Food allergy/intolerance-where to get tested

charlie2505

Hi everyone. Hope you can help. I am beginning to suspect that both my 23 month old and 6 month old may be suffering from a food allergy and/or intolerance.
My GP has been a bit dismissive of the idea but I wanted to find out if any of you had a young child or baby tested and if so how and where?
Does you GP have to refer them for testing? If so, to what dept in the hospital-a dietician?
My daughter who will be 2 next month began suffering from eczema from about 8wks old. She had it pretty much all over her trunk and tops of her arms as well as around her mouth-though I had put the rash around her mouth down to teething at the baby stage. She has not outgrown the rash around her mouth so am starting to wonder is it some kind of allergic reaction to something she is eating-we use non-bio sensitive washing powder, no fabric conditioner, no soap in the bath, moisturise with aveeno and using steroid ointment when flare ups are very bad-flare ups have reduced since she turned 1 but around her mouth is still pretty bad-worst spot on her overall. She was considered a very cranky baby by everyone else-for first 6-7 months she cried constantly-I always thought there must be something causing this but got no help apart from "its colic". From about 6=7 months old she calmed down alot and slept very well. In fact she slept all the time night and day. I was told she would outgrow this one she was one. WHen she still hadnt by age 18 months-still 2 naps a day-and we'd have to wake her for her breakfast and after each nap (she'd easily sleep 2-3 hrs at a time if we let her) and still go to bed for 8pm, I brought her back to GP again saying I didnt think it was right-and was told she was fine. She is now also suffering from chronic constipation and keeps telling me her belly hurts and sweetcorn, owie etc.Also, my 6 month old has now started a fairly bad rash around his mouth-he is teething and that may be all it is but it seems to be the same pattern. He has reflux and is in bits with it-medications, keeping upright, different formula, solid feedings etc-none if it seems to help alot and I am now wondering if his reflux is caused by a food allergy also as everyone saying he would be much better by now-almost 7 months and on 3 solid feeds a day for a long time-advised early weaning due to the reflux.
Thought and opinions welcome on my kids possible symptoms as well as advice on the actual testing-what do they do, a blood test or something? DO I need referral to a dietician for them or what happens? Can I do it privately if GP wont help? Thanks everyone

Ayla

If you're willing to go "alternative" for a testing method I'd highly recommend a food intolerance test through kinesiology. Through this test we found a massive food intolerance with our "constantly cranky" 11 month old that the GP kept dismissing as just a "needy baby." If you want further details feel free to PM me.

UDP

Op, I also have some magic spells that worked for my child.

Have you tried avoiding certain foods? Also you could try a different gp for a second opinion.

charlie2505

Not sure about the alternative route-not saying it doesnt work but even if all of that is debatable-I have just googled it and no one in or around my area doing it anyways-back arse of beyond basically! I get what you are saying about the "cranky" baby thing-she is such a good lassie now and has been for a while-never cries for no reason so when she does get upset now I know it must be bad IYKWIM?
I just wondered could you go to a dietician or whoever does these tests privately? Like a walk in clinic or something?
As for changing GP-again back arse of beyond and so I am stuck with my GP-however she is pretty good in most other respects and I havent really pushed this yet-as I only started to consider an allergy/intolerance in past few days really and they were very busy yesterday when I was there....so will ask again before I give up that route.
As for diet elimination-if it were me, of course that is what I would do but I wouldnt want to do it with my 23 month old without some medical back up and advice-as it is she eats very little so would also be incredibly difficult to do-so would prefer if possible a blood test or something along those lines that may give an immediate result-if that can be done of course.
Same obviously goes for 6 month old-he is eating solids now-the rash started once we went on 3 meals a day and started to use milk in his cereal instead of formula. So we couldnt eliminate milk or milk products at the moment-but we could try eliminating other foods as not eating a lot of different foods just yet-just veg and chicken/fish.

liliq

Charlie- might you consider a safe version of the food elimination? Just foods that there are commonly allergies to?
Maybe with the milk products switch to soy milk and yogurts etc for a week? So you would not be cutting out foods, just switching them for an alternative.

Sorry I've no better advice, hope you get sorted soon

guppy

I know you're saying that you have limited gp choices, but surely you have some other choice? Any gp who dismisses such obvious food/environmental allergies/intolerances so out of hand is really out of touch.

