My daughter was diagnosed by her ped with PA by a rast test (at my prompting because of excema flareups with peanut butter ingestion) in December. The ped gave us epi-pens and FAN information. I have gotten a wealth of information and education from this website. We have not yet seen an allergist and I am wondering if we really need to. For those of you that have seen an allergist, what info have you received that made it worthwhile to see the allergist. My daughter, so far, has not shown any signs of any other allergies or asthma. Thanks. Peggy
Allergist question
Posted on: Wed, 06/06/2001 - 3:08am
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Re (CAP in my case) RAST testing every year to track the IGE levels to see if there is a chance of outgrowing the allergy (this only applies to the younger kids - mine is 2 years old and August will be his second CAP RAST test)
I've received fantastic information from my allergist that I didn't receive from my pediatrician. It was the allergist that made me realize that this is serious stuff we're dealing with. Perhaps you have a pediatrician that is really good at providing information on peanut allergies. I'm with Heather. We're doing the blood test route with the allergist to establish a baseline number to see if it gets higher or lower over the next several years.
Peggy (Punkinsmom),
This is a great question as others have also inquired about whether to see an allergist or just stick with the Pediatrician.
We have a phenominal ped but allergies are a *specialty* and allergists are *specialists.* This is what they practice day in and day out whereas pediatricians do not specialize in allergies. (I hope I am wording this correctly).
Our pediatrician immediately referred us to an allergist upon my son's first anaphylactic reaction to peanuts at the age of 10 months. My son was also allergic to eggs and has gone to the allergist once a year since 10 months of age (he is 7 years old now) to be re-tested for eggs and finally tested negative and had a supervised challenge in the allergist's office with a hard boiled egg with no reaction!!
I can't stress enough the importance of having an allergist when dealing with food allergies. This is their business and this is what they are trained to do day in and day out.
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Stay Safe.
I say if it caused a hive, it's positive! Our doc did come in a measure, but it didn't give me any more info then just a *yes* would have, honestly. I do like the caprast because you get a number you can understand. Again, it doesn't mean much, but it helped me. I'd suggest waiting for the blood results and not push the measurment of the hive from the scratch test...why they measure the hive is beyond me! Good luck!!! here's a pic of my son...if he got a hive, it was positive, I didn't care about the measurement!!!
[img]http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/seetsjakers/jake06test.jpg[/img]
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Chanda(mother of 4)
Sidney-8 (beef and chocolate, grasses, molds, weeds, guinea pig & asthma)
Jake-6 (peanut, all tree nuts, eggs, trees, grasses, weeds, molds, cats, dogs, guinea pig & eczema & asthma)
Carson-3 1/2 (milk, soy, egg, beef and pork, cats, dog, guinea pig and EE)
Savannah-1 (milk and egg)
Foster Mom to
Cody-10 (seasonal/environmental allergies)
Jordan-6 (also seasonal and environmental)
Our allergist told us that the hive measurement is something that all allergists can understand. It is not dependent on a lab or interpretation - it's pretty universally understood. And she wouldn't do blood tests. Not saying she's right....just sharing. [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img]
Sorry to hijack but I have a question. Does the size of the hive indicate how severe the allergy is? What would be deemed a bad reaction based on size?
I can tell you what I was told in regards to ds
she measured the hive and the wheel
his measured 25 mm for the hive and 50 for the wheel
she said this was moderate to severe but given that he still had benedryl in his system she catagorized it as severe
she also compared it to the hystamine hive/wheel response to make that determination.