Going To The Allergist

[mom2my3girls]

I'm new here..My name is Kim and I have a daughter named Ally who I suspect has a gluten allergy.

A little background....

My youngest daughter is almost 9 months and is breastfed. Around 4 months I mentioned to her dr that her poop had been mucus-y since birth, but the dr wasn't too concerned b/c she was in the 50% and growing well, not fussy, etc. But then from 4.5-5.5 months I noticed a tiny bit of blood in her poop a couple times. Stool samples were neg for parasites and whatever else they test for so she referred me to a pedi GI. He had me cut dairy out of my diet and there was no more mucus or blood since (but also at that time I started giving her some solid food, so the consistancy of her poop totally changed anyway). Then when she was around 7 months old I gave her a baby food that had wheat in it and she puked her guts out 3 hours after eating it. Then I gave her some Gerber oatmeal (which I had given her around 5-6 months and she had no problem with) and the same thing happened. I thought it might be a fluke, so I tried a couple more times....the boxed kind and the jarred kind, and both made her puke her guts out. Also around that time she got an awful eczema rash, but it got better with hydrocortizone cream. They did a blood test for a wheat allergy and it came back neg, but then I learned that it's not accurate before age 2. But her iron was good. I went back to the GI and he thought she might be allergic to soy (he said the Gerber oatmeal has soy) and told me to try the Beechnut (soy free) oatmeal. She still puked her guts out, so I think it's the gluten. Luckily it doesn't seem to bother her that I eat gluten though.

Any thoughts?

So I am taking her to the allergist on Thursday and they said no antihisthimines 72 hours prior to the appt, so I figure they'll do testing. What do you think they will do? Would they do the skin prick test on a baby? If so, will it show that she's allergic to gluten if she hasn't had any in a month, or is that just the blood test?

[Amyleigh0007]

When my son was tested for allergies they did blood tests. I don't think the skin prick test is possible on a baby since you must not touch the pricks for 15 minutes (and if they are positive they will swell and itch and it is hard to not touch them!). They will also want a full history so I would write things down so you don't forget anything.

I wanted to add that you can not be allergic to gluten but you can be allergic to things that contain gluten such as wheat, rye, and barley so make sure the allergist tests for those things. An allergy test will show allergies to foods even if your child has never had that food. My son is allergic to clam but he has never had it.