I've had food allergies (peanut, tree nuts) all my life (I'm 33), and while it was very unusual when I was a kid, my gp still organised tests to be done (skin prick tests).

Please be firm with your gp and insist on tests, even if you have to plead insane parent to get them. Your kids will be so much healthier, and happier, when you can eliminate the allergen from their diet!

UDP

charlie2505 wrote: »

So we couldnt eliminate milk or milk products at the moment-but we could try eliminating other foods as not eating a lot of different foods just yet-just veg and chicken/fish.

It is very possible to eliminate milk using soya milk etc instead. Eliminating Dairy products for a month or two might be a good start. Of course just to keep in mind that there might be many other variables at play so keep an eye out for other environmental changes so that you dont end up attributing a change to the wrong thing.

Ayla

UDP wrote: »

Op, I also have some magic spells that worked for my child.

That's just flat out rude.

OP - there is *something* that's irritating your children; what you describe is not natural. As a parent it's your responsibility to get down to figure it out, so whatever method you go (blood test, food elimination, etc) you have to be persistant. As for googling for kines practioners, it's not always as easy as that. We only found ours through a recommendation by our chiropractor, and they both work in the same town I do.

UDP

Ayla wrote: »

That's just flat out rude.

How is that rude? My magic spells do also work I know for a fact they do from my own anecdotal evidence.

Ayla wrote: »

We only found ours through a recommendation by our chiropractor

Brilliant! :pac:

OP, it might be worth visiting a dermatologist too as they might be able to work out more from the rash or take a sample. You can ask your GP for a referral.

UDP

UDP wrote: »

It is very possible to eliminate milk using soya milk etc instead. Eliminating Dairy products for a month or two might be a good start. Of course just to keep in mind that there might be many other variables at play so keep an eye out for other environmental changes so that you dont end up attributing a change to the wrong thing.

Oh, I forgot to say also eliminate gluten. Elimination is the only way to properly find allergies. There are no tests out there that are accurate. Definitely stay away from craziologists though!

cbyrd

My advice would be to find a GP who will listen to you. I absolutely hate doctors that think us mere mortals know nothing. Referal doesn't take that long but the testing can be pretty drawn out.. i know from experience

charlie2505

Thanks everyone. With getting 2nd opinion from another GP, my family (unfortunately) are now medical card holders so changing GP's just isnt an option and I doubt everyone is 100% happy with their GP but on the whole mine is pretty good.
Was at the surgery today as my DS due vaccinations and I brought it up again. She says she will discuss it with me and possibly refer to Crumlin to someone who tests for allergies but massive waiting list, but at least I got somewhere and will talk to her properly next week to find out my options. I also discussed it with my PHN whilst there and she agreed would be good to get them both tested and suggested paed dietician-so will ask GP about that too.
As for elimination diets, I just wouldn't feel comfortable starting one without some proper advice due to the ages of my kids. My DS is on a specialist milk and medication for his reflux so would not want to do anything that could aggravate his condition-he has just been weaned off infant gaviscon and onto this milk over a period of time so would need advice from his consultant about changing to a soy based formula-also read that just as much chance you are allergic to soya as cows milk-so...not sure what other options that leaves me with for my 6 month old.
My almost 2 year old, I guess it would be possible to try some sort of elimination diet with her. Just with her having terrible constipation pain she is barely eating-eat very little before tummy was getting upset so wouldnt be able to do that right now but think about it once she improves.
Does soya milk taste different or much different to cows milk? Even thinking of just trying this with them both for a few weeks to see if any difference. Can replace DD's 2 cups of milk a day with soya and DS's milk on cereal and in cooking with soya. What is best brand to try?
I do really feel that something else is at play and when you put all their different symptoms together, it does point or suggest a possible allergy or intolerance to something. Can you get a skin prick test done privately? I wonder would they do young babies/toddlers?

Gyalist

Insist on a referral. Most doctors aren't trained to recognise/deal with allergies.

Trust me, I've been there. Eventually found out that my son had, among other allergies, a severe nut allergy. This may not be the case with your children but at least it would put your mind to rest.

Read this post that I made a few years ago about my experiences.


Edit: my son had his first skin prick test done before he was 6 months old, and you can have it done privately. I would recommend my son's allergist very highly. PM me if you need to know who it is.

guppy

Get on the list asap! I understand how long things are when you're going public, so waste no time!

