Age limit for tests?

[k2ma]

I have been reading this section with some interest!

I have been told by my paed that we should wait to test my DS for allergies until he is two, despite his showing significant evidence of both milk and egg intolerances. We live in a remote town with no 'choice' re the dr we see.

I had no idea there were categories of allergies etc. From what i read here it seems that some of you have had very young babies tested. I would be interested in any information and advice you could all give me with regard to the tests that are conducted etc. Do they have to be done in a hospital?

We have learnt to live with the allergy and modified DS1's diet to suit. If they can be tested early then i could get DS2 (5months) tested at the same time and save us the trauma of discovering the hard way if he is allergic.

All information gratefully accepted.

[becstar]

We take our son to RPA allergy centre and they start testing from 6 months. We already have our second son an appointment for when he turns 6 months to get the testing done.

Apparently the younger the baby the more likey the results are to be inaccurate, but we had our first son tested at 6 months and it was spot on. We knew he was allergic to milk as he vomited and got hives when given formula and milk came up as a huge reaction on his test.....

The test is rather simple. They stamp a grid up the babies arms.....then they put little drops of concentrated allergens into the grid (ie milk in one square, egg in another). They then p*ick the drop and leave it 10 mins. If it comes up in an itchy lump then you have an allergy. They can measure the size to determine the extent of the allergy, but its only an indicator, not exact.

I guess different specialists have different ways of doing things. APparently some do it this way, some do blood tests. Whenever I have seen a story on allergies on TV or somehwere they always have an interview with an expert from RPA allergy centre included so I guess they could be considered "experts" in the field. They have paediatricians who specialise only with allergies and dieticians etc. A really great service......

Bec
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[jessgray]

my pead told us its better to get tested around 2 yrs coz it would be more accurate and they somehow will be able to tell if any intolerances will be grown out of:confused:

[becstar]

I didn't think they could test for intolerance, only allergy??? hmmmmmm:detective: i dont know.

We take our son for testing every 6 months to see if it is getting "better". Last time the reaction was a lot less and we are able to start introducing food with traces listed now.....

He outgrew the soy allergy really really quickly (it was gone by the 12 month testing) so we were able to introduce that from then. I am glad we didn't have to wait till he was 2 to find out that he had outgrown it!!

Bec
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[2boysinqld]

My eldest had eczema at 3 months and we tested him for food allergies (using the skin ***** test) at 5 months - he showed no allergies at all. At 12 months we introduced cows milk and his face came up in welts, I took a photo and they agreed to test again - this time he was positive for allergies to cow and egg protein.
At 2 years we went back to see if the allergies had improved and they appear to be worse (despite a very strict adherance to eliminating allergins :thumbsdown: ) and he had a strong reaction to cashew and peanut.
So I guess it can make a difference when you test, but I would much rather know sooner rather than later as DS was miserable and not sleeping until we eliminated dairy from his diet.
DS2 is 9 weeks old and at this stage I plan to hold off until after solids have been introduced for testing. Good luck, I hope you are able to get the answers you need.