Thank you! What a great resource!

Very concise and to the point, thanks ! I cant remember how many times I have said that test results don't indicate severity !

Thank you for this very detailed explanation. However, I'm not sure I agree with this statement "if your child can eat a food without developing any symptoms, then they are unlikely to be allergic to that food." My son has tested negative to pretty much every allergy skin prick and blood test - only positive to hazelnuts one time and walnuts another time, both in skin prick tests. He suffered from severe eczema, head to toe, and we were looking for answers. There was no particular food that...

Wow, that's great information thank you. I'm just wondering what you suggest since we fall into the category of my son being tested for allergies at a young age due to his eczema; however, he never tried any of the food before. Now we have an Epi pen for him as he was diagnosed with anaphylactic allergies. Thank you!

My daughter is now 13 and has always had belly issues. She had skin and RAST testing done as a toddler with no indications of food allergies. At 11 her belly isues worsened and RAST testing was redone with nujmerous positive results. We did skin testing and she was found to be allergic to milk, egg yolk, and fish. She has what you term a Non-IgE mediated reaction. Oncethe foods were fully eliminated from her diet her belly issues went away, she was no longer bloated and felt much better.

I think it's important to differentiate between "food allergy" (IgE mediated) and "food sensitivity". Both are immune mediated reactions, but involve different mediators (chemicals). Both are reactions brought on by food and both can make you very sick, although it is the food allergy that is likely to be life threatening. Even the symptoms brought on by each can be similar. For example, abdominal pain, diarrhea,vomiting,headache,asthma,and eczema can be triggered by a food sensitivity as...

We're going to invite Dr. Stukus to reply to some of the questions here. He won't be able to give you medical advice, of course, but he may be able to give out general information about the issues you have brought up. Eczema is a tough one to explain. I will defer that one to Dr. Stukus. Regarding the MRT post, I want to take issue with your last point. One is that if RAST or skin tests are negative a child could still have an immune-mediated non-IgE mediated food allergy as is explained in...

What advice to you give to parents of children with eczema/asthma who may have false positives from IgE testing? My daughter's IgE numbers are off the charts, and we've been avoiding likely allergens. The only food she's (accidently) ingested that we've avoided based on likely food allergy is cow's milk (to which she had an immediate negative reaction). We've consulted 2 allergists, and both have reommended avoiding the foods she's likely allergic to until she is 5 or 6 at which time they...

Jennifer: AGREED!!! DS was tested low score on WHEAT & SOY both skin test and blood test, we never took it seriously only avoided wheat by itself (wheat bread) and soy by itself (tofu, soybean..etc) but since birth he had eczema and stuffy nose throughout the year. We thought it's more related to seasonal/weather, but his skin problem and congestion issue lasted through summer-winter, hot OR cold seasons; we also thought it's environmental (dust mite) so we changed to special pillows/...

For those of you posting about eczema - you are invited to join us in our Asthma, Eczema and GERD forum as well! Just log in as you did to comment on this blog, and scroll down the list of forums to find it. Or you can go there directly by clicking here . We'd love to have you join us!

This is a well well written article and explains the issues involved in diagnosis of food allergies very well!

I'd like to thank everyone for posting such wonderful comments. I'd like to address two topics that were mentioned so far: 1. Eczema and food allergies can be a very difficult and complicated topic, which may need it's own blog post in the future. While I can't give out specific medical advice in this forum, I am happy to help elaborate a bit more. In general , the majority of children with eczema do not have an external cause of their skin condition. Eczema is a genetic, chronic, skin...

Hi MulanMommy - It's incredible what food can do to the body - good or bad. In our son's case, he now has severe reactions, borderline anaphylaxis, with dairy, soy, gluten, corn, and tree nuts. He can not even have one bite - or a trace. Still also triggers eczema. He used to be very sensitive to tomatoes, red pepper, and cantelope, but now that his eczema is under control, he can eat these things every few days, but as you said, never more than two days in a row. The same with coconut. So...

Originally Posted by Jennifer Roberge: Thank you for this very detailed explanation. However, I'm not sure I agree with this statement "if your child can eat a food without developing any symptoms, then they are unlikely to be allergic to that food." My son has tested negative to pretty much every allergy skin prick and blood test - only positive to hazelnuts one time and walnuts another time, both in skin prick tests. He suffered from severe eczema, head to toe, and we were looking for...

Lindsay - right. Good doctor-patient partnerships are key, especially for complicated cases such as eczema. As Dr. Stukus indicates, the evaluation and care for complicated eczema cases needs to be individualized for the child. Thank you for posting your comments!

Thank you for the article. Could you provide additional information regarding EE and testing please?

Any thoughts or direction on behavioral issues due to food? My now 6 year old daughter never had any stomach issues, eczema, or anything else, but she became absolutely uncontrollable (threatening to kill me, punching, kicking)after a strep infection back in February. I figured something had to have happened and had the doctor do all the gluten related bloodwork since it was just not her and her oldest brother is GFCF. Sure enough, it came back positive. The allergist put her on an...

I would say that EE and testing is another complicated topic best addressed with its own blog post in the future and the issue of behavioral reactions to foods is another one outside the scope of what this blog post was intended to cover. Both would best be addressed in a future blog post as well. Thanks for your suggestions!