As for soya milk, personally, I find it rank. My aunt is dairy free and uses rice milk which is quite sweet and more palatable (and also available in most tesco cooler areas).

You do need to remember all the other things that are dairy based that have to be eliminated though, like butter, chocolate, yoghourts etc. I know it sounds obvious, but people who dont understand can be rather oblivious - as I said, I've a peanut allergy, but people to this day still can't understand why I can't eat peanut butter.....

Best of luck with it all.

UDP

Gyalist wrote: »

Trust me, I've been there. Eventually found out that my son had, among other allergies, a severe nut allergy. This may not be the case with your children but at least it would put your mind to rest.

Are you actually sure your son has a nut allergy? The only reason I say it is that allergy tests are notoriously unreliable - probably only 50% reliable but nobody knows for sure since the only accurate allergy test is Double-blind placebo-controlled food challenge which is effectively like elimination.

OP, just keep this in mind - what will effectively happen is that you will get an allergy test done and it will come back with x, y, z which will result in you effectively avoiding many of the common food groups that people seem to show allergies to e.g. gluten and dairy but this will result in no difference a process than elmination except with elimination you will go back on foods when to see if the issues return so that you at least know for sure. Just keep this in mind as there is no point your child going through life thinking they are definately allergic to something when there is a good chance that they are actually not but doing an allergy test might be a good way to get a list to start elimination with.

Orion

UDP: You may not agree with Kinesiology and that's fine. But your language needs to be toned down. Your comments re: magic, craziologists etc are not helpful and borderline abusive. Feel free to disagree but be civil about it in future.

hots

Just with regards to testing; I wouldn't place all your eggs in this basket as I (and seemingly many others) have found them to be pretty unreliable. I had the blood test variety (not skin scratch) done having had some minor reactions to some nuts and two severe reactions to goat's cheese (a weird one I know). I eventually got the test after months of waiting and the results were hardly clear.

In all of the categories tested, around 8 I think, I came back as mildly allergic to each of them. This included nuts which I was expected but it also included milk, cats and dogs, which I have grown up with all my life and never had a problem with...

The only way I have managed to narrow mine down is exposure whilst being monitored for reaction.

Gyalist

UDP wrote: »

Are you actually sure your son has a nut allergy? The only reason I say it is that allergy tests are notoriously unreliable - probably only 50% reliable but nobody knows for sure since the only accurate allergy test is Double-blind placebo-controlled food challenge which is effectively like elimination.

I'm absolutely positive that his allergies are real. Despite our best efforts, he once had to be hospitalised with anaphylactic shock after eating a chocolate with hazel nuts at a friend's birthday party. It's easy to be sceptical about allergies until you are faced with the reality of of seeing someone in anaphylactic shock. When the ambulance got him to Crumlin they already had the IVs and oxygen set up and he was seen without having to go through registration and triage - that's how seriously they take it.

Last year his immunologist invited him to take part in a study being run by Cambridge University & Addenbrookes' Hospital in the UK & Ireland aimed at desensitising the subjects to the peanut allergen. He had to have extensive tests before being signed up and it was found that his allergy to tree nuts had lessened but his peanut allergy had slightly increased since the tests we had done the year before. He couldn't participate in the study as the risk to his immune system would have been too great at the time.

There is a growing and serious problem with allergies but it is often clouded by the much larger amount of people who claim spurious allergies (especially to food) without having been medically tested.

miss no stars

Gyalist wrote: »

There is a growing and serious problem with allergies but it is often clouded by the much larger amount of people who claim spurious allergies (especially to food) without having been medically tested.

yeah, overall I agree with you on that, but I would add to that statement. On the points mostly of access to medical testing, and lack of understanding of what constitutes an allergy and what constitutes an intolerance.

On the point of access to testing, I think a lot of people are claming allergies because there's something wrong with them and they can't get tested (see OP for how seriously doctor's take patients saying they think they might be allergic/intolerant to a food :rolleyes: even in the serious case of 2 infants!) and eliminating a food group seems to lessen their distress.
As an example, I've a suspected allergy to coffee/caffiene and I've been waiting (I kid you not) two full years to see an immunologist. In the mean time the advice was "Oh well take it you're allergic and just avoid". Which sucked - final year on virtually no caffiene was torture. It wasn't even a very mild reaction - my face and neck swelled up, but not to the point of cutting off breathing. But that's about how urgently cases of suspected food allergy are dealt with in the public health system - ah sure just avoid it like and we'll get around to doing a test whenever it suits.

