frustrated with food allergies

[Sweetmama27]

7 year old son has a history of food allergies. He is allergic to milk, egg, and peanuts. We went to a new allergist and she did a skin test and added soy,potato,corn,rice,tree nuts. He was eating all of these before he went to the appointment (with the exception of tree nuts). I am not convinced that he is actually allergic to these things.
We are now on an elimination diet. Which at this point I am not sure what to feed my child. How accurate are skin test with a history of ezema?

[winnie369]

Hi, I am new to this forum.  I suffer from food dependent exercise induced anaphylaxia.  Basically when I eat anything, if I move around suddenly after eating, or physically exert myself I come out in hives all over my body, sometimes have shortness of breath and pass out.  I have to carry around an Epi-pen with me at all times which I did have to use last year as I blacked out after eating a pizza.  But now they tell me it has to do with foods that have histamines in them or foods which release histamines that cause more of a reaction.  It's frustrating because I have a 5 month old baby and once I have eaten I have to rest for 3 hours and I can't even pick my son up for fear of breaking out in hives.  I am on a restricted diet which has helped slightly but I still have to leave a 3 hour window once eaten.  I now don't have breakfast anymore as I want to be able to move around and do things in the morning with my son without having to be dependent on anybody and have them sit with me.

Does anyone know much about this annoying "illness", or does it ring any bells with anyone?  It's just that I have no one to talk about with this as it is so unheard of from where I come from.

Thanks.

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,

Skin tests are not very accurate tests and can give false positive result also.You can go in for blood tests like RAST. RAST allergy testing can be used to determine IgE reactions to foods and items that are airborne called “inhalants”. Positive RAST tests help narrow the list of suspected allergens, but don’t often point directly to the cause of symptoms. A challenge test may also be needed esp in food allergies.

Pls discuss with your doctor the options of food elimination and food challenge tests.

Take care and pls do keep me posted on how your son is doing or if you have any additional doubts.

[JAY_22]

Well when I went to Mayo they said that a allergy is defined in two parts; One a positive reaction, and two an allergic reaction to that food. So you can react to it but not show up on a test, and then the other way around.

I know its not that helpful, I had a couple I had to figure out wether i'm allergic to or not. turns out I am.