating/air systems. Do you have a basement?

 

 

I read some interesting things about healthy vitamin D levels (50 and above) reducing actual mold allergies. I don't know about those specific strains but vitamin D is beneficial in many ways so I'd make sure the levels are good and consider supplementing with D3.

 

Cat and grass should show up (given he was tested for them, right?). The allergy tests have a pretty low false negative rate but, always, reactions you can see trump results. There aren't a lot of things you can do about those allergies unless you have a cat. You could do benadryl before a visit if there is a home he visits with cat issues. Grasses can have mold in them so it might be hard to tease out what is causing that reaction. Did they test all the common grasses in your area though? Again, you couldn't do a lot except allergy medication and HEPA inside to combat grass anyway.

 

Thank you for your response! It never occurred to me that mold could be in grass so I wonder if that's what his issue is. However, the test that he was given was a respiratory allergy test and his reaction to grass occurs on his skin so I don't know. Perhaps he just has sensitive skin?

 

Yes, he was tested for a cat and grass allergies. Looking at the test, it looks like he was only tested for two grasses so I suppose it could be some other local grass he is reacting to. Like you said, though, there's not a lot I could do to help him with a grass allergy. As far as the cat allergy goes, the only people we know who have cats are also smokers. Although none of them smoke around ds, their houses and clothes smell very strongly of smoke. Maybe he is having a reaction to smoke and I interpreted it as a cat allergy since DH is allergic to cats.

 

Thank you for the HEPA unit recommendation. Do you use it in a central location or just in your sons room? Do you leave it on always?

[Hope in God]

Allergy tests are not very reliable. I know that it is said that there is a low false negative but my experience has been completely the opposite. I think the pediatrician said that they were 90%-95% accurate and the naturopath tells me they are really about 75% accurate. In any case that means that between 1 in 10 to 1 in 20 will test false negative according to the ped and 1 in 4 according to the naturopath.

 

My son has never tested positive to any allergy test ever and he has oodles of allergies.

 

As far as the mold, I usually wash my laundry with a small amount of bleach in the load every month or so. I would recommend that you try this with the bath mat and shower curtain. It does not affect the colours, the only load I generally do not use bleach in is the blacks (but I have been known to add just a bit even in the blacks from time to time with no ill consequence). It is widely accepted that the only thing that kills mold is ionization and you can actually have a company come and ionize the living daylights out of your house to kill all existing mold spores (though when you open the window they will float on back in). The main thing that you can do to control mold in your house is to control the indoor humidity levels. I seem to remember that 40% humidity is optimal but you may want to double check that. You can do this quite inexpensively with a dehumidifier. If you decide to buy an indoor air purifier the IQ Air is the very best and really the only air purifier that is a sealed system (check it out on youtube).

 

You can google "pollenguard aminotherapy" and you may find something there that can help your son with his environmental allergies.