Allergy Chat

[somethingcleverer]

This board seems pretty slow but does anyone want to join in an open thread to vent or share allergy related successes. Just kind of share the daily life of dealing with food allergies? 

[somethingcleverer]

I'll start! I'm really hoping my son grows out if his wheat allergy this year! He has had some accidental exposures with very little reaction so I'm hoping that is a good sign. Unfortunately I get my hopes up every year but they are always dashed. This year I have more reason to believe he may outgrow it but I'm trying not to get too excited.

[melw629]

somethingcleverer does the allergist re-test every year? Is that how you know whether he's outgrown it? I'm brand new to all this, so I'm curious as to how that works (other than trial and error, which doesn't seem like fun).

I'm trying to figure out what my son is allergic to other than food. Removing allergens from my diet while breastfeeding has helped a lot with his eczema, but I still feel like there's more going on with his flare ups. He's always irritated around his mouth, and I noticed he had a breakout on his face/chin after MIL held him (she wears a lot of perfume). I need to start writing this stuff down to figure out a pattern.

[somethingcleverer]

melw629 the allergist retests every year. I'm not sure which test she uses but she draws blood and based on the numbers will decide if we can try a food challenge or keep avoiding the food.

Has your allergist tested for any environmental allergies? Do you do a daily antihistamine like Zyrtec?

[melw629]

Not yet. He's 7.5 months old, and our first visit to the allergist was a little over a month ago, so I don't know if he's too young? We go back when he turns one, and I'm going to ask about environmental allergies then. So far I just do hydrocortisone cream on his eczema when it gets bad. The allergist briefly mentioned antihistamines for the itching, but didn't go into detail. Ugh, now I'm wishing I asked more questions.

[somethingcleverer]

May 14, 2015 11:07:49 GMT -5 melw629 said:

Not yet. He's 7.5 months old, and our first visit to the allergist was a little over a month ago, so I don't know if he's too young? We go back when he turns one, and I'm going to ask about environmental allergies then. So far I just do hydrocortisone cream on his eczema when it gets bad. The allergist briefly mentioned antihistamines for the itching, but didn't go into detail. Ugh, now I'm wishing I asked more questions.

My son took 2.5 ml of Zyrtec at that age but I would call the dr and ask. It seems like most allergists offices are pretty friendly.

[macchiatto]

My boys have their allergist visit next month. I'm eager for a re-test to see if anything has changed!

[somethingcleverer]

Good luck macchiatto, we go in July and I'm already getting excited!

[macchiatto]

Thanks, somethingcleverer!

The appt was this morning. We ended up doing skin tests for both boys but not blood tests. Even at 6, they both freaked out SO MUCH about the skin tests.

So Leo's walnut and cashew reactions were still very positive. All the environmental stuff was negative, which surprised us considering how symptomatic he was during spring allergy season.

Oliver had a bunch of new positives. He's now allergic to 3 types of mold plus some tree pollens and weed pollens. The good news is (re his asthma), his lung function was great and since we haven't had to use his rescue inhaler since fall and he's been doing well off of the Singulair, the allergist thought we could try taking him off the Qvar so he won't be on anything preventive anymore! We'll just hold on to his xopenex/albuterol to use as needed.

[somethingcleverer]

That's great macchiatto. Getting rid of the Qvar is exciting. It's funny our allergist really doesn't test for environmental allergies but they usually don't bother us too much so I guess there isn't any point to extra testing. Shane hates needles, he gets completely hysterical when he has to do the blood draw so I couldn't imagine how bad skin tests would be! You have some brave boys!

[macchiatto]

Jun 10, 2015 19:52:11 GMT -5 somethingcleverer said:

That's great macchiatto. Getting rid of the Qvar is exciting. It's funny our allergist really doesn't test for environmental allergies but they usually don't bother us too much so I guess there isn't any point to extra testing. Shane hates needles, he gets completely hysterical when he has to do the blood draw so I couldn't imagine how bad skin tests would be! You have some brave boys!

Thanks!
He left it up to us but since both boys struggle a good bit in spring and fall I wanted to see if we could find out what their triggers are. I'm really glad we did b/c the only environmental thing Oliver had tested positive for previously was alternary (?) mold. It's good to be aware of all these other things that might trigger him and know when to keep the inhaler handy (e.g. if we go hiking in the woods ... before we wouldn't have thought we needed it since he's rarely had an asthma attack out and about like that).