S/O Have you had DCs tested for allergies?

[MMMommy]

Just curious if it is the norm to get tested. Do you have your DCs tested even if they have never exhibited any signs of being allergic or have never had a reaction to anything in particular?

[mommylamb]

We haven't done it. Neither of my DSs has exhibited any signs of allergy thankfully, and neither DH nor I has allergies. Even DS2 (just turned 1) has already had peanut butter, almond milk, eggs, dairy and shellfish, so I am breathing a sigh of relief.

[cuca_]

I voted yes, but DD has been tested only for environmental allergies, after exhibiting some symptoms. We haven't tested for food allegries, as DD has not had any reactions.

[lizzywednesday]

DD hasn't been tested for allergies, but she does exhibit signs of food sensitivities, mostly with food dyes (I can taste food dyes, so it's very rare that we have anything in the house with them) and milk (milk and sometimes ice cream will give me tummy troubles as well.) I wouldn't go so far as to describe her issues as "allergies" because I believe that denotes a bigger issue than DD has.

She's also inherited my seasonal allergies.

I'll admit that sometimes I wonder if I should have DD tested because I do have food, medication and contact allergies in my family - my brother Ger was allergic to milk as a child and his DS1 had milk & soy allergies as an infant; Ger still has seasonal, dust, mold and shellfish allergies; my brother Joe & my sister are allergic to penicillin-group antibiotics; and my paternal grandfather was allergic to latex & bananas.

[citymama]

DD1 - no, she's never exhibited signs of allergies
DD2 - yes, she's shown symptoms of an allergic reaction and was tested

Not sure why you would get a kid tested unless there was an indication they have allergies.

[brittone2]

We have not had allergy testing done for the kids. However, DH had a few episodes of hives, throat closing, etc. when he was in grad school. The only thing that we can remember both situations having in common was arugula. So his doc sent him for allergy testing, but of course, they didn't test for arugula ;) which made it kinda pointless. He does avoid arugula now as it just isn't worth a visit to the allergist for him, and that's the only common thread we can figure out between the two episodes of the hives/throat stuff. Oddly though, I think he's probably encountered arugula in salad mixes at other times; the times when he had his issues he had straight arugula from our CSA. His blood testing (did not have scratch testing) came back quite high for dairy and cats/dogs, but he seems to be asymptomatic to the dairy. He continues to consume dairy and doesn't say he's allergic to it, because well, he doesn't have any symptoms. His doc speculated that maybe he had a dairy allergy that he outgrew, but again, that was not an allergist interpretation of the #s, just a PCP attempting to interpret.

Interestingly DS1 was very sensitive to dairy through breastmilk when he was an infant; I never considered it an allergy, and he was better once it was reintroduced past his first bday. We did not know about DH's allergy test results at that time (testing for DH was a few years later).

[StantonHyde]

No real allergies here. Maybe some seasonal stuff but not enough to really interfere too much with life!

[Dream]

We tested DD1 as she was showing signs of food allergies since an infant. We didn't test DD2 as she's not showing any signs of allergies.

[georgiegirl]

No. Neither kid shows any signs of food allergies. Although it seems that DD has inherited my skin sensitivities (to sunscreen and various lotions). I also noticed the other night that she had a little rash around her mouth, and she had been eating mango. I'm allergic to the sap on mango skins (related to poison ivy), so I cannot touch mangos (but I can eat them.). I think DD must be the same way. I had a whole allergy work up (the skin contact test) when I discovered my mango skin allergy, and apparently I'm remarkable unallergic to the typical things like pets, grass, dust, pollen, etc.

[AnnieW625]

Neither of my kids have been tested.

DD1 had some flush pink cheeks a few times when she was about 1 and I fed her some scrambled eggs so I stopped feeding her them. She never had any reactions when I baked with eggs or she ate egg noodles or egg bread so I figured it was just something that went away.

