Going to the allergist(food related)....

So tomorrow is our appt with the pedi allergist, due to several food intolerances. Has anyone gone this young and have any advice or experiences so i can have an idea of what i am getting into. Both boys have had reactions to several foods, i.e. bananas, apples and mangos, and have severe excema. So we were referred to a specialist before they turn one and the "bigger" foods come into play.
I don't know what they do at this age, my pedi thinks blood tests(which i have never gone through with an infant), becuase skin testing is very difficult this young.

 

One of my girls went to the allergist at 9 months for severe excema. She had skin testing, but nothing came back (although he did say that did NOT rule it out since it is notoriously inaccurate at that age). WE are thinking she has allergies, but are not sure what they are yet.


She takes Zyrtec to control her excema (sort of controls it) and we are careful on food exposure.


Good luck and I hope it all goes well!

KC

 

My oldest DD saw an allergy specialist at 6 months. She had the skin test, and some did come back positive. It really wasn't difficult, and I'm glad I had it done because the things I thought she was reacting to, she really was. And, I didn't know eggs were an allergen for her, and they were as well. So, even though they aren't completely accurate, it makes you feel better knowing. Good luck.

 

thank you for the responses, as far as the excema is concerned it is usually triggered by something, lotions, soaps, to much skin to skin exposure, so i am hoping for some resolution for that and some insight on potential future allergies(eggs & milk are big ones).

 

One of our boys has been getting eczema as well and we noticed that it got worse after he ate. We assumed it was a food allergy and the pedi ordered testing. We just got the results of our testing today! It came back as all negative. Interesting thing though is that while waiting for the results, we noticed that when he ate baby food, the area around his mouth got really bad - we thought maybe it was the spoon! So we stopped using the plastic coated baby spoon and started using a metal spoon. Within 3 days, his eczema was GONE and it has not returned. Now we are going to pursue testing for a latex allergy. We think it's either that or just a chemical in the plastic on the spoon. Have you looked into this possiblity?

I was told they don't do the skin testing on babies. The blood test isn't so bad. He screamed for about a minute, but then he was totally fine, smiling at the doctors.

 

At 4 months we started solid food with our oldest daughter but I only gave her 2 oz of vegetables for 1 month then 4 oz for the next month until she was 6 months old. However at 5 months I had my cousin get some food of course she thought she should be eatting fruit too so that is what she bought so i gave her pears didn't notice anything except she got some pimples on her chin then about 5 days later i gave her bananas after two bites her face was poke-a-dot red. Something happened the next day. so i tried pears again something happened as the bananas but milder. I took her to an allergist he didn't want to do any testing just told us she would probably grow out of it. So we wait until she was a year old until we gave her fruit. I breastfed her and the times that i ate a lot of fruit her face would have the same reaction. Now at a year and a half she loves her fruit, however sometimes i wonder if she still has a slite allergic reaction.

Now with my son a few week ago i had some fruit. Breastfed him and his face had the same reaction as my oldest daughter did. So i will watch him very closley when the time comes.

I don't know anything about the excema when never feed her very nuch of what she was allergic to.

Good Luck

 

A friend showed me this site.. it's an allergen scale for moms who want to introduce foods that are least likely to pose allergies...

http://www.hallpublications.com/title2_sample1.html

I am using this as a guide for introducing foods. As for allergies to food, finding it early and ceasing use is key to potentially NOT introducing an allergy for your kiddo. If you catch them upon the first reaction, and limiting their exposure, you can likely ensure that these ar enot a problem for your kid over the long haul...

Don't believe that they will be allergic forever... especially if you catch it early.

mangos and apples are high on the scale, bananas are not so high. my kids don't react to bananas but they did to peas... so I'm stopping peas for now

Cheers

Teri D

 

Is the blood test just drawing a vial of blood? How many? Which is more effective...blood or skin test? And, how did you convince your ped to refer you to an allergist? Morgan is breaking out in excema nearly every day. His ped has given me hydrocortisone and said that I could try changing his formula to see if that helped. He's already on nutramigen now. and nothing seems to help. We're going to the dermatologist tomorrow, but I'm afraid that he'll only give us steroids or some lotion, but it might not really "solve" the problem, kwim?

Shannon

 

I guess i never answered in this forum, they turned out to be allergic to EGGS, of all things!! i have reintroduced the apples and bananas with no problems thus far.

Is the blood test just drawing a vial of blood? How many?****it was a blood draw, 3 viles i think***
Which is more effective...blood or skin test? *****from what i understand the skin is more reliable, we did skin and blood and the one thing they tested positive on the skin for,1 baby was negative as far as blood.
And, how did you convince your ped to refer you to an allergist?***it was my pedi idea, i hadn't even thought of it this young, she told us to go, before they were one and all the other foods got introduced.

As far as the skin, it turns out they don't have "true" excema, it may be some other skin ailment. My allergist said peds are quick to say excema, as it is more difficult to diagnose some other skin problems. My babies don't have typical excema symptoms anymore just very sensitive skin, but i was told to continue with the prescription if it works.

 

We headed to the derm today for that exact reason! Glad you found out what was going on. I think I'm going to check with my ped group again to see if I can convince someone to send Morgan to the allergist. Thanks for letting me know how it went! Shannon