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PO'd
My son had a wicked allergic reaction at daycare last week- swollen cheeks, hives, rash, the whole deal (without the difficulty breathing). He had a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. I know my son is allergic to tomatoes and the other kids had tomato soup for lunch, so I thought he might have had a reaction to that, but they swore they kept him far away and there was no cross-contamination.
So I took him to get allergy tested, some fancy test where they draw blood and test the blood instead of the multiple needle pricks along your back.
The results came back showing that he is highly allergic to animal products, everything from beef to dairy. I'm a vegetarian so I have NO problem keeping him away from meat, but how the hell am I supposed to keep him from eggs and dairy? He LOVES both and has them at least once a day (dairy several times a day). I can't believe that he was that allergic to the cheese in the sandwich, because he's eaten cheese every day since with no reaction. And the results show that he's pretty much as allergic to eggs as one can be- it's a bar graph and that measure is right near the limit. But he's never had a reaction...?
And can I really rely on nuts, which he hates, and tofu to provide all of his protein needs?
I'm really rebelling against this diagnosis so I Googled the reliability of this test. Turns out- not very reliable. Many double-blind studies have shown that this test is very inconsistent and doesn't really give accurate results.
This made me feel better for a bit, but now I'm more angry that I'm paying money for a test that I apparently can't rely on. (I don't know how much yet, I'm going for a follow-up visit and they're billing me then- its through a naturopath. There are no allergists where I live). I don't know what I'm angrier about- having to cut out all of these foods because he's allergic, or knowing that I spent money and held his little arm down for the blood draw while he screamed his head off for nothing.
I don't know what to do. He doesn't seem to have ANY reaction to eggs or dairy at home so I don't want to cut these out, but I'm going to feel awful if this test is right and he goes into anaphylactic shock...
Re: PO'd
I would take those results with a grain of salt. Naturopaths tend to test for "allergies" but what they are finding are "intolerances'.
I know the test that you are talking about and the reliability isn't fantastic but also i believe that it may not be capturing true "allergies". Our bodies can have intolerances to many different things at very different levels.
I also don't find the skin prick test to be very accurate because for me it only found things that cause a topical reaction on my skin.
I would be hesitant as you are to remove everything from his diet at his age.
I would think that it's more likely that he got some tomato soup than having a whole whack of food allergies all of the sudden. I would see a doctor and ask their opinion.