Allergy Tests

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Permalink Reply by Ria on April 12, 2008 at 11:22am

Amy,

I know some people who, even though they have IBS or leaky gut or wheat intolerance, think it's harder to do what you are doing vs. suffer the symptoms.

So I have to give you props because you are up to the challenge and doing what's best for your body, even though it is a long and challenging process.

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Permalink Reply by Sue on April 12, 2008 at 4:24pm

Hi Amy. Good luck with the elimination diet. I give you a lot of credit. I've never had to do anything like that - I'm sure it's not easy.

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Permalink Reply by Sue on April 13, 2008 at 1:15pm

Hi Amy. My oldest daughter (3 1/2) is allergic to dairy and my youngest (2) has a soy intolerance. Both suffer from acid reflux disease. So I know how hard it is, just not from the first-hand perspective. Although I have developed lactose-intolerance because it's few and far between when I do have it anymore.

I feel your frustration on the diagnosing front. We have thought my oldest out grew her reflux from infancy when she was taken off the Zantac at 8 months. But at 18 months when she was diagnosed as failure to thrive - her new feeding therapist was the one who figured out that she STILL had reflux - it just "changed" to silent reflux where she didn't complain but she wouldn't eat anything. Very frustrating!

I just saw a nutritionist for my youngest (now in feeding therapy). It was over the phone since I am in NJ and she is in Maryland. But she is the one who said she has an intolerance to either soy or wheat since those two foods make up her diet (when she will eat). After 3+ weeks of some new supplements, a custom made vitamin and no soy, she is actually eating. Now we have to work at building up her diet and the next step is trying to get her off Prevacid.

Good luck - I'm glad the nutritionist figured things out for you. It's awful not feeling well and to live with that chronically is just awful and frustrating! What were your symptoms?

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Permalink Reply by Sue Jeffries on April 21, 2008 at 10:03pm

I also have been through the testing- have allergies all year long with the added asthma factor. I think I tested postive for almost every food. Not to mention trees, grasses, weeds, sagebrush, dust mites, cockroach, anaimals. I cannot walk down an aisle where they have lawn fertilizers or chemicals- that about kills me. Oh, and I am allergic to bees, so what do you think happened when a friend gave me bee pollen? Wasn't a fun experience nor an inexpensive one. Good luck with your plan. I need to do more of that.

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Permalink Reply by Lara Green on September 11, 2008 at 1:33pm

hello all,
Good for you for sticking it out, I had no idea those diets were so long! I had only heard of doing a rotation diet for 10 days to 2 weeks before.

Can you please give me more information about what it entails? My sister is quite sick right now, and I have had many GI issues myself. Thanks in advance.

live a clean life.......air purifier

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Permalink Reply by Janeen on April 13, 2008 at 1:30pm

Ria,
I have no experience with these tests or treatments other than what others tell me. I've had two people SWEAR to me that they have friends who have children that were anaphylactic to several things and these children were cured by the following: http://www.osteomed2.com/AllergyElimination.html. I have not looked into this nor have I done any research myself on it. Although the stories make it very tempting. Oh if only my child could be cured of his allergies. How wonderful that would be. But even if I took him to this place, would I give him wheat to challenge it? NO! I'd be too scared to try it.
Sometimes when I think about this I'm torn. What if I take him and try this and it works? What if I don't take him and it really would "cure" him? My head tells me that it doesn't work and that it is just another way of extracting money from desperate parents. But my "mother's heart" wants to believe. And according to my best friend "she works with a lady who's son was cured" and my cousin "has a friend who's son was cured" so it is tempting to believe.

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Permalink Reply by Lynn on May 2, 2008 at 8:57pm

I have had allergy testing by the skin prick test. It is not that bad, kinda itchy. I'm not allergic to any foods but grasses, weeds, trees, dust mites are my culprits! I think my allergist left something out when I got tested because right now something is causing me misery. I am thinking it may be Privet

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Permalink Reply by Dionnesupermom on May 29, 2009 at 11:19am

My oldest daughter saw an allergist which was great! He did skin testing on her for food and seasonal stuff. She came up allergic to soy and almonds as well as a lot of seasonal stuff. Then that allergist left the practice and the new one that came in did not believe in food allergies.

