Allergy Testing

[cobbiemommy]

I am looking for information about allergies for our kiddos. Allergies are part of our picture, here is the short version. At 2 years, took son to dermatologist for rash on back, he said atopic dermatitis related to food allergies.

 

At 8 years of age, took son to DAN dr that is an allergist/immunologist. He tested IGg positive for over 20 foods, skin testing was conducted on back that was already somewhat inflamed. Too many allergies to count. Took well daughter to same doctor, again, 20 IGg food allergies, and numerous allergies on skin test. I was tested and had 36 food allergies and many inhalant allergies. We started elimination diet, allergy shots twice a week and multiple supplements to help with mineral deficiency. (Sound familiar?)

 

After two years, the only improvement was my son lost a lot of weight and his rash was gone, but all the behavioral stuff was still there. Took him to an internist that did a RAST test. Everything came back fine-no allergies. We stayed on allergy shots at that point because of IGg testing.

 

Quit shots in 2010 upon the advice of Dr. K who said they were activiating his immune system. Mind you, Dr. K is not an allergist. After IVIg, Bart rash appeared and we ultimately got a diagnosis of Lyme and co-infections for son. LLMD sent us to a very well respected allergist at the University of Missouri.

 

Allergist said that shots are not activating to immune system, they deactivate it. He also said that IGg testing is essentially worthless, too many false positives and the same sample can be run multiple times and come up with different results. He also does skin testing on the forearms and not the back because there is less chance of a false positive. He uses the sublingual drops from Germany and says that in four years, the patient is usually allergy free. The allergy drops work to retrain the DNA.

 

My son does have the anti-gliadin antibody-so wheat is a no-no, but he still eats some. We go next week for skin testing and get the results of CAP RAST test. This doctor sees lots of Lyme patients because he and LLMD are good friends and collaborate well together. Any questions I should ask of doctor?

 

What has been your children's allergy experiences? If you had treatment, how did it help?

[MichaelTampa]

I am looking for information about allergies for our kiddos. Allergies are part of our picture, here is the short version. At 2 years, took son to dermatologist for rash on back, he said atopic dermatitis related to food allergies.

 

At 8 years of age, took son to DAN dr that is an allergist/immunologist. He tested IGg positive for over 20 foods, skin testing was conducted on back that was already somewhat inflamed. Too many allergies to count. Took well daughter to same doctor, again, 20 IGg food allergies, and numerous allergies on skin test. I was tested and had 36 food allergies and many inhalant allergies. We started elimination diet, allergy shots twice a week and multiple supplements to help with mineral deficiency. (Sound familiar?)

 

After two years, the only improvement was my son lost a lot of weight and his rash was gone, but all the behavioral stuff was still there. Took him to an internist that did a RAST test. Everything came back fine-no allergies. We stayed on allergy shots at that point because of IGg testing.

 

Quit shots in 2010 upon the advice of Dr. K who said they were activiating his immune system. Mind you, Dr. K is not an allergist. After IVIg, Bart rash appeared and we ultimately got a diagnosis of Lyme and co-infections for son. LLMD sent us to a very well respected allergist at the University of Missouri.

 

Allergist said that shots are not activating to immune system, they deactivate it. He also said that IGg testing is essentially worthless, too many false positives and the same sample can be run multiple times and come up with different results. He also does skin testing on the forearms and not the back because there is less chance of a false positive. He uses the sublingual drops from Germany and says that in four years, the patient is usually allergy free. The allergy drops work to retrain the DNA.

 

My son does have the anti-gliadin antibody-so wheat is a no-no, but he still eats some. We go next week for skin testing and get the results of CAP RAST test. This doctor sees lots of Lyme patients because he and LLMD are good friends and collaborate well together. Any questions I should ask of doctor?

 

What has been your children's allergy experiences? If you had treatment, how did it help?

 

I'll tell you, I've had the IGG blood tests twice, before lyme was ever considered, and the list of foods did not, either time, correlate with the foods that seemed to cause me problems that I knew of. The list of "allergic foods" was probably 30 or so each time. The list of foods allergic to changed in ways that made little sense, if you believe the theory that exposure to the food causes the allergy or is needed to cause the allergy. I had NAET (acupuncture allergy treatment) in the meantime, and the list also did not correlate with what was treated. In short, the test results did not make any sense, did not correlate with theories people give or experiences I had with these foods, or add any value or information.

 

Now, I have heard of people getting these tests, finding one or two problem foods, and eliminating/treating them, and it making a huge difference. I am puzzled by the whole thing. Perhaps this lyme autoimmunity screws up the test results, and the tests are useful for "regular" people?

 

Curious what drops from Germany he is referring to. I have had some success with "Allergie-Immun" some "information" drops from Germany, to change DNA to help it better deal with foods and other substances (chemicals, heavy metlas). I have been on that treatment a while and it has helped a lot, but not done with it yet.

Edited July 13, 2011 by MichaelTampa

[lismom]

My son was on allergy shots for many years when he was young. They worked wonders. Fast forward to first diagnosed PANDAS. Allergies got worse. Held back on shots tried other remedies. Nothing worked. Recently diagnosed lyme/bart. Before seeing LLMD we had started shots again. Bad idea. Son got the worse motor tics than ever. LLMD advised to not do shots until the immune system can cope and understand what to do with the allergins being injected. With lyme/bart the immune system is already over taxed and confused. We are waiting.

[cobbiemommy]

Both of you confirmed some of what I believe: that IGg testing is not real reliable when infection is present. We are not going back to the shots either because that is when things got to be their worst-suicidal thoughts, etc. I believe the drops are the Allergie Immune from Germany. I will let you know for sure next week. Also, this doctor is not an allergist but an ENT that does allergy testing and treatment, he is also the chair of his department at the university. Still curious about what others are going through.