Conference moira::parenting_v3

Here's what I've HEARD--nothing firsthand.

My son is definitely allergic to something that causes hot, red rashes
which then turn into ecema.  Luckily, he's only exhibited it twice.  We've
also isolated an allergy to peanut butter and chocolate.  When our pedi was
talking about things we could do, he suggested NOT doing the full-scale
testing.  I'm afraid I don't remember exactly why--it was either very
expensive or somewhat painful.  At any rate, coupled with whatever the
reason is, he also said that it's very likely that even the tests wouldn't
narrow it down as they can't test every single thing the child might come
into contact with.

Sorry, not too scientific an answer!  But I remember the jist being too
much trouble for a not-guaranteed answer.


Marty

    Jane:
    
    My sister's daughter was born allergic to everything under the sun!,
    compounded with asthema.
    
    One of my sister's biggest regrets was subjecting Peg to skin tests
    (Boston Children's Hospital) at the age of 2.  Why?  Because:
    
    .  at the age of 2, Peg was still changing drastically ... so if
       she were allergic to eggs today - she might not be tomorrow --
       but now she's allergic to wheat!
    
    .  all baby's skin IS sensitive ... stab it with a needle and even
       the toughest skin will swell! ... so is it a skin reaction or
       a "thing" reaction.  Now the best of doctors will say "I can tell"
       ... RIGHT!
    
    .  if you want your child to remember being jabbed 80-100 times with
       a needle, remember tracks of spots up and down his back and arms,
       weld off all that "allergic" stuff in the next few days (scratching,
       itching, prickling ...), possibly remember being "heaviliy
       restrained" -- AND PROBABLY scream FOR YEARS at the sight of 
       ANYONE wearing a white jacket with needle in hand ...
    
    		THEN GO FOR IT!
    
    My sister quickly discovered that SHE could do a better job figuring
    out what Peg was having trouble with than the finest Boston doctors.
    Why?  Because Ruthie lived with Peg 24 hours a day!  Ruthie knew that
    30-60 minutes ago she ate spagettio's!  Might take a while, but you CAN
    figure out what the problem is by backing-up-in-time.  Ruthie also
    got a list of the kids' "highly allergic things" and AVOIDED them:
    
    	. red dye  (jello, food coloring, juices, etc.)
    	. eggs
    	. tomatoes
    	. wheat
    	. PRESERVATIVES  (chips, cereals, etc.)
    
    And as for dust and lint!  Yes, it's easy to remove carpeting from 
    a kid's room ... but just try to get rid of Biff or Buffy (dog and cat), 
    or their favorite stuffed bear or doll!!  So the bottom line is:  if
    you can pinpoint and eliminate MOST of their allergic stuff - GREAT!
    But you can't identify OR REMOVE all of it!  And just when you toss
    Gummy (bear), they're no longer allergic to fuzz!
    
    I do believe the blood test is highly accurate, BUT ... if the pollen
    is high today, your test will be high.  But just MAYBE the pollen
    won't be so bad tomorrow ... but you're still taking all that
    Drixoral!!
    
    Coming from a family with high allergies - and suffering for years
    myself (and doing all the tests, treatments, shots, etc.), I (along
    with my sister, mother, niece, etc.) believe the best way to deal with
    allergies is to get a handle on them YOURSELF and take medication ONLY
    when you absolutely need it.  Allergy medication is ADDICTIVE.  Watch
    what happens to your sinuses when you stop taking Drixoral (after 5
    days)! -- you're right back to Square_1!!
    
    I would NEVER subject my "child" to allergy tests!
            -----
    When she's old enough to know what it entails (and get all the gory
    details and facts), then she's old enough to decide for herself!
    
    Dottie
    

    I agree with Dottie that you will be better able to figure out what the
    child is not allergic to first then work with the things that he might
    be allergic to.
    
    My neighbor's son was on 6 different medications because of "lung"
    problems - kept filling up ans making him very wheezy. Finally a new
    pedi gave her a list of the common allergies in kids. He seemed okay
    with all the food stuff but how do you see if a kid is allergic to dust
    - collect all your dust bunnies and let the kid roll around in them.
    Well, he ended up having the blood test and skin tests for dust, dirt,
    etc. It wasn't bad - I think about 8 pricks. The tests showed no
    allergies. Well, 2 weeks later visiting her parent's house, he slept on
    a old mattress and by midnight he could hardly breathe. They rushed him
    to the emergency room. They finally determined that he was allergic to
    a specific dust and mold - not found in large quantities in a clean
    "modern" house. But all it took was using a generation-old mattress that
    had been stored for 20 years and was loaded with the mold. 
    
    Now she rents a machine (sprays ventolin into the air) and uses it when 
    he gets a build up of exposure and his lungs have gradually become 
    clogged. 
    