DD2 has had the nastiest poop since she was born, and I believe it is due to some weird dairy sensitivity, it is controlled now with Lactaid, but it still stinks. She had horrible reflux with lots of spit up until she was 9 months old. I eliminated dairy from the time she was 4 days old until she was about a month old and it made no difference in the amount of spit up and the crankiness was easily controlled with Zantac daily (which she used from 3 weeks old until about 15 months old). She would spit up chunks of everything no matter what I ate (although I will admit I never tried a true Dr. Sears approved elimination diet....so some would say shame on me, I guess for not trying) and we must have tried every brand of formula out there except soy based or hypoallergenic, (AR, generic sensitive, generic and name brand regular, name brand sensitive), but we found that Similac Sensitive worked the best for her. Fast forward about a 18 months to last spring when DD2 ended up with Rotavirus and because the kid loves milk and wouldn't drink rice, soy, or almond milk (didn't try coconut, and she now drinks soy at daycare) I switched her to Lactaid, her poops finally went back to normal. People here thought I was crazy 2 yrs. prior when I suspected that my newborn had a lactose sensitivity, but deep down after that experience I seriously think I was on to something.

My mom has sensitivities to milk, and my sister is lactose intolerant as an adult now (she stopped drinking milk on a regular basis when she was 3) so I really think it is just a sensitivity and unless DD2's poop gets really green and laced with blood I don't plan on having her checked for an allergy. My mom has psorasis too, so it doesn't surprise that there is some weird dairy thing going on in our family since the "BBB wisdom" diagnosis these days seems like if your child has eczema they probably have some food related allergy and food allergies are always related to eczema. Eczema is related to psorasis.

Both of my kids are prone to eczema. DH has no allergies except since he moved out of his parents house in his mid 20s and started buying non Tide detergent (it is probably the only detergent my MIL has ever used) he can't use regular Tide anymore as it makes him itch like crazy. I haven't been able to use Tide either since my teens when I developed very sensitive skin due to taking Accutane.

[justlearning]

Not sure why you would get a kid tested unless there was an indication they have allergies.

DS1 has severe nut allergies. His allergist recommended that we get DS2 allergy tested prior to giving him any nuts, which we did. She also recommended that I avoid nuts during pregnancy and breastfeeding, which I did. Fortunately, DS2 is not allergic to nuts.

[edurnemk]

We had DS tested at 3 yo for respiratory allergies, after being dx'd with allergic rhinitis and chronic sinusitis. Never tested for food allergies.

[sophiesmom03]

We did because food allergies are very common in the cousins on one side of the family. We have:

2 with tree nut allergy
1 with peanut allergy
1 with shellfish allergy

All severe/anaphlactic levels. So that is 4 out of 9 kids. I had them tested when we moved to a state where nuts/peanuts are allowed in classrooms as long as there is not a declared allergy in that room.

[khalloc]

I had my son tested for allergies (just a simple skin test) when he was around 16 months old. It was at the request of his pediatrician. He was going thru a period of getting hives off and on and one of the times was while he was on amoxicillin. She was worried he was allergiv to that. So we went to an allergist. They did the skin test, said he wasnt really allergic to anything and that it was probably viral (the hives). she didnt think he was allergic to amoxicillin and said the doc should give him some amox at her office and wait there for 30 minutes but she didnt think he was.

I never had DD tested and never thought to either. I'd given both peanut butter at 1 year and they were fine.

[rin]

We did not, but our girls don't have any biological family members with significant allergy histories, just some more distant relatives with things like seasonal allergies. My SIL, who has a pretty scary laundry list of allergies, is not biologically related to our girls. We have not delayed any foods for either of them, except for honey, and DD2 (8 months) has already had peanut butter, egg whites/yolks, wheat, shrimp, cheese & yogurt, tofu, and salmon, all without any apparent reaction.

