Allergic to EVERYTHING??????

[tiggy]

Ivy had allergy testing today and has come up allergic to everything that she has been tested for... so what now? Where do I go from here? I am finding it very hard to believe that she is THAT allergic that she will need an epi pen.

They said that her histamine test was as large as it could possibly get, a 6/6 - does that make sense to anyone because it doesn't to me!
I guess for now it means sticking to the bland foods that I know are safe and steering clear of egg and nuts.
Anyone know anything about allergy testing and can give me some info, opinions and or reassurance? Anythignat this point in time would be very much appreciated.

[mooshie]

oh tiff

my ds was allergy tested at 9mths and came back allergic to the following: nuts, dairy, egg, dust, cat hair, dog hair, grass and feathers.

he was then re tested every 12mths and by the age of 3 he had grown out of the dairy and egg allergy, however he still prefers soy which is fine. he is still allergic to the others and his nut allergy is a 12 which is quite high.

i guess the best advise is to get a good paedeatric (sorry sp?) allergy specialist, my ds goes once a year and just drum into them the children why it is important not to have the foods they are allergic to. my ds is 6yrs old now and he basically says if i have anything with nuts in it i can die - he is very matter of fact about it, just the other day a so called school friend (preps mind you) said to try peanut butter ds said no way i could get really sick, this other kid persisted and ds went and told the teacher who then in turn took the necessary action.

i just make sure that when i am not around to monitor my ds in what he eats that all persons are know that he is allergic to nuts and it can be life threatening, thankfully there is alot more media exposure on allergies now so i know more people are more intune with it, there have been a few times i have had friends call me and ask if my ds can have something as they weren't sure which is great.

but the most important thing is that you teach your child why it is so important not to have those foods with allergies in them. ds kinder teacher said to me last year that i should be very proud of him because everytime they did cooking or anything he always asked if it had nuts in it.

basically you just can't let your guard down.

i am sure you will get lots of helpful info here.

[Silvia]

DD#2 was tated at 12mths and she came out allergic to cherries, strawberries, peanuts, nuts, diary, and chocolate.

Now at 3 she outgrow the chocolate(and she loves it!) and nuts(that she also loves), her diary and cherries allergies are not life threatening, but we have to be extremly careful for the peanuts and sarwberry allergies, she can't even smell them as it could be extremly dangerous.

DD nows hwat she should not eat, and she's very strict about it.

[tiggy]

Thanks girls,
It helps to know that there is life with allergies.
Theresa, I was hoping you would have some words of wisdom for me.
That title would be wonderful, when you get a chance.

I have another question, were your kiddies more sickly? If so, do you think that it was connected with the allergies?
For example, Ivy throws up more and her reflux is worse if she eats things that she is obviously now deemed as being allergic to. (Like milk). As part of this she has midle ear infection after middle ear infection and is generally just miserable.
It's very hard to cut out all milk and soy proteins (as you mentioned Theresa) and sometimes they slip in when you turn your back. An example of this is a well meaning rello who fed Ivy some heinz pre packaged food that had skim milk extracts in it. Normally, I wouldn't have thought twice but with Ivy it was a disaster!

Anyway, getting off my little tangent...do you think it's related? Were your cherubs sicker than friends' babies or your other children?

[Trish]

Tiff sorry to hear that you guys are having a tough time. While I'm not sure if Tehya has allergies or not I thought I would ask. You last question is what got me

Were your cherubs sicker than friends' babies or your other children?

Tehya has always been the child to get sick. Despite the fact that she is still breastfed, and was exclusively bf for the first 12 months or maybe more (can't remember)

My Dr has suggested to me that she might have allergies, but as yet has not done any testing.

How did you get that organised and what exactly does it involve ??

[tiggy]

Trish,
Our paed organised it but I'm sure if you asked your GP he could make a referral for you. Allergy testing is available through most large public hospitals. The paed filled in a form and faxed it through. THen we phoned for an appointment but there is nothing to say that you can't phone first and take your referral with you. Up this way, it was done through the respiratory unit. Not sure about anywhere else. I'm guessing places like Westmead and Randwick kids would have their own unit.
The actual test was a scratch test, where they drew a grid on Ivy's arm and placed different things withing the alotted space. Then they made a tiny scratch with the same sort of needle that they use for the baby's heel ***** test, so that the allergen and the skin make contact.
Ivy got small reactions to everything they tested. The thing that made the nurses run around in circles though was her histamine panel. With this one they tested to see what her natural histamine did when challenged. It went wild and gave her a score of 6/6, which, they tell me is not good. So that was it in a nutshell (pardon the pun). While her reactions were small (and what I would consider intolerences more than anything) the person testing said that because her histamine levels were crazy, you just never could anticipate the level of reaction that her body would produce, thus the epi pen.

Good Luck Trish, I hope that you get some answers. Thanks for answering my question re; Tehya being sick and the connection for you. It all helps.
PS, The paed told me that if the child has allergies even BF won't protect them, as was the case with Ivy but it is still the best option for sicky kids! Ugh, if only I knew that before I weaned her!

[Trish]

Thanks a heap for that Tiff. I will look into that, now I wonder how hard it will be to get the Dr to organise it for me. I know I had an allergy test done years ago (i'm talking about 10 years) and I was allergic to a heap of things. Fingers crossed that isn't the case with Tehya.

[tiggy]

Trish, good luck hun, hope Tehya isn't allergic. Let us know how you get on, won't you?

Theresa, I know. The way you described Em whilst Bfing, is the exact same way Ivy was. It was devastating. Having said that, putting her on the cow's milk based formula was the WORST thing I ever did in that child's life (not knowing what I do now). When I was BFing her, I tried to cut out dairy but it was so hard, when alot of the time the pick up and go foods were things like yoghurt or a smoothie. *SIGH* I guess I will get over the whole BFing saga sometime.

It's funny that you have reacted the same way as Ives. I wonder how many others out there are the same. Do you have to carry that adrenalin pen with you? When David (DH) had his scratch test done when he was a child he came up allergic to everything too. Poor thing. There was one panel that didn't react and he apparently got all excited until the lady told him..."Darling, that's the control panel, there is only water on there".

Off to find the book thread.

[Trish]

Oh thanks for that Therese.

I sure will keep you updated Tiff. Don't like my chances of anything getting done this side of the New Year but wil get onto it early 07.

[Deejoy17]

Hi Tiff - As you know Matthew is serevely allergic to egg, both the white and yolk, so much so that he goes into anaphylaxis shock, the specialist prescribed an epi pen for him and we also have phenergen on hand which I`ve had to use a number of times over the last few months. The specialist also gave us a sheet of a plan as to what to do if Matthew has another anaphylaxis shock, this plan is to be given to his preschool when he starts in 2008.

Matthew is also allergic to chicken, wheat, dust mites, mould, pineapple, tomato, vegemite (this is just a new reaction) but the egg is the major concern as with the scratch test within 1 second his reaction came up and within seconds he actually had 4 big red itchy lumps which all joined together and he started itching his face and that was just with the scratch test :eek: They couldn`t believe how quickly or how badly he reacted to the egg, he wasn`t tested for fish or peanuts but I don`t give either to him.

Matthew isn`t a sickly child (he`s only had 3 colds and a couple of bouts of gastro in 19.5 months), he has excema as do most of my side does and my Mum has numerous allergies so I think that`s where it`s coming from, Matthew was eating solids from 5months, 1 week of age and was breastfed till he was 14 months and only stopped because he self weaned himself when I was 36 weeks pregnant with Adrian.

Sorry have to go Matthew`s trying to pull the modem out will bbl