Im So Confused About Allergies

[Moongirl]

So i posted a few weeks ago that I had an allergy test done (sratch test) and it showed I had no allergies to food. About 2 years ago, pre-dx, it showed slight reactions to clams and crabs. And now nothing. Well Im starting to suspect that the scratch test was not right....i guess my question is how accurate is the scratch test, and what do i do to 'double check' my allergies.??

[elisabet]

So i posted a few weeks ago that I had an allergy test done (sratch test) and it showed I had no allergies to food. About 2 years ago, pre-dx, it showed slight reactions to clams and crabs. And now nothing. Well Im starting to suspect that the scratch test was not right....i guess my question is how accurate is the scratch test, and what do i do to 'double check' my allergies.??

The best way to test is an ELISA test for Ige and Igg.

[kabowman]

I think my son's allergist said that food allergy testing is only right about 30% of the time - but DO NOT QUOTE me!!!

[Moongirl]

The best way to test is an ELISA test for Ige and Igg.

who or where do i get that done? could my doc office do it?

I think my son's allergist said that food allergy testing is only right about 30% of the time - but DO NOT QUOTE me!!!

So how do we know without blowing up like a balloon if we have food allergies??

[mmaccartney]

The skin prick tests are not 100% accurate, but they are the most accurate that we have. They have falsely identified a soy, corn, and wheat allergy in my son. Blood tests were even less reliable, they had so many false positives that we would have had to take my son off of food all together!

The BEST food allergy test?? Food diary!!! Keep a list of everything that goes into or onto your child, and any symptoms or reactions. Remove the suspected allergens from the diet al together. If you see an improvement in sympotoms, reintroduce the suspected foods one at a time, and quite slowly. checking for any sympotoms or reactions and noting them in your diary.

It is tedious, time consuming, but it is more accurate then any test that I know of, and it's how my allergist/immunologist proceeds when the test results become confusing!

PLEASE NOTE if there is an anaphyaltic reaction, DO NOT USE THIS METHOD!!! the last thing you want to do is perform food challenges to an anaphyaltic person!!!! too dangerous!!!!

My children have lots of allergies, and we fought battles trying to figure them out!!! Let me know if I can help!

[penguin]

I think my son's allergist said that food allergy testing is only right about 30% of the time - but DO NOT QUOTE me!!!

Mine said something along the same lines, and that the IgE blood testing is more accurate than the scratch test, but they weren't 100% accurate at all.

He said the only way to know for sure is to do an elimination diet. To quote him, "the proof is in the pudding". Or clams, or crabs, or nuts, or wheat....

[jerseyangel]

The skin prick tests are not 100% accurate, but they are the most accurate that we have. They have falsely identified a soy, corn, and wheat allergy in my son. Blood tests were even less reliable, they had so many false positives that we would have had to take my son off of food all together!

The BEST food allergy test?? Food diary!!! Keep a list of everything that goes into or onto your child, and any symptoms or reactions. Remove the suspected allergens from the diet al together. If you see an improvement in sympotoms, reintroduce the suspected foods one at a time, and quite slowly. checking for any sympotoms or reactions and noting them in your diary.

It is tedious, time consuming, but it is more accurate then any test that I know of, and it's how my allergist/immunologist proceeds when the test results become confusing!

PLEASE NOTE if there is an anaphyaltic reaction, DO NOT USE THIS METHOD!!! the last thing you want to do is perform food challenges to an anaphyaltic person!!!! too dangerous!!!!

My children have lots of allergies, and we fought battles trying to figure them out!!! Let me know if I can help!

Michael--This is exactly what my allergist told me. I had scratch tests for foods and environmental allergies very recently.

[Moongirl]

The skin prick tests are not 100% accurate, but they are the most accurate that we have. They have falsely identified a soy, corn, and wheat allergy in my son. Blood tests were even less reliable, they had so many false positives that we would have had to take my son off of food all together!

The BEST food allergy test?? Food diary!!! Keep a list of everything that goes into or onto your child, and any symptoms or reactions. Remove the suspected allergens from the diet al together. If you see an improvement in sympotoms, reintroduce the suspected foods one at a time, and quite slowly. checking for any sympotoms or reactions and noting them in your diary.

It is tedious, time consuming, but it is more accurate then any test that I know of, and it's how my allergist/immunologist proceeds when the test results become confusing!

