pI am suppose to have my son to an allergist in a month, but I have heard that some allergist don't do test on children under 2.br /
If anyone had this what did you do?br /
Susan/p
Allergy Testing is there an age requirement?
Posted on: Tue, 03/20/2001 - 7:05am
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My son was sent for allergy testing when he was only about 12 months old. The allergist performed the tests but made it very clear that there is a high risk when the kids are this young that you get a number of false negatives. I was told that by the time the kids are about 3 and 1/2 4 years old the results are considered much more conclusive. My son tested negative for everything they tested for (at the time we didn't know about his PA so we weren't tested for that)but the allergist said that we had to take these results with a grain of salt. The reason my guy was tested was to look for asthma triggers and both his pediatrician and the allergist have said that if his asthma is still bad they will test again when he is around 3 and 1/2. The allergist did feel that the chance of a false positive at this age wasn't any greater than it would be in an older child. Allergy tests seem to be one of those controversial things though that you will never get a totally straight answer on (just check out some of the posts on this site or some of the papers that you can access through the food allergy network). Hope this helps.
My son Jackson was sent for allergy testing at 15 months. The allergist did'nt mention anything about his age affecting the results, but I have heard that too. We knew from his reactions that he was allergic to peanuts and eggs, but wanted to confirm this. People tend to take food allergies seriously when it is confirmed by an allergist. Both the peanut and egg tested positive just as we expected.
I did wait until he was 2 1/2 to test for other nuts. Even though he does'nt eat tree nuts it was nice to find out he is'nt allergic to them.
My PA daughter was tested at 15 mo. due to 2 reactions and severe eczema. She had many positives, and a later test (4 years old) showed many had been outgrown (PA not retested and tomato was worse).
My other "allergy daughter" was tested at 8 months (only for milk and soy) due to eczema and the fact that she was always crying. She was allergic to milk and began soy formula. Ironically, when she was tested at 3 1/2, she is now allergic to soy (not milk).
Rachel