Toddler Skin Prick Allergy Testing For Wheat - Effective?

[kristen32]

My daughter is 3 & had the skin prick testing recently. It came up with several mold and pollen allergies, as well as dairy and wheat. Initially the allergist did NOT recommend cutting out wheat or dairy, except for bread & cow's milk (not yogurt, cheese, etc.). I have tried to reduce the amount of wheat/dairy in her diet, but we haven't been religious about it until now. She just got another cold - this is the season when she seems to get colds nonstop - and 4 days ago I cut out wheat altogether. She's never had any of the classic wheat allergy symptoms; she mainly has hay fever signs such as runny nose, red/watery eyes, colds that evolve into respiratory infections. We have another appt. with a different allergist next week, so I hope to get to the bottom of this soon.

My question is, should I consider the skin prick testing to be 100% accurate? If she's not had the other intestinal issues that usually accompany it, should I still cut out wheat solely because she tested positive on the skin prick test? Thanks for any information!

[missy'smom]

I wish I had a good answer for you. I'm still trying to figure it out. My son's blood test showed a mild wheat allergy and skin test showed postitive wheat allergy. Allergist said they weren't interested in blood test results. They also did not recommend eliminating wheat. Said that since he reacted to another member of the grasses that is related botanically to wheat that that was his true allergy not the wheat. When I went in the next time we saw a different doctor's nurse practitioner and I discussed diet and she said that they don't mention dietary changes(unless it's an allergy that requires an epi-pen) since most people can't handle it. I had already talked to her about me being gluten-free so she knew we could handle it and was more open about it. With us, he has no noticable GI symptoms now, although he did some before I was gluten-free and cut back on the family's gluten. We did a gluten-free month long trial and his eczema cleared up completely. After re-introducing gluten it took a little while but his eczema came back. I don't know if it's celiac disease, gluten intolerance or wheat allergy. He had a negative celiac panel but that doesn't mean much.

I can say that I have issues with dairy and various symptoms and when I eliminated it completely, my nasal congestion that was constant for decades, cleared up considerably, much to my suprize. I would not have guessed it was a contributing factor.