I had my son tested IgE with an allergist because of his eczema condition. We knew his allergy to milk at age of one, hives right after 1 oz of whole milk. He was bs mostly the first 6 months, then alimentum after. He had regular Similic couple times before 6 months but no reactions. His IgE for milk is 6.29, so I think it confirmed his milk allergy. He is still on alimentum and he is 16 1/2 months. His IgE for egg white is above 50, I had not introduced egg to him yet, but with the MMR (had...

Recent research shows that the flu shot is tolerated by almost everyone with an egg allergy: http://www.kidswithfoodallergies.org/resourcespre.php?id=163&title=Is_the_flu_vaccine_safe_for_egg_allergy? My son gets his flu shot in divided doses in the allergist's office. He is anaphylactic to even trace amounts of egg and has never had a reaction to the flu shot. Our allergist says that in recent years, the amount of egg protein in the flu shot is almost nothing. Before my son developed...

My daughter actually tested negative several times to some things as a baby despite reacting to them and then went on to test positive with low numbers. With egg for example her IgE was about 1.2, but she failed the in office food challenge with the initial dose of egg powder before the real food. She also tests positve with 1.92 and 1.98 to mustard and banana but just a tiny pin prick amount of her first taste of mustard her lip swelled up like a duck, and with 1/4 of a banana the same. Her...

My daughter (now 16 years old) was diagnosed at age 2 and had two subsequent positive skin tests to peanuts and tree nuts, but has never had a reaction at all other than her first (to walnut) at about 1 yr old. So I was hoping that the peanut positive was a false positive all along. We had component testing done recently, using the Uknow peanut test through Phadia (Thermo Fisher Scientific) which we were told was more comprehensive and accurate and the results show a severe peanut allergy.

Maggie - I would say discussion about egg free flu shots is outside the scope of this particular blog post - but I can tell you we will be doing a blog post in the near future about egg allergy and flu vaccine, so that should provide some more insight on this issue. Stay tuned! Deidre - negative test results are usually accurate, but in a small percentage of cases, children can react with negative test results. That is why it's important to get evaluated by an allergist, since they are most...

Yes, we've been seeing allergists since she was 6 or 9 months old. We have moved a couple of times and had to switch allergists and it can be confusing, some say lip swelling alone is anaphylaxis, what she had with banana and mustard, and some say it's not. It's hard when allergist's don't agree.

Regarding the MRT and it's usefulness for the treatment of food sensitivities, not food allergies... The absence of a particular type of reference on PubMed does not denote the absence of clinical utility in the treatment of the targeted disease states, especially for newer emerging complementary treatments.The establishment of clinical utility of new complementary treatments usually precedes the appearance of references on Pubmed, often by many years. Dr. Stukus, I will be happy to send you...

Lots of great comments here and hope there is room for a question. Can you discuss puddle testing?

My son ate cashews by the handful with absolutely no reaction and then went into anaphylactic shock after eating one. How does that fit into this? This stated that if you can eat something without reaction you aren't allergic. He reacted to walnuts which now that we've had testing are still high but lower than both peanuts and cashews.

Missy24, sorry to hear that your son had a severe reaction to cashew. Unfortunately you can develop allergies at any time, so in his case he was not allergic before but then became allergic. The article is referring to testing positive to a food but being able to eat it without reaction. Some docs will run a panel to whole list of foods, even if the patient has only reacted to one. This can lead to avoiding more foods than is necessary as there is a high chance of false positives with...

Dr. Stukus - Thank you for sharing this information. I agree with much of what you had to say and wanted to know if you would ever recommend the "Gold Standard" for accommodations in school? I have two children with close to 40 ER visits between them for allergic reactions. One has had RAST scores over 100 to Peanuts since infancy - he is 12. The other has RAST over 100 to Dairy and Eggs since infancy - she is 8. They both had systemic reactions to skin testing done last summer. They were...

Unfortunately, we are not in a position where we can offer individualized or specific medical advice regarding your situation with the school.

We often mess up between food allergy and food intolerance. Food allergy usually comes on suddenly. Even a small amount of food can trigger an allergic reaction. Food allergy appens every time you eat that particular foo and can be life-threatening too. On the other hand, food intolerance generally comes on graduall and occurs when you eat a lot of that particular food. It is not life-threatening

Can somebody be okay eating a food but not be okay touching it? My daughter (5 years old) successfully passed two oral food challenges for hazelnuts, which included eating increasing amounts of hazelnuts and also a spoon full of Nutella (this was given after she had eaten her last dose of hazelnuts). There were no symptoms or problems at all. So I (and our allergist) think it's safe to assume that she is no longer allergic to hazelnuts and we are obviously very grateful for that. However,...

That's an interesting question, Mehmet ... and one that I can't answer. But I suspect if you post this question onto our main support forum ( click here for our Main Support Forum. ) , you may get other people who have had experience with this. Also, someone wiser than me may be able to move your question over there for you.

Welcome Mehmet! May I ask when you did two food challenges? Just curious... Does she have any other allergies? The redness and the lips "hurting" would have me think that she could possibly still be allergic to it. How much is she eating at home? As Cynthia mentioned, be sure to visit us in our Main Support Forum where others can chime in as well with their experiences.