Allergy Testing

**banana** · 01-26-2007, 01:21 PM

My 9 year old has asthma since he around 9 months old. When we lived in the mountains we made many many trips to the ER usually once a month . He also was on various medications to help keep his airway open. We tried allergy testing when he was 3 or 4 and everything came back negative. Fast forward. We moved 5 years ago, my son is now 9 and I think he is much much better. We havent made one ER visit since we moved. If he does have an asthma episode it usually happens when he gets a chest cold and it is very short lived (usually 3-5 days at most). Sometimes he is doing sooo good that I will ask his dr if we can try to take him off his singulair and clairnex. He can go months and months and months without the need for his nebulizer or steroids. The dr always looks at me funny and said if it is working leave it alone. Now for about the past month his asthma has been acting up horribly. He went for a chest x-ray at the beginning of the month and it was clear. We had to begin the oral steroids as well as his nebulizer treatments. He is now off the oral steroids but the hacking cough has come back even though he uses his nebulizer 2x a day. I took off work today and we went back to the dr. He says his chest is clear. That is must be allergies and that I should make an appointment for allergy testing. Now mind you what I dont understand is if it were allergies wouldnt he be like this all the time, certain times of the year and wouldnt his allergy medication take care of it? I am worried that I am gonna put him through all these tests and still find nothing. My current dr said he was too young to get a correct reading with his previous allergy testing since he was only 3 or 4 years old.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Like I said he can go months and months and be perfectly fine expect for when he does get a chest cold and it is usually short lived. My DH thinks we should go ahead with the testing but I am a bit confused.

I personally think that this all has to do with the mild weather we were having here in PA. It really didnt feel like winter till recently.

**freedeal** · 02-10-2007, 09:29 AM

Until my last set of allergy tests I used to have 3-4 major sinus infections each year, along with asthma attacks and continuous stomach problems. I have always had allergies (many severe) but some got worse. A couple of years ago I had to be retested - severe reaction to milk -I never knew I was allergic to it. Well, what they found was I had several more allergies. Since I have eliminated these items from my diet I have only had 1 asthma attack (Doritos caused me to have asthma attacks) and no sinus infections.

I have epilepsy - caused by a severe allergic reaction at the age of 29. Even my seizures are much less frequent.

I would have your son tested. You may be surprised what his body reacts to. Some reactions aren't as noticeable and he may not even realize how bad he feels until those things are eliminated.

PM me if you would like. I can share some of the details with my allergies that would be to long to write here.

**banana** · 02-10-2007, 09:39 AM

Thanks for sharing. We do have an appointment for him to see an allergist on President's Day. I am hoping the dr can do all the testing in 1 day.

**jkelstaten** · 02-10-2007, 11:45 AM

Good luck with the allergy testing! It has saved us a world of trouble though they did miss the absolute biggest allergy that both girls have CHERRIES. Make sure to make a list of all the foods that you eat as a family so that he gets tested for them and not just a list they create.

Also, I don't know if they informed you, but you will get false reactions to the tests if there is an allergen still in the body. They way they told us to test was to lightly scratch the underside of their forarm. If a raise red scratch appears then there is an allergen in the body. In this case you need to eliminate the allergen before testing by limiting food intake and using Benadryl (or something similar) for several days. He will need to be off all allergy medications for at least 3 days before testing as well.

Just some things to keep in mind otherwise you might be wasting your time and $$

**kaykwilts** · 02-10-2007, 01:11 PM

Good luck with the allergy testing. Hope the doctors can find what is activating his episodes.

**freedeal** · 03-02-2007, 01:41 PM

How did your son's allergy tests go? Hope it all went fine.

**mom2three** · 03-02-2007, 09:33 PM

I am asthmatic as is my dd2. I tried to give her dairy again and went through 2 months of cough/asthma symptoms.

**banana** · 03-03-2007, 07:19 AM

Well so far my son completed 2 rounds of allergy tests. The dr does each in a series of 21. On the first series he was allergic to 15 out of 21 things. The second series showed no allergies. He also had a breathing test done and a sweat chloride test done at the hospital. We are awaiting the results of both tests. He does have one more series of testing to complete mid march so hopefully we will have all of our answers then.

**banana** · 03-03-2007, 07:20 AM

Well so far my son completed 2 rounds of allergy tests. The dr does each in a series of 21. On the first series he was allergic to 15 out of 21 things. The second series showed no allergies. He also had a breathing test done and a sweat chloride test done at the hospital. We are awaiting the results of both tests. He does have one more series of testing to complete mid march so hopefully we will have all of our answers then.

**mom2three** · 03-04-2007, 03:58 PM

Did your son test positive for mold allergy?

**halloweenfreak** · 03-04-2007, 04:49 PM

i have horrible allergies and have had asthma since i was in preschool. i have to have 2 allergy shots every week otherwise my sinuses are totally stopped up and i sneeze continously. i also have to use nasonex everyday to keep my nose from itching. my asthma as also been horrible here lately. im sure mine has to do with the cold and constant winds we've had here the last few weeks.

i was on allergy shots a few years ago, but i got out of the habit of giving them to myself. i went almost an entire year without needing them. i thought maybe i had outgrew them or something. when they returned, they came back full force. when i redid my testing, i came up with more stuff i was allergic to then the first time i tested. allergy meds have no affect on mine (i guess since im allergic to soooo many different things) so i say def. stick with the allergy testing. they test for so many things now that im sure they'll find what it is that is causing his problems.