Food Allergy/RAST Question

[Hunter's Moon]

I have been tested several times for food allergies. The RAST testing showed a class III for soy. It was 1.71 iu/mL present. The doctor I go to listed it as class III but it looks like most charts online list that number as a class II.

 

I have avoided all soy except oil and lecithin. I eat at dunkin donuts often, about 2x/month at the least. I guess I assumed their donuts were safe as far as soy (I know there is a cross reaction chance) but looked today at the ingredients and noticed all have defatted soy flour and some have soy protein. I haven't ever had a reaction to their donuts.

 

I plan to speak to my allergist about skin testing soy, as well as the no reactions. I do have reactions to other legumes (peanuts and peas) so I wonder if I should continue to try to avoid soy since I have a higher chance of being allergic to other legumes. But it is so hard at restaurants to avoid soy because usually they just list soy is present but not what kind.

 

Thoughts?

 

 

[dbmamaz]

i think you have to find a balance. when i went throughallergy testing i reacted to 90% of the foods he tested for - i took everything out and kept the foods that didnt give me an obvious reaction when i tried them again.

[Kyr]

Our allergists have always said that the RAST predicts the likelihood of a reaction, not the severity. We have actually been encouraged by the allergiest to trial my son's class II allergens and in some cases class III allergens if there is no history of signifigant reaction. The first step is skin prick and in office challenge.

 

Not being a medical professional, I don't know if this would be advisable in your case or not but it sounds like you have been inadvertently ingesting soy protien with no adverse effects so it definitely seems worth discussing with your Dr.

[Tess in the Burbs]

For the most part we avoid what the skin and RAST test tells us is an issue regardless of how many times ds ate something with an allergen in it and didn't react. The tests are telling me he has a large chance of a serious reaction....and it's just not worth the risk of WHEN the reaction will happen for us.

 

I will say it's not perfect though: My ds went through testing and she tossed soy on the test as well. His skin test was high so she said immediately avoid it. Great, tossed the pantry out that weekend. RAST comes back and she said it looks like he HAD an allergy to soy but it's coming down. So she said he could eat it. He ate it that year, went back to repeat RAST next year.....sure enough, after continuing to eat soy his RAST had gone down and any previous soy allergy he had was on the way out. So he didn't die from the soy allergy we didn't know about.

 

But his nut allergies I take more seriously. But right now he's also got a sunflower allergy that is steadily going down but I still avoid due to cross contamination. You have to know the info and make the best choice for you. My son has chosen to have a bite of something with sunflower in it. But it's his choice when he does it and he knows I prefer him not to. At some point he has to manage this on his own. But if there are nuts around he will leave the room to avoid it....so he takes the serious allergies seriously.