Something was going on with my other children and myself but he refused to test us for food and only tested us for the seasonal stuff. We were negative on that. I then suffered for 8 months with chronic diarrhea and my 2 other daughters had constant stomach pains and off and on vomiting. He still refused to see it as a food issue. I had one of my daughters go to a pediatric GI whom didn't recognize food allergies either and sent her through months of testing. The last tests were an upper endoscopy and a colonoscopy (on a 7 yr old!). The doctor that did that was concerned as her esophagus was inflammed and she had white spots from her throat to her rear end. He said it looks like a classic case of delayed food allergies to him! The allergist and the pediatric GI still refused her food testing.

Meanwhile I was going through the same testing and I was diagnosed with colitis and my GI put me on steroids, an anti-spasmadic med that has side effects that cause gas, pains,..... all the things I was trying to get rid of and another medication for heartburn. Supposedly the steroid was only suppose to stay in my GI tract according to the doc so there should be no side effects but within an hour of taking it, I had the worst migraine ever! I couldn't lift my legs, I was so weak and so sick to my stomach!

The next day I called a naturopathic doctor who got me in to see her 2 weeks later. Before seeing her though she wanted me to have an IgG food allergy test right away and then we could go over the results when I saw her. I also had to eliminate dairy and gluten as those 2 items are rough on the GI track for people with IBS, Colitis, Chron's. I started feeling a lot better by the 2nd week off dairy and gluten. My tests showed I was highly reactive to Yeast, Peanuts, Eggs, and Bananas. I had to eliminate all those things for a month and then challenge them. I did and felt amazing and was back to normal! I challenged each food (3 servings in one day) and waited 2 weeks before the next challenge. Sure enough I could not tolerate any of them and sometimes it took up to 5 days to see the outcome while others were by the next day. With keeping a food journal, I can also pick out the foods I react to especially if it's new.

With my amazing results, I brought my 2 other daughters with GI issues to have their IgG delayed food allergy testing done with the ND and sure enough they had issues too! Since they've been off the foods, they have not had any GI issues and their lives have greatly improved!

I am waiting to have my oldest daughter tested for delayed food allergies as she still has problems with rashes and itching but I have to wait until we are out of the seasonal allergy stage and she's clear of meds. She can not stop taking her singulair in the middle of the season. Her eye's swell shut and turn black and blue and her nose runs like a faucet until it bleeds.

Is living with food allergies/intolerances difficult? Heck yes but at the same time, my kids are now eating healthier than they ever have! Do I want them to be cured? That would be great but then that would allow them to be able to eat the processed crap food that probably put them where they are now. As for now we will just live our lives avoiding these foods. When they grow up it will be on their shoulders on how they want to deal with these issues.

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Permalink Reply by Janeen on May 29, 2009 at 1:34pm

Dionnesupermom,
What you are doing is the BEST way to find out about food allergies and deal with them right now. You know that something isn't right with your child and getting tested and finding out what is causing the problem and then removing from her diet is the only proven method of controlling food allergies that we have to date.

We just returned from our allergist and my son was retested in April for his food allergies. Unfortunately, all of his numbers (except peanut) went up this year including his seasonal allergies. We will continue to avoid all of that for now. I asked my doctor about all of these studies and trials, and "cures" that I keep reading about and he said that all he knows is that the only method that works at the moment is avoidance and the only true test to see if you are still allergic to something is a food challenge (we did one for milk for my son in Dec. and he passed, but the numbers on his recent RAST test actually increased and still show him as being allergic. He shows no signs of an allergy when he eats/drinks dairy products).

I'm glad that your daughter is getting tested for delayed food allergies. Now you'll know what you need to avoid and hopefully she will start feeling better.

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