my 6 yr old son who is ptna, is scheduled for the allergist on tues, we have never had the skin test and wondering if anyone has any problems with it, reactions, anything that would require the epi, i am nervous abou the skin test and having them put things on his skin, that seems so scary. is a skin test a better way to test than blood??
krisy
ben- 6yrs ptna
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personally(IMO), I like both tests...I have my kids retested(blood and scratch) every year(since they are young, we keep an eye on levels and *new* allergies cropping up). All 4 of my kids have had scratch tests done and nothing serious ever happened. They get some good sized welts, but once the test is done they wipe them off and apply cortizone. They've never needed even Benadryl after. I am sure there are some that have had problems or reactions after(as with any type of testing), but for us, that's never happened. Good luck, I am sure the test will go fine and you will have some much needed answers.
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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)
Wow! I don't have an answer for you.... It was my understanding that the skin test is more accurate that the rast test. When your daughter had the test did she have any antihystemine for the previous 7 days? I was told that I should give my son these medicines a week prior to the test that it can render a fausle negative. Also did the Dr use a positive comtrol and negative control to see if her skin would react?
Does your daughter have very sennsitive skin? My son will get a " hive" from dust if it gets on his face. Let us know what happens.
Therese
The skin test could not have *caused* a peanut allergy. (((((hugs))))) The skin test is considered very safe. Only something like 1 in 10,000 will have a neg reaction to the test and no deaths have occurred from skin testing according to what I have read in various books about FAs. Of course, YMMV but I personally do not worry at all about skin testing.
People can develop food allergies any time. I'm sorry it seems your child might have a peanut allergy.
Both skin and blood are only about 90% accurate for neg results (and 50% for positive) so there *are* some false negatives on both.
I took EM to the allergist today and he is running RAST and CAP tests for all nuts and peanuts. We'll know in 1-2 weeks. Thanks for your replies.
We got EM's RAST/CAP test results and they are all negative, even the cashew! We are relieved but not letting our guard down again. Wondering where the hive, swelling and rash we found two days later came from.
I just got back from the AAAAI meeting in Philadelphia. One of the workshops I attended showed that 27% of patients with a "negative" rast ( less than .35)for tree nuts still reacted. Now, as far as I know, this may have been only one study, but that is still an amazing statistic.
Just something to keep in mind.
Take care,
Gina
[url="http://www.allergymoms.com"]http://www.allergymoms.com[/url]
Gina - interesting statistic - my son's rast came back negative to EVERYTHING, including peanut, which he has had 2 reactions to before. this allergy business is crazy!