PLEASE NOTE if there is an anaphyaltic reaction, DO NOT USE THIS METHOD!!! the last thing you want to do is perform food challenges to an anaphyaltic person!!!! too dangerous!!!!

My children have lots of allergies, and we fought battles trying to figure them out!!! Let me know if I can help!

Thanks, but I guess im kinda worried about eating things and having a reaction, that kinda freaks me out! Ive never had a problem with food allergies before.....The recent thing me allergist told me is that he can do a scratch test with the actual fruit!! have u ever heard of this before, I have to bring in, lets say a fresh strawberry, and he would do the scratch test using that fresh fruit! i dont know about him, but i dont feel like being pricked anymore!

Its bad enough that im picky about my celiac and not eating wheat, but I / we really dont need to worry about more foods! Did you all find that you had food allergy problems after DX. or did you have previous allergies too?

[penguin]

Thanks, but I guess im kinda worried about eating things and having a reaction, that kinda freaks me out! Ive never had a problem with food allergies before.....The recent thing me allergist told me is that he can do a scratch test with the actual fruit!! have u ever heard of this before, I have to bring in, lets say a fresh strawberry, and he would do the scratch test using that fresh fruit! i dont know about him, but i dont feel like being pricked anymore!

Its bad enough that im picky about my celiac and not eating wheat, but I / we really dont need to worry about more foods! Did you all find that you had food allergy problems after DX. or did you have previous allergies too?

Why not scratch with the real food? All the serum is that they prick you with is concentrated allergen. The skin pricks are really unreliable for foods, you get a lot of false positives AND false negatives. Seriously, the elimination diet is the thing to do, but if you're worried about a reaction, make sure your allergist knows you're doing an elimination diet. Maybe he can prescribe you an epi-pen just in case, and make sure you don't add new foods while you're alone!

[jerseyangel]

Thanks, but I guess im kinda worried about eating things and having a reaction, that kinda freaks me out! Ive never had a problem with food allergies before.....The recent thing me allergist told me is that he can do a scratch test with the actual fruit!! have u ever heard of this before, I have to bring in, lets say a fresh strawberry, and he would do the scratch test using that fresh fruit! i dont know about him, but i dont feel like being pricked anymore!

Its bad enough that im picky about my celiac and not eating wheat, but I / we really dont need to worry about more foods! Did you all find that you had food allergy problems after DX. or did you have previous allergies too?

Actually, that's why I had the allergy tests to begin with. I knew that they wouldn't tell me a thing about intollerances--I wanted to make sure I wasn't truly allergic to the nuts, etc. The scratch tests are good for that. I have many intollerances, such as corn, soy and dairy--but I am not allergic to any foods that I know of.

My dr also said that any food he didn't test me for, I could bring in and he would test from the food itself. I didn't, but I may do it with strawberries the next time I go in.

[plantime]

Funny, the allergist I saw said the scratch test is 100% accurate, and the only cure was shots for the rest of my life. Do I believe a word he said? No. The shots gave me severe, week-long headaches, so I quit taking them, and avoidance whenever possible is the best treatment. I have been eliminating foods that I think are problematic for me.

[Rachel--24]

I have no IgE allergies whatsoever. I've been negative in all the allergy tests I've done. I DO have many intolerances though. I have more food intolerances than I can count.

I agree with food diary being the best method for figureing these things out. Unless you have a "true" allergy (which are usually pretty obvious) I think the tests arent all that reliable.

[Clark Bent as Stupor-Man]

I don't know, I might be in the minority here, but I don't think the elimination diet is that good of a method. At least I haven't found it to be currently for myself.

The first elimination diet (which I only stayed on for 1 - 2 weeks) I went on under direction from a nutritionist last December had me consuming oatmeal, eggs, tomatoes/peppers, and even corn I believe.

I've been on a modified version of an elimination diet for about 3 months now, and it simply isn't working that effectively. I kept a food journal at one point but gave that up. I have gone from very strict about my consumption to slightly less strict. My diet has been entirely gluten-free since mid January and casein free since mid-February. The only soy I consume is soy lecithin from gum, no corn except for a little corn starch in a rice bar or rice chips (and recently chicken nuggets). No eggs, no spicy food (with the exception of a mild salsa). A little salt, no pepper. No peanuts, only almond butter. No aspartame, MSG, or artificial colors/preservatives. Few carbs and sugars. I was down to pretty much just meats, and veggies at one point. Which is a pain because I also have to eat all the time because I'm hypoglycemic.

