Sarah -- How often did you do these tests? I am not necessarily against them, but Dr. Rosen wants us to do another one when we just did one less than a year ago. In fact he recommended six months. I think that is just a little too much exposure when we are talking about peanuts and the amount needed for a reaction and the hope of outgrowing!
Partly what I'm against is his attitude --he's arrogant and not quite as cautious as I thought a doctor on the FAAN board would be. Anyway, her skin test was small the last two times and her blood test went up -- seriously -- what would be the purpose of me subjecting her to this again for at least another year and a half? I'm actually wrestling with this now, so your opinion would be useful.

What age is your child?
As far as I can remember william was blood tested twice, and skin prick tested about three times so far, he is now 8.
His first was at 2 , then again the following about 1 1/2 yr later.
His firsts skin prick tests confirmed all the allergies that the doctor suspected , a few of which we were not aware of, such as dog which was a low rating at that time, dustmite, tree pollen and other tree nuts, such as brasil and hazelnut.
Testing again a year proved a few changes, peanut higher( wheal measurement 9mm, william said'that's peanut! ' as the lance was removed!) , tree nut lower, dog higher, egg much lower.
At 7 went for first egg challenge, and had the chance to skin prick test for other suspected foods. Tested for a varity of beans and all positive/high.
Had the dix of William never growing out of peanut and beans, but had grown out of tree nut allergies, and was showing a low rating for egg.(2mm)
Had two egg challenges and passed to cooked egg, failed raw or partially cooked egg.
The docs are still hoping that he will eventually grow out of egg allergy completly , but can not give a time span on this as is indivdual.
Other doc advice(at 2) due to the result of complete assement, that williams eczema will get better as he grows older to be replaced with severe to moderate envrionmental allergies.
This has come true over the years, so is obviously following a pattern that allergic children seem to go down.
William has had reactions to a varity of other foods, which they mearly noted on his records, his care plan was changed to include these allergies, and each time we visit the care plan is checked to see if anything needs to change.
Our next appointment is not until 2006 , and I have , even now, added a few more allergies, and had to re-adjust his meds etc.
I ring to chat with allergy nurse, who takes williams notes to doc, who decides on what advice I need. This is purely because the NHS here have no time to make more appointments , but as I have acheived what is classed as the holy grail here in getting Dr Lack, I am grateful.
I feel that of all tests skin prick test is the least invasive, far more distressing is the food challenges, which involve a little careful planning, as you are asking a child , who knows full well that he has had reactions to a certain food, and ASKING him to eat it!!!
What ever you decide to do with your child I wish you luck,
sarah

Hi, Megan is five. She's already been skin pricked about three times. I'm pretty firm about waiting until seven, but if I want to stay with him as our allergist then I have to go in there with a pretty firm mind and some pretty firm answers because I always become mush at the doctors. I don't see any point -- it'll be low, they'll recommend the blood test, if it's low they'll recommend a challenge and we aren't even going there yet anyway. She's allergic to SOMETHING -- she's had three reactions in nine months. She might have developed a tree nut allergy, but pretty sure these things were all contaminated with peanuts.
Don't you think doctors get carried away with the testing sometimes?
I think maybe part of the problem is like you said that since we've moved there is no one (medically) I can just talk to on the phone. Well, thanks again.

