Will allergy testing cause a flair?

[eljomom]

WE have wondered quite a while (years, actually) about allergies with my pitand daughter. She doesn't show "seasonal" symptoms like one of my other kids, who actually ended up with shots, but she does get red cheeks quite a bit, and they are just a little rough. She also had chronic congestion until we took her adenoids at age 5.5. She was a HUGE milk-drinker too. I have run it by our pandas doc a few times, and she basically says that the immune response from allergies is NOT enough to have an effect on pandas.

Well, yesterday we had an evaluation for orthodontics (yah, that should be fun, given her irrational fear of anything to do with teeth/loose teeth, etc...). The ortho. took one look at her and the first thing he said was "Well, I can tell one thing about this kid which is that she has major adenoid or tonsil issues, or allergies." I told him she has no adenoids, and was recently scoped in an ENT's office, who confirmed they had not grown back, and that her tonsils are small. She used to snore a ton, till we pulled the adenoids. Not it's just a quieter purring sound. Anyhow, he then said that the way she mouth breathes, her mouth shape, and the purple shiners under her eyes are classic allergy symptoms. Suggested I call the ped. and pursue it.

 

So, my question (FEAR) is: will skin - testing for allergies cause an pandas flair? She seems to react when she is injured (had a major skin avulsion in September, and within 4 days embarked on about 10 days of ticcing to the point people thought she was having seizures). Anyone asked Dr. B (he's also an allergist, right?) about this, or have any insight?

Thanks!

[MMC]

Both of my PANDAS kids have been allergy tested with no flairs or negative results. They were not allergic to anything.

[dut]

Hi - althought I can't comment on allergy testing, I know that for our PANDAS dd (now PITANDS really) an allergic reaction can indeed cause a flare.

 

She has a moderately severe allergy to pistachios and cashews (needs an epipen) and when she ate a few bites of a pistachio containing baklava at a school event, she had the classic allergic response and then her PANDAS flared the next day. It was a small flare that lasted for about 2-3 weeks or so. We didn't treat with steroids or abx it just ran it's course. She did go on to have two more flares in the following weeks casued by illness and the three flares combined did cause an upward shift in baseline. She had always fully remitted before but I think that it was just 'glass too full' rather than any specific trigger/episode.

 

So I'm afraid that for our dd anyway I have to disagree with ur dr. I think that anything that can stimulate the immune system can potentially cause a flare in a PITANDS child. Whether an allergy test would be enough of a provocation, dunno....