My (non-professional) view would be that if you eliminate a food group and suddenly stop reacting, then reintroduce it and start to react again, repeat and get the same results again, there's a fair chance there's an allergy or intolerance to be found! (Above and beyond psychosomatic reduction because people expect to experience a reduction)

I'm also lactose intolerant. Not dx-ed by any test other than avoidance - but both my GP and a specialist missed it. I then read up on it, realised the symptoms fitted perfectly and cut out dairy products. No symptoms appeared. Tested with a nice bit of creamed potatoes - sick as dog and in awful pain. Cut out food - symptoms go, reintroduce the food - symptoms return. Went back to my GP and the conversation went like this:

"So, you cut it out and stopped being sick?"
"Yeah"
"Reintroduced it and were sick again?"
"Yeah"
"You're lactose intolerant"

Another thing I find with people claiming spurious allergies is that people don't understand the difference between intolerance and allergy. I am fairly badly lactose intolerant. Can't eat pringles sour cream and onion (or those onion ring crisps) as there's too much lactose in them. Yet I can eat cheddar cheese as there's virtually no lactose in it (lactose is water soluable, the curd is the fat part of milk and so contains very very little lactose) and people always say "I thought you said you're allergic to milk??" and I'm like "Em. Lactose intolerant. Not allergic to milk..." but sometimes when someone's going to be cooking for you it's easier to just say "Allergic to all milk products". I'm not, but it sure makes life easier as other people then understand not to secretly lace my food with cream. Which has happened!

An intolerance is not an immune based reaction - it's simply an inability to properly digest a food. It's generally not life threatening, unless the symptoms get out of hand and a small child could be put in danger of severe dehydration/malnutrition.

An allergy is an immune reaction that can, at worst, kill someone rapidly.

OP, I would caution you about elimination of milk products without medical supervision. Please don't do it. Adults can pretty well remove dairy from their diet with no nutiritional disadvantage - sure we weren't made to have milk in our diet beyond weaning anway - but your kids are still growing. Push for an appointment with an immunologist.

The real danger with eliminating milk is I'd expect to see some positive results from reducing milk intake regardless of whether a diagnosable intolerance/allergy exists. Milk is a fairly difficult product to digest! (Same would also go for reducing intake of other difficult to digest foods) If there's already some sort of allergy or intolerance going on, reducing intake of a difficult to digest food is probably going to lessen the burden on the body, which might lessen the reaction to whatever the real trigger is and may lead to eliminating an important part of a child's diet for no good reason.

Please, don't see an alternative therapist. They're not doctors, their methods aren't scientifically proven through peer review and they're not qualified to do anything other than to refer you to a doctor. A lot of their "proof" of their method is in subjective improvement reported by patients. There's a lot of backlash against mainstream medicine and big-pharma, and some of it is deserved, especially the reaction to some of the practices of the pharmaceutical industry. But that doesn't take away from the fact that conventional medicine is what science has proven to be the treatment method that works best time, after time, after time. If alternative medicine was proven to work it'd cease to be alternative - it'd become conventional!

Sorry for the rant!

UDP

Gyalist wrote: »

I'm absolutely positive that his allergies are real. Despite our best efforts, he once had to be hospitalised with anaphylactic shock after eating a chocolate with hazel nuts at a friend's birthday party. It's easy to be sceptical about allergies until you are faced with the reality of of seeing someone in anaphylactic shock. When the ambulance got him to Crumlin they already had the IVs and oxygen set up and he was seen without having to go through registration and triage - that's how seriously they take it.

Im not skeptical about allergies which you can see from my previous posts in this thread so not sure where you are getting that from. I was just making the accurate point that most allergy tests are not very reliable at the moment. The only really reliable allergy test is the Double-blind placebo-controlled food challenge but others can be used together to try and get an overall possible picture since the aforementioned test is time consuming to perform.

Gyalist wrote: »

Last year his immunologist invited him to take part in a study being run by Cambridge University & Addenbrookes' Hospital in the UK & Ireland aimed at desensitising the subjects to the peanut allergen. He had to have extensive tests before being signed up and it was found that his allergy to tree nuts had lessened but his peanut allergy had slightly increased since the tests we had done the year before. He couldn't participate in the study as the risk to his immune system would have been too great at the time.

