Allergy Testing

Whew, busy week!  Ultrasound on Monday, dental cleanings on Tuesday for 3 kids (but I had to bring them all to the dentist), I worked on Wednesday, and then today I had allergy testing for Sarah and Miriam.

Sarah is rather a difficult child to feed.  She still doesn't self feed very well, and I thought maybe she had some hidden allergy that was making her break out on occasion. I knew she was allergic to milk and eggs, and wondered about wheat.

Miriam has seriously bad eczema and we wondered if food allergies were a contributing factor.

So I took both of them to an allergist today.  The results were very interesting.  Sarah is allergic to milk (significantly allergic), chocolate (probably because it has milk in it), and showed a mild reaction to peanuts.  Interestingly, egg didn't show up strongly or maybe at all.  The allergist said it might be very mild or she might be outgrowing it.  He said not feed her any dairy or straight eggs, but that he thought she'd be fine with eggs in baked goods.  Also, she did not react to wheat.

Miriam, oh, poor dear Miriam.  She reacted to a host of airborne allergies: dust mites, grasses, and ragweed.  That explains why her eczema flares in spring and late summer and fall.  She reacted to walnuts and shellfish, but NOT to cow's milk.

The allergist recommended blood testing (instead of just today's skin testing) for Miriam to nail down the nut issue more clearly.  She does not have a peanut allergy (thankfully) but did react to walnuts.  We've seen her react to pecans. And shellfish -- what's with that?  We don't have shellfish often so that's easy to avoid.  Since both tree nuts and shellfish can result in dramatic allergic reactions, I need to get a new Epipen for her and Sarah.  Sarah, of course, might have trouble with peanuts at some point.  For now, we're keeping her off peanuts.

So it was a very useful trip and I'm glad we went, and very thankful we have access to doctors and dentists.  But wow, I'm glad this week's trips to various medical people is over.  Tomorrow, I hope we can stay home and rest :-).