Every year shortly after Ela's birthday we test in the hopes that she can experience the joys for Nutella or Almonds one day. Or more, so Mom does not have to attend birthday parties on high alert and lug around the EpiPen all the time. This year we decided to switch allergists to one that was local and part of the Mount Sinai hospital group. This medical group is known as being one of the top for allergy research in NYC. Our new doctor recommended blood testing to get a bigger picture of her allergens. Ill spare the horrific details of getting blood drawn from a three year old but I am sure you can imagine the worst. The skin testing was not as bad thanks to the Ipad.
The first visit we tested her for seasonal allergies,dog and a few others via a skin test and then the food allergies via a blood test.
As you can see she reacted to a few such as dogs, and believe it or not cockroaches.( Thats a big problem living in NYC) She tested negative for seasonal allergies.
Onto the food.
Prior to the testing she was allergic to Sesame, Tree nuts with the exception of pistachio and hazelnut, as well as peanuts. Take a look at the blood test results for yourself
I was literally jumping around when I read the email from our doctor! This was great news. As soon as I could, I brought Ela in for skin testing. If all was negative we would feed her the foods she has never eaten under doctor supervision. The morning of the test, I told Ela that she might eat nuts today. She responded " Mommy, I can not eat nuts remember? They make me very sick." This was one obstacle I did not think about. What a smart little (nut less) cookie!
The top right is the control allergen that helps determine the level of sensitivity. You can barely see any of the others. Looks great right? Yes and No. There are small welts for Peanut, Pecan and Walnut but everything else was NEGATIVE!! I was very happy and we were heading in the right direction. Discussing with the doctor she said that most likely she would have no reaction to these foods as they were more likely a sensitivity. If she did have a reaction they would be hives, which is much better to the alternative of anaphlatixis. Additionally Sesame on the blood test was a 2 out of 6, which mean two things. 1) she was growing out of the Sesame allergy 2) If she did accidentally ingest it would not be as severe as last time. We ended up not doing the food challenge because I had another appointment and needed to be able to devote 3 hours; We will return shortly.
All in all we are heading in the right direction. There is so much conflicting information about food allergies out there as it is relatively new. I have received at least five different answers on eating allergenic foods while breastfeeding Julia, especially with our now known history of allergies. There are two schools of thought; 1)introduce to build the immunity now or 2) avoid to reduce the chance of allergies. For other moms with children of food allergies, I personally take the first school of thought. I have been eating them in the hopes that Julia will not have allergies. I also practiced this with Ela. I would feed her foods that were labeled "May contain peanuts or Made in a factory with peanuts" with the thoughts that the smallest interaction would slowly help outgrow the allergy. I can not say that's what has helped but there is nothing else to do but hope.
I hope that we are in the percentage of kids that outgrow the allergies. The younger the children when developing, the greater the chance of outgrowing! Until next years visit...
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