There is a growing and serious problem with allergies but it is often clouded by the much larger amount of people who claim spurious allergies (especially to food) without having been medically tested.

Yes, I agree with this there is too much allergy/intolerance rubbish out there with no basis in medical science e.g. Kinesology, Hair testing etc that distracts people from better, more accurate forms of testing (of which there are not many).

What pre-study tests did Cambridge University et al do on your son?

UDP

miss no stars wrote: »

I'm also lactose intolerant. Not dx-ed by any test other than avoidance - but both my GP and a specialist missed it. I then read up on it, realised the symptoms fitted perfectly and cut out dairy products. No symptoms appeared. Tested with a nice bit of creamed potatoes - sick as dog and in awful pain. Cut out food - symptoms go, reintroduce the food - symptoms return. Went back to my GP and the conversation went like this:

"So, you cut it out and stopped being sick?"
"Yeah"
"Reintroduced it and were sick again?"
"Yeah"
"You're lactose intolerant"

Did you get the hydrogen test performed to confirm? (although your evidence appears very straight forward)

miss no stars wrote: »

OP, I would caution you about elimination of milk products without medical supervision. Please don't do it. Adults can pretty well remove dairy from their diet with no nutiritional disadvantage - sure we weren't made to have milk in our diet beyond weaning anway - but your kids are still growing. Push for an appointment with an immunologist.

I would agree with this as it would ideal to do elimination with a dietitian involved (along with other healthcare professionals)

miss no stars wrote: »

Please, don't see an alternative therapist. They're not doctors, their methods aren't scientifically proven through peer review and they're not qualified to do anything other than to refer you to a doctor. A lot of their "proof" of their method is in subjective improvement reported by patients. There's a lot of backlash against mainstream medicine and big-pharma, and some of it is deserved, especially the reaction to some of the practices of the pharmaceutical industry. But that doesn't take away from the fact that conventional medicine is what science has proven to be the treatment method that works best time, after time, after time. If alternative medicine was proven to work it'd cease to be alternative - it'd become conventional!

Couldn't agree more. Especially with the last sentence.

miss no stars

UDP wrote: »

Did you get the hydrogen test performed to confirm? (although your evidence appears very straight forward)

No, I asked the GP about it and he seemed to think there was no point. He basically said he was convinced that it's lactose intolerance but if I really needed convincing I could have the test. Didn't really need convincing!

I would point out that by that point I'd spent a few years going to different specialists and loads of tests for coeliac disease and gluten intolerance had been done and all came back negative. Pretty much everything else had already been ruled out at that stage (which makes me wonder why NOBODY thought to test for lactose intolerance ).

Sometimes I convince myself that I've been having myself on, I'm not lactose intolerant, there's nothing wrong with me and so I proceed to go eat a trifle or something stupid. I end up sick and go "oh yea.. maybe I wasn't imagining it". Which is another reason why testing should be done by a doctor, so that everyone involved is thoroughly convinced and doesn't make themselves rather ill through stupidity!

I saw a pharmacy in dundrum SC with a notice that they do allergy and intolerance tests, maybe that's somewhere to try if GP is dismissive

daheff

OP

feel free to PM me if you want a recommendation for an allergy testing clinic in dublin city centre.

Smashling1980

This test is very easy to have done. My DD is coming up on four months and was diagnosed yesterday as Lactose Intolerant. She has been badly congested from about 1 week old, spitting up most of her bottles, refusing feeds, screaming for what appears to be no obvious reason, crying in her sleep, very gassy, in frequent bowel movements, the list goes on. My PHN mentioned to me in November that she might be LI but my GP dismissed it. She was then sent to A&E for a chest XRAY by the GP to investigate the congestion and was diagnosed as having reflux and out on Gaviscon Infant. Still no improvement. So my PHN wrote a strongly worded letter to my GP last Wednesday. The GP filled in a form and as soon as DD had her next bowel movement, which was Thursday, I had to rush to the hospital with the filled in form and the sample to have it tested. Results came back yesterday morning and DD is now on Nutramigen. She seems a little better already.

The test is no trouble to have done, it costs nothing so keep pushing for it and don't listen to your GP, demand that he/she fill in the form, what skin is it off their nose? None and at least you will be able to rule LI out or have a solution if the results comes back positive. Good Luck.