Your take on Food Allergy Tests

My kids are still young, ages five and six, as of this writing.  Even so we’ve been through our fair share of allergy tests.  My boys have each had several skin prick tests and one blood test each.  One son has had a challenge test and the other is currently scheduled for one. 

At the last blood test, the blood-taking nurse said to my five year old, “So you don’t feel so good after eating certain foods, huh?”  Then she laughed heartily.  I was dumbfounded.  I think my five year old was too.  I sat on the chair holding him on my lap and we said nothing.  We just looked at her back as she had turned around after laughing to enter a few items into her computer.  How could a nurse or anyone be so insensitive as to ask a question like that when she knows he has food allergies and then laugh out loud?  What was she laughing at?  Our misfortune?  If she wasn’t about to take three little vials of blood from my “baby” I might have just confronted her on why she was laughing. 

Aside from the lack of personal tact, there are other frustrations that I have with food allergy testing.  Specifically, skin prick tests can show false positives, meaning it may show that you are allergic to x when in fact you are not.  Further, the blood tests can show false negatives, meaning it may show you are not allergic to y when in fact you are.  Then there is the ultimate “challenge” test where you child eats or drinks the food in a substantial quantity, which you have studiously avoided for the past few years. 

When my older son went in for his dairy challenge test, his blood test had been negative but the skin prick was positive.  The doctor said he was, “90% sure he would not react during the challenge test to the dairy.”  But, he did react and had to receive epinephrine in the doctor’s office.  Our current allergist advised us that she would only do a challenge test if both the skin prick and blood tests come back negative.  This seems to make more sense to me so we are on our path to this test now. 

While a definitive, non-risky test is something we all would like, I’d like to learn if there is any consensus from mothers, fathers or people who undergone the tests themselves, like teenagers, on what tests work best.  Please comment on what tests or combination of tests and results seem to have been most accurate in your experience. 

Comments

[Jennifer]

I share your frustrations with food allergy testing! My 9 year old is severely allergic to dairy, eggs, pork, beef and peanuts... well, POSSIBLY peanuts, because she has had a negative RAST/blood test to peanuts for the last 4 years but a positive skin test. We haven't dared to food challenge her because we've had enough experiences with the epipen (due to her dairy & egg allergies) to decide it just wasn't worth it to find out for sure at this point.

My hope is to one day take to her National Jewish in Denver to do a food challenge there.

[Kim]

Our daughter is allergic to peanuts and we have been strongly advised to avoid tree nuts as well. I personally feel the skin test reflects the allergy more than the RAST test. Remember, the RAST test only shows the level of activity of the allergy, not if it is present (or not). My daughter's RAST has been low the last 2 years yet she had a significant reaction to simply being touched by someone that had been eating peanuts hours before. If we had relied on the RAST results and orally challenged her in the allergists office, as he wanted to do, I am afraid to think what might have happened. Her skin test was a 15!!

Good luck to everyone that has to deal with this lifelong challenge!

[moby wrap]

Some people are more at allergies risk from the type of food that they eat and so they need to be careful.