I've registered my son to participate in the research study being done at Children's Memorial. It involves interviews and blood tests - a one day commitment. When I set up the appointment, however, I learned that they will also be doing scratch tests.
I seem to remember that when my son went through skin testing 2 years ago to find out if he was allergic to anything else (blood test had already confirmed eggs and peanuts), the allergist said she would not scratch him for peanuts because it would be dangerous. Could I be remembering wrong? Should I be concerned?
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Kim
DS - age 4 - allergic to peanuts and eggs
DS - age 2 - no known allergies
My family participated in this same study. My ds is verified as PA, so they did not skin test him for peanuts.
Hi there, what does this study involve? We live nearby and would be interested too. How did you find out about it?
We did the same test with our son at Children's. They tested me, my husband and my son for various food allergies and enviromental allergies.
It was a one day committment, but it did not take all day. I think we were out around 1 or 2pm. The did breath tests on the hubby and I (seeing how hard you can exhale and how long you can exhale) and scratch tests on all of us. It was a very simple prong/prick test. The reason I remember this was that we watched my son's arm and the only welt that he had that formed was for peanut. My husband discovered that he is allergic to molds and dust. Never knew that before.
It wasn't bad at all. Aidan got prizes out of it and we all got gift certificates that we gave to him to get a larger prize.
Thanks for the replies. I'll ask them to skip the skin test for peanuts on my son, but I'll do it.
MFHarris: here's a link to the study: [url="http://www.childrensmemorial.org/depts/allergy/study.asp#."]http://www.childrensmemorial.org/depts/allergy/study.asp#.[/url]
P.S. - MFHarris asked how I found out about the study. I believe it was through MOCHA. (Mothers of Children Having Allergies) Have you seen their website?
Thanks for the info - I sent an email today inquiring about the study. I'm glad to hear that both mom and dad have to undergo testing too, I would like my daughter to know that we understand what she's going through with these tests. Plus neither of us "thinks" that we have allergies, so it will be interesting to find out for sure. Good Luck, Meg
We found out about it because Ds's allergist is through Children's Memorial.
It was very interesting for us. My dh tested positive for peanuts. He has never really liked peanut products. And he had an unexplained "event" many years before in which he had many strange symptoms that the doctors could never really figure out.
We had Chinese food for dinner that night with peanuts in it. His "event" was an allergic reaction.