Allergist ?

[bossley]

My doctor scheduled me to see an allergist. Is this good or bad. What should I ask him? What should he check for? Gluten?

[GottaSki]

It is not a bad thing. I think it is wise to rule out possible allergies.

IMO you should discuss any reactions to food that you have encountered and you should request food allergy testing be completed.

Since a gluten allergy is different from the immune response in Celiac Disease I would certainly add gluten and wheat to the list of foods being tested for.

It is important to understand that foods that you are intolerant of are not always allergies. I am intolerant of many foods with quite severe reactions, but have had no positive allergy blood or scratch tests for food. It was some comfort to know that I was not allergic to my problem foods - it leaves hope that I will be able to consume them once my digestive system has healed.

[mushroom]

I did test positive in a scratch test 20 years ago to soy and corn; I guess I didn't really believe in that stuff then. They do give me hives and rashes now. Don't think they tested me for any nightshades

[Juliebove]

Hard to say if it is good or bad with so little information. What the allergist might do is have you bring in a list of the foods that you typically eat. Or they might not. I have found that allergists tend not to check for food allergies and only focus on the inhalents unless you tell them otherwise. For my daughter and for me, we have food intolorances and the allergist was of no help there.

[Roda]

We found the allergist very helpful for our oldest son. He kept chronic sinus infections and I strongly suspected allergies to be at the root of the problem. He had skin testing and tested positive for dust mites, cockroaches, and a whole slew of fall weeds. He was also tested for the most common allergenic foods and was negative on those. He started on allergy shots and we saw about 80% improvement in his symptoms in the first year. A few years later he started having the same symptoms he had before his allergies were diagnosed. I mentioned it to his allergist that I thought he may have developed new allergies. I was assured that it was a combination of his shots combined with it being "peak" season for his allergies. I decided to change allergists(due to insurance issues) and had him retested. He indeed had developed several new allergies and a couple of the original ones had gone away. Onto new allergy shots. His current allergist did test him for food allergies again and repeated his celiac panel. All were negative. He also said if you are intolerant to a food, no allergy test was going to show that. He advised if I thought he had any food intolerances that an elimination diet was the best diagnostic tool.

So for us an allergist was very helpful in identifying my son's environmental allergies and he has had very good results with allery shots. He also encouraged us to put him gluten free since his brother and I are diagnosed celiac. He did go on to have a scope/biopsy which was negative also. He did a three month trial of gluten free and the results were great. (he had daily stomach aches, bloating, gas, nausea and was falling on the growth cuve)

He has always tested negative on his celiac bloodwork and then biopsy. He does react to gluten none the less and we consider him non celiac gluten intolerent.