I've h.s.ed my p.a/tree-nut allergic child from kind. to 8th grade. She is leaning towards going to high school next year and her allerg. doc. has suggested a challenge test in his office prior to doing so. Made it sound like he would try to simulate possible exposures she might have at school. She has had airborne/casual contact reactions before...a long time ago (at open air market boiling peanuts...we didn't know they were selling peanuts there til she got sick minutes after getting out of the car..At a gym where kids where making peanut butter pine cones (even though I took her out of the room--face swelling, nausea, lethargic)...At a reception where nuts were placed on tables (face swelling)..And when my dh touched her face after eating a p.b. sandwich...even though he washed his hands 3 times..This was before we knew she was so allergic.. She is still "off-the-chart" allergic to peanuts based on her last RAST score two years ago and also severely allergic to tree-nuts.
I'm just wondering if your allerg. doc. did a challenge test before your child started school. If so, what exactly did the doc. do in the office?
Given my son's reaction history, my allergist told me that they wouldn't even perform a skin prick test, because the minute amount of protein could cause a serious reaction.
Why exactly is your allergist recommending this? To make sure school will be safe? I would be very very wary of this - find out exactly what he has planned, and what they will do in the case of a reaction. If it involves ingesting or touching peanuts, I'd personally say no way.
Though with that said (which I agree with)...
GailW's daughter was "challenged" by her allergist with a similar goal... to evaluate her susceptibility to contact and aerosol exposures. Perhaps she could share her opinion. Designing such a challenge is definitely not trivial.
Here are the threads about those experiences on the Main board~
Describe your child's "inhalation" or "air borne" challenge here... [url="http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/Forum1/HTML/004020.html"]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/Forum1/HTML/004020.html[/url]
DD's "Touch Challenge" at allergist's office today
[url="http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/Forum1/HTML/004077.html"]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/Forum1/HTML/004077.html[/url]
Corvallis Mom is correct that these challenges took some careful planning. If you want to post any questions I'd be glad to answer them.
We did a "touch" test in our allergist's office before entering K. And we did an airborne "challenge" on our own before K.
The touch test consisted of putting a smudge of PB on my son's back - where he couldn't reach it no matter how hard he tried. Long story short, he's contact reactive.
Airborne challenge: We took him to the school cafeteria one day during lunch. He did not react to being in there with whatever PN products were in the room at the time. He hasn't reacted yet - he's now in 4th grade. (I posted about this in the thread that was raised recently in Main.) That's not to say he isn't airborne reactive - I wouldn't have him sniff a jar of PB, KWIM? - but, he didn't react in the one room we needed to know about for school purposes.
The mere idea of a challenge test does scare me. Especially since I've had two allergy docs. tell me her RAST scores are the worst they have ever seen.
The public schools here serve p.b. & jelly every Friday with veg. soup in the winter. That's why in grade school I actually had the principal of a school suggest she stay home on Fridays (3rd grade)! Though it likely isn't as popular in high school, I have to assume there will be p.b. everyday in the cafeteria at lunch...With around 1,200 students attending this overcrowded school.
I would be so restrictive that I'm not sure what the point will be for the test. To me shouldn't her past RAST scores and skin tests since she has had since 18 months be enough to determine what school precautions need to be taken??? I just don't see the point...To me those medical tests should be all the proof I need to document her medical condition.