[hillview]

DS2 had some signs at age ~18 months of some food sensitivies. He would go red in the cheeks with some foods. NO other reactions. The red would go away in ~15 mins. I thought about getting him tested. We didn't. He has no allergies and out grew this reaction.

eta a key factor was NO family allergies

[IansMom]

I did not. I am severely allergic to shellfish, and kiwi and Brazil nut make my mouth itch. DH has no allergies. DS cannot eat bananas. I dont know if it is a "true" allergy or an sensitivity/irritant. They upset his stomach and make him vomit. (My sister's DS is the same.) DS isnt allergic to shellfish/fish, peanuts or any of the more seemingly common allergens.

[SnuggleBuggles]

No though we know ds1 is allergic to some environmental things.

[Seitvonzu]

we just got a blood test after DD had a dry/red patch after having some of whole foods honey roasted grind yourself peanut butter on apples.

we JUST were called yesterday with the confirmation that the blood test showed "NO ALLERGIES" -- the nurse on the phone went through a bunch of different stuff, but i was specifically curious about peanut butter, of course.

to celebrated we decided to eat the rest of that delicious peanut butter (we both LOVE it) on crackers. IMMEDIATELY DD had the same weird skin patch.

:(

we stopped eating it and she was fine (patch was gone). redness was gone very quickly, but her skin is still dry. could this be a skin thing like eczema? i did make sure that the peanut butter wasn't resting on her face, and wiped her face after (sometimes food that sticks makes her have a little skin irritation)-- she said she did have some on her face, but i'm not sure if that's just because she's DESPERATE to not be allergic to peanut butter. DH gave her peanuts before we knew the results (yeah....separate BP) and she didn't react at all. i'm pretty baffled.

[cilantromapuche]

if there were an other that would be us. DS had terrible sinus infections and some environmental allergies. One winter he was on an antibiotic for a sinus infection for three months before they realized that he wasn't getting better and that he wasn't allergic to anything in the environment at that moment. Then they did scans and food testing. It turns out that he was very allergic to eggs, chicken, dairy, soy and lots of other things. He wasn't having sinus infections but these food allergies were causing his nasal tissues to swell.
I recently had DD tested just because and sure enough she is also very allergic to eggs.

[MontrealMum]

Yes, because he was exhibiting symptoms and there's a significant history of serious allergies on both sides of the family. We were told that there was a high likelihood that being allergic would be passed on, though the idea that he'd have the exact same allergies (such as FIL's anaphylaxis to nuts) was very low. By the time we were able to be seen he tested negative. The doc suggested that he may have grown out of it. Although DS seems to have mild seasonal allergies, he has never exhibited more than a sensitivity to other foods since then.

[MamaMolly]

You didn't allow for multiple votes. Lula was tested after reacting, Dolly has never been tested.

[Gena]

DS was tested for milk and soy allergies when he was an infant as part of his asthma work-up. The test were negative.

[MamaMolly]

we just got a blood test after DD had a dry/red patch after having some of whole foods honey roasted grind yourself peanut butter on apples.

we JUST were called yesterday with the confirmation that the blood test showed "NO ALLERGIES" -- the nurse on the phone went through a bunch of different stuff, but i was specifically curious about peanut butter, of course.

to celebrated we decided to eat the rest of that delicious peanut butter (we both LOVE it) on crackers. IMMEDIATELY DD had the same weird skin patch.

:(

we stopped eating it and she was fine (patch was gone). redness was gone very quickly, but her skin is still dry. could this be a skin thing like eczema? i did make sure that the peanut butter wasn't resting on her face, and wiped her face after (sometimes food that sticks makes her have a little skin irritation)-- she said she did have some on her face, but i'm not sure if that's just because she's DESPERATE to not be allergic to peanut butter. DH gave her peanuts before we knew the results (yeah....separate BP) and she didn't react at all. i'm pretty baffled.

there is the saying in Food Allergy circles that 'Reactions Trump Results' because there are so many false positives AND false negatives in testing. IIWY I'd want to do some more investigating. It could possibly be a reaction to something in the 'honey roasting' of the peanuts.

[Seitvonzu]

mamamolly-- that's what i thought too- the honey roasted part. we are going to see what happens with normal peanut butter and go from there. boo :(