I dont think doctors do testing with out good reason. They do need to establish which food your child is allergic to.
You mention that your child has had other reactions , perhaps you do need to have further testing to find out which foods are causing this.
If you are going to a decent immunologist his skin test bottles for tests will not be cross contaminated, other wise there would be no point in performing the test!
Once you have the complete list of foods to avoid, these accidental reactions will be easier to avoid.
Compare the destressing , painful times your child has a reaction , to the skin prick tests or even blood tests! Tests must in comparison seem less of an ordeal for your child.
If your child has had low skin prick and blood ratings for a food its worth considering a challenge, for the reasons I have posted previously . When my son had his egg challenge a 3 1/2 yr old was in the bed next to him in the hospital , and he coped far better with the challenge than my son of 7 yrs.
The whole day was a fun one for the younger child , who played all day , only pausing to scoff down the eggy bread with heaps of sugar!
When you see your doc, spend time writing a list of the things you want to ask , if he suggests a challenge and you want time to think about it, fine do that.
Do some research, I chatted to the allergy nurses about the procedures etc,( the intensive care unit was cleared for the days that the food challenges were carried out in hospital) and this helped me.
I contacted the anaphylaxis campaign here and AllergyUK, and other parents who had been through food challenges.
I have a friend whos child was allergic , both IGE and intolerent , to the point of being only able to eat 7 foods, and some of those only if prepared in a certain way.
This child was in hospital as a baby with a line in to his heart , as they frantically made different formulas that he could tollerate.
At 5 , his food challenges allowed him to eat chicken. At 6 , last year , he passed his peanut challenge.
This mother no longer has epi pens in her house, his intolerance allergies have dropped to the point of only being one or two foods.
I watched him eat a chicken drumstick and nearly cried for joy for him, that his life that once hung in the balance, was saved by the medical profession.
He will grow up with some side effects, perhaps being shorter that he would have been , due to his restricted diet. That is a small price to pay for a healthy long life.
Being open minded as your child grows is the key.
sarah

Sarah, I appreciate all that you've shared. I do, however, think maybe you missed some of what I was saying. This allergist we have wants to skin test her for peanut every six months. I just don't know how I feel about that. She hasn't been tested for other allergies in quite a while, so I would be open to that, but that is part of my problem because he has not done extensive testing since we've started going to him. I don't even get the feeling he believes she had a reaction, let alone believe she could develop new allergies. Well, again, thanks for sharing, and it will be a while but I'll post back when we decide what we are going to do. Maybe I just need to go with that open mind like you said and hope that everything I'm feeling about the allergist is not true. Or that something will rub off on him!

I didnt realise you meant every 6 months!
Blimey!! .
What reasons did the doc give for this?
I have never , never heard of any one needing tests every 6 months.
ODD.
Very Odd.
sarah.

My DD's allergist won't do skin testing because he thinks the risk of a bad reaction and anaphalaxis isn't worth it; he instead relies on blood results. Don't know any more about it than that.
Janet

A lot of allergists only do skin tests.

Well, we saw the allergist and he was okay with me not testing her for peanut again. He wanted to do it every six months to see if she outgrows it because I guess she's at that age where they start to outgrow some allergies. Anyway, we tested for tree nuts -- six of them -- now he said they were negative BUT he said that about the peanut last time. She never reacts to the skin test very much when they do it on her lower arm, for some reason even her histamine never swells much. Four of them were at least as big as the histamine, so I actually consider myself my children's doctor (I am always diagnosing something the doctors want to wait on) and I would say she is allergic to those four nuts now. So, while that is not great news, it maybe at least explains our bologna incident -- which is good news. I actually wish he did more testing, but I become a dunce at the doctor's and didn't request it.
ONE OTHER THING -- HE TOLD ME TO CARRY SANDWICH BAGGIES WITH ME IN CASE MYSTERIOUS REACTIONS EVER HAPPEN AGAIN. HE SAID PUT THEM IN THE FREEZER, THEN THE NEXT DAY THEY COULD TEST HER DIRECTLY TO THAT PRODUCT. That was the most useful thing out of our visit. After the testing, then you could forward the offending food to FAAN, and someone there will test for peanut/tree nut protein. Wish I knew that before.

Had a follow up review and asked the question "what would we do different if the skin test was different than the blood test."
Answer - nothing if the blood test still showed a high degree of reaction happening.
So we redid the blood test and our son's level of antibody rose over the last 5 years raising the level of a reaction would (could) happen-- bottom line. We did NOT do the skin test.