Skin testing at 22 months

has anyone skin tested their children at such a young age? What happened, and how accurate were the results?

 

do you mean skin testing for allergies?

 

We went to see a pediatric allergist for the first time close to my son's 2nd b-day ( I think 20months?)

The doctor did a series of allergy skin (prick) tests. Our son was shown to be highly allergic to cats and dust mites along with a few foods. They said it was too soon to check for seasonal allergies (have to be exposed to allergens for more than 2 spring or fall seasons to build up an allegic response). The allergist said the food allergy results were not usually very accurate. We followed steps with his bedding for the dust mite situation and he was started on Zyrtec with GREAT results.

We just revised the same allergist to have my other son tested (per the ENT docs recommendation- since he had enlarged adenoids) and had Ben retested as well (age 4). Ben still showed a major reaction to dust mites and cats. This time around no reaction with any foods but MAJOR issues with all trees (elm,oak,sycamore, maple,pine.etc), weeds and grass. It was no shock since we had long noticed increased allergy symptoms in the spring and fall (even as an toddler...when they supposedly don't have seasonal allergies.)

 

We just took our baby to the allergist and he has a RAST test which is a blood test. He said he wouldn't do a skin test on a child under 3 because of how painful it is. ? Anyways, he did tell me that the skin tests are not as effective as a RAST but that the blood test is more expensive so many drs choose to do the skin test.

 

thanks for all the responses. WE did the blood test for allergies around 11 months and it was normal for all tested (dust, mold, dander, wheat, soy, milk). But they were so young and not fully on whole milk. I will talk to the pedi this week for more info.

 

While skin tesing is much less expensive than RAST (blood test), that was not the reason that our pediatric allergist suggested skin tesing. He and my husband (who is a Dermatologist) actually said the opposite, in that, skin testing is considered the better test with less false positives and false negative results. RAST also appears to be most useful in diagnosis and management of food allergies....which in our case we never truly suspected.

When my son had skin testing at age 2, it didn't seem that painful to him. But I will tell you with the most recent testing (age 4)....oh was he upset and SOOOO itchy. It wasn't fun.

 

One of my girls got the skin and blood tests and there was some overlap in what was tested and the results were very similar. My other one just got blood tests done. Although the allergist took both types of results seriously 2 pedis I've seen haven't. It seems it's a controversy between whether the reaction you have with a blood test has anything to do with that you would have in real life. So a child might test positive for something but not react to it or react to something he/she tested negative for. In terms of food allergies we avoid what they tested positive for and plan to redo the tests (after 6 months was recommended but we've let it slide).
Iris had the skin tests at about 9 months and didn't mind them at all even though for some had a strong reaction to.

 

Well, Jack threw up in the car this morning, and then 2 more times at my mom's (we are stuck here until everything is washed and dried). So he threw up Sat night, diarrhea Sunday, threw up this morning. But most days there is nothing. I left a message for the pedi to see if they can add a test for milk allergies to the blood drawn yesterday. I don't know if that's possible. The milk was curdled and smelled sour. Does that mean anything>?

 

QUOTE(MerMommy @ Jan 22 2008, 08:27 AM) [snapback]583710[/snapback]
Well, Jack threw up in the car this morning, and then 2 more times at my mom's (we are stuck here until everything is washed and dried). So he threw up Sat night, diarrhea Sunday, threw up this morning. But most days there is nothing. I left a message for the pedi to see if they can add a test for milk allergies to the blood drawn yesterday. I don't know if that's possible. The milk was curdled and smelled sour. Does that mean anything>?



I would eliminate all dairy immediately since he is throwing up so much and see if it gets better. My girls are allergic to dairy, wheat, eggs, squash, beef, bananas and have a soy intolerance. We figured out the dairy allergy with an elimination diet. We reintroduced dairy and got reactions again so we eliminated it. This was at 12 months. At 18 months they had quit gaining weight so we had a RAST test done and found the other allergies. Once they were eliminated the girls both started gaining weight and they immediately quit whining and clinging to me. I would recommend the book "Is This Your Child?" by Dr. Doris Rapp. That is how I figured out the dairy allergy to begin with.

 

My Ped Allergist skin tested one twin for environmental substances and the other for common food allergies (she had a apparent reaction to eggs) at 17 months. None of them came up positive. I'm not sure why they would even bother if it wasn't going to give them some info. She does want to check them again in a year or so to see if anything's changed. In the interim, we don't give Annalise eggs just in case.

 

We did a blood test at 6 months old...and several things cam upi possitive for MANY allergies....so then we did the scratch tests soon after...Good Luck!