Going To The Allergist Tomorrow

[norahsmommy]

Our family doc beleived me when I said I thought my daughter had gluten inolerance as well as dairy problem. He set us up with an allergist for tomorrow morning. What questions should I ask? What tests should I ask for? She is currently gluten free (or pretty much unless I make a mistake).

[burdee]

Our family doc beleived me when I said I thought my daughter had gluten inolerance as well as dairy problem. He set us up with an allergist for tomorrow morning. What questions should I ask? What tests should I ask for? She is currently gluten free (or pretty much unless I make a mistake).

If you daughter has gastrointestinal symptoms when she consumes dairy or gluten, request a blood test for IgG mediated antibodies to foods. (ELISA is one test which covers many commonly eaten foods.) Skin tests are only accurate if your daughter gets anaphylactic (immediate) reactions like hives or other skin reactions. Most food allergies are delayed reaction or IgG or IgA mediated allergies, which can be diagnosed with blood or stool tests.

However, if your daughter has abstained from gluten for awhile, her blood may not show gluten antibodies. Like celiac bloods tests, people need to continue their normal (gluten and/or dairy containing) diet, if they want an accurate allergy test result. If she has had several gluten related reactions during the past few weeks, that may be enough for an accurate test. However, daily consumptoion for awhile would be more effective.

[norahsmommy]

I took her to the allergist today. He did a full panel of tests, both food and environmental. (scratch test) and she is allergic to NOTHING he tested her for! So very frustrating. He asked if anyone in our family had celiac disease and I told him not to my knowege. He said bring her back in 3 months and they will test again and to not feed her problem foods until then. He was an Indian guy who had a pronounced accent. It was hard to understand him at times and I am not really sure if he is just going to do another allergy test or if he will check for celiac at that time. My MIL is making me feel like I am crazy. She thinks that because my daughter is not allergic to anything in that test means that there is no problem.

[burdee]

I took her to the allergist today. He did a full panel of tests, both food and environmental. (scratch test) and she is allergic to NOTHING he tested her for! So very frustrating. He asked if anyone in our family had celiac disease and I told him not to my knowege. He said bring her back in 3 months and they will test again and to not feed her problem foods until then. He was an Indian guy who had a pronounced accent. It was hard to understand him at times and I am not really sure if he is just going to do another allergy test or if he will check for celiac at that time. My MIL is making me feel like I am crazy. She thinks that because my daughter is not allergic to anything in that test means that there is no problem.

Unfortunately we don't put food under our skin when we eat. So scratch tests don't diagnose delayed reaction (IgG antibody mediated) food allergies. Also if your daughter never had skin reactions to food, the scratch tests will be invalid. I suggest you find a doctor or naturopath who gives blood tests for food allergies.

SUE

[norahsmommy]

Unfortunately we don't put food under our skin when we eat. So scratch tests don't diagnose delayed reaction (IgG antibody mediated) food allergies. Also if your daughter never had skin reactions to food, the scratch tests will be invalid. I suggest you find a doctor or naturopath who gives blood tests for food allergies.

SUE

I am going to call her pedi on monday and see who he reccomends for testing for celiac. I didn't see our regular doc last time, just the nurse practitioner. He is a nice guy and I am sure we can figure something out. Its just frustrating. I thought for sure he'd do some sort of blood test but he didn't. He seemed fine with the fact that celiac doesn't run in the family I suppose. Or maybe he is just waiting to do the blood test next time in 3 months. He said babies change alot and maybe in a few months she will be able to handle gluten. But for now not to give her any. Today she was crying alot and constipated and doing her usual 'I had gluten' routine. I thought it was in my head because she hadn't had any gluten. Well I was making tea and I went to the sugar jar to put some in my tea and I realized there was flour on the rim of the jar. So of course there was probably some in the sugar and it got in the oatmeal I made for the baby as well as the whole family. The oats were gluten free so it must have been the sugar. I normally sweeten oatmeal with maple syrup.

[mushroom]

If you want to have your daughter tested for celiac, you will need to keep giving her gluten right up until the time of testing so that she continues to make antibodies - which is what the tests test for. Actually, depending on how long you have been restricting gluten, it may well be too late to get a proper test already without putting her back on a full gluten diet for 2-3 months. I don't know why the doctor would want to test her after she has been off the foods that trouble her - that makes no sense to me at all.

As for celiac not running in families, in retrospect my sister (who tested negative but lost a third of her body weight before going gluten free) and I (with RA and psoriasis and what I though prior to quitting gluten was a corn intolerance) look back at our family and can see now that our dad, our brother and our other sister (who is in denial) were/are all celiacs. My sister's daughter is a tested celiac. So celiac often runs in family without their even being aware of it.

[GFinDC]

If you want to figure out if celiac runs it the family, it might help to look at this article on celiac.com. It lists some associated conditions that celiacs get more often than other people.

Celiac Disease Research: Associated Diseases and Disorders

The celiac antibody testing is useless if she if not eating gluten, as the body stops making the antibodies after a while. Oats are not ok for some celiacs. The protein in oats can cause reactions in 10 to 15% of celiacs.