I became suspicious at one point or another of everything from chicken to pork to salt to apples to asparagus to rice to vitamins, etc. Are each of these a possibility? Sure, but it's highly unlikely I'm intolerant to the majority of these and other foods I've been suspicious of, let alone all of them. I think the more likely scenario is that I may react to foods temporarily if I either consume them too frequently or because my system is still healing internally.

However, what I want to find out if there is another intolerance (in addition to gluten and casein), that I need to absolutely avoid. The elimination diet simply isn't helping me in pinpointing that right now. I think that a modified elimination diet in conjunction with delayed food allergy testing is best suited for myself. I plan to set up food allergy testing when I see my current nutrionist next week. I figure a couple false positives or false negatives from the test are no worse than the false results I'm getting from my diet.

On another note, is the sage test the same as the elisa test? Is this the best one to get for delayed food allergies? What test does york labs run?

[jerseyangel]

Charlie--I personally don't think that it's a bad idea to have the blood intolerance testing. At least it would give you a starting point. I also very strongly agree that some of the reactions are due to the intestinal healing. I considered having a blood test done by an independant lab--frankly, I went the allergist route first because it was covered by insurance. Also a factor was that through a lot of trial and error these last several months, I have pinpointed most of my problem foods. Good luck with it

[penguin]

My allergist said that the BRAT diet was the one to follow if doing an elimination diet. Bananas, rice, applesauce, toast. So for us it would be a BRA diet. Ha.

Anyway you eat that way for a week or two, and then add one food at a time, wait two days, then if you didn't react it's ok to add in regularly. Then add in another food, and so the process goes again.

[Moongirl]

I have no IgE allergies whatsoever. I've been negative in all the allergy tests I've done. I DO have many intolerances though. I have more food intolerances than I can count.

I agree with food diary being the best method for figureing these things out. Unless you have a "true" allergy (which are usually pretty obvious) I think the tests arent all that reliable.

When you say all the allergy tests do you mean scratch and blood tests? Did you figure out the intolerances through a food diary?

I would love to eat shrimp again, but after my 1st test 2 years ago i stopped b/c i had a slight reaction, now i had none. And i used to eat it all the time. my allergist says he feels comfortable if i were to eat it again, yah easy for hiim to say right

[Moongirl]

So the good news, all my food allergy tests are negative (via scratch test)!! yay

Bad news I have one of the worse reactions to dust mites my allergist has ever seen!! and hes the chief of allergy at the Hospital and hes 78! second to that was house dust and cats. No outdoor allergies though...

Do you have any enviormental allergies?

[jerseyangel]

So the good news, all my food allergy tests are negative (via scratch test)!! yay

Bad news I have one of the worse reactions to dust mites my allergist has ever seen!! and hes the chief of allergy at the Hospital and hes 78! second to that was house dust and cats. No outdoor allergies though...

Do you have any enviormental allergies?

I scored high on the dust mites, too. The allergist suggested I encase my mattress and pillows in a dust proof casing. I did so, and believe it is helping a bit. If you get them, get a very good quality--the less expensive ones are noisy and crinkily.

[penguin]

Ha, all the scratch testing showed me was that I was allergic to absolutely no foods (except the oral allergy to tree nuts) but almost every substance that can be found in the air.

One reaction to some mold was so bad, I couldn't metabolize and it got infected

I already knew I was allergic to air I just paid $60 to prove it.

He also said I was highly allergic to dogs and cats, and to keep them outside.

What, you mean the cats sleeping on my head?

Right. My cats don't bother me, I become immune to my own animals.

It was a waste, basically, but at least I have a baseline, I guess. And an extra 8 lbs from the prednisone to clear up the infection.

[Green12]

The feedback I have gotten from the alternative medical professionals I have gone to is pretty much the same, that the scratch test is more or less a joke.

I'm sort of with Clark Bent, at least for me, elimination diets and food journaling has been difficult. I usually don't always get immediate reactivity, or obvious signs that something isn't agreeing with me. My allergic response is delayed so it's hard to pinpoint what to avoid. Allergies are like a mysterious riddle or puzzle, dang them!

Clark Bent- I was shocked to read (if I read it right) what your first elimination diet consisted of, oats, corn, eggs, tomatoes....those are some of the main biggest of big allergens, usually the first to get out of your diet when starting an allergy treatment (along with other gluten containing grains, soy, dairy, sugar). Yikes. I don't know what your nutritionist had in mind but he must have some kind of method to the madness.