    Definitely narrow down as much as you can. Taking your time will only
    help because you won't have put the child through extensive tests. I
    would think it is alot easier to have a food allergy then an
    environmental one.
    
    Hope you find out what's bothering the little one!!
    Andrea 

re .2:

>   I do believe the blood test is highly accurate

    I remember reading about the inaccuracy of blood tests a few years
    ago.  I don't know if there are different types of blood tests.

>                                  Allergy medication is ADDICTIVE.

    This is *much* too general a statement.  Antihistamines are generally
    not addictive.
    
>   I would NEVER subject my "child" to allergy tests!
            -----

    I'm glad my mother didn't feel that way.  I suffered from childhood
    asthma.  I had scratch tests and years of allergy shots.  The discomfort
    of allergy tests and shots is much better than the panic of an asthma
    attack.

    The result?  I occasionally have hay fever, and I take antihistamines
    perhaps a dozen times a year.

    There's something called an elimination diet that is pretty
    accurate at tracking down allergies and other food reactions (not
    all food reactions are considered allergies).  You narrow the diet
    down to only a few foods that almost nobody is allergic to, and
    then gradually add new foods and see when symptoms occur.
    
    When Kat was little, she was allergic to eggs.  Still gets a minor
    reaction to them.  Fortunately she never has liked them.  Sodium
    nitrate and yellow food dyes bother her, but not in a way the
    doctor would call an allergy.  They made her irritable and prone
    to develop hive-like skin reactions from things like pine needles
    and other plants that don't normally cause rashes.  
    
    Too much milk and milk products (her favorite foods, naturally)
    seemed to make her stuffier and more likely to get colds and
    tonsilitis.
    
    --bonnie

I have to agree with Gerald.  While not particularly allergic myself
(occasional hayfever but not serious), my wife is allergic to a variety of
things (including most molds, tree and wild flower pollens).  Without testing
and allergy treatments, she was in a state where she could barely stand up
from the congestion in her sinuses and middle ear.  Since taking the allergy
treatments, she was able to make it through her pregnancy only taking allergy
medications twice or thrice.

One thing that you must determine with environmental allergies is whether the
symptoms are bad enough to warrant the hassle.  IN SOME CASES they definitely
are.  In any case, some amount of narrowing down the field is well worth the
effort before making a decision.

Dick

When I was 12, they elimated for 2 weeks my absolute favorite drink from my
diet: milk. They also eliminated all milk products as well as anything made
with milk: cake, ice cream, cheese, chocolate, etc. 
I was very upset.  We did learn from this, however, that I was (am) allergic
to milk.

Shortly thereafter, at the age of 13, I had the full testing done by back
pricks.  They tested for 200 things, and at that time I showed positive
for 81 of them.

Luckily for me, my allergist was a very good doctor and good person.  I was
allergic to cats, and I had a cat.  My doctor said that despite my allergy
that she would not have us get rid of the cat (I wouldn't have even 
considered it, but I bet my parents would have).  Her reasoning was that
she had a cat, too, and she understood how attached you can get.  She did,
however, recommend that the cat no longer sleep in my room at night, and
that I keep it out of my room from then on (during the day as well).

I'm glad I went through the tests.  It was awful having all of those scratches
and itching on my back, but I learned a lot.  I took shots for the next 3 years
and it helped tremendously.  Occasionally the shots would make me feel woosy
afterwards, but I would stop at a nearby bookstore and browse at the comic 
books until the feeling went away.  Then I would bike home.

After that time, I had built up an immunity to most of the things I was allergic
to, and no longer needed the shots.  The shots started at twice a week (yuk!)
and finally went down to once every 5-6 weeks.

I don't know how early I would do testing like that, but for me it helped me
function.  I still eat the things I am allergic to, but I know to be careful
about quantities.  I currently have 4 cats, but starting cats after living a
few years without them was incredibly difficult for a few weeks.  I went 
through a LOT of Kleenex.

As to behavioral problems, I have no first hand experience, but a good friend
of mine several years ago had allergies which affected her behaviour.  She
cautioned me never to give her anything with corn, that it would make her
go totally crazy for a while.  There were other foods that she had to avoid,
too, but I don't remember what they were.  I saw her on corn one day.  She was
wild.  She hadn't even realized that it was in the food that someone had
brought to her.

       Carol

    Can you please give me more information about the behavioral side
    affects?                         
    
    My Samantha is pure H*LL on wheels some days (I should post a note
    for help) and I have tried analyzing everything.  I do limit her 
    intake of sugars and caffeine, however, I would never have thought 
    something like wheat or corn would do this.  (Of course her favorite 
    veggie would be corn and we only eat wheat bread!!)
    
    Thank you,
    
    Kim
    

    I'm really curious about symptoms of an allergy.  My son (now 9 months
    old) had a lactose intollerance at birth, but his pedi suggested he may
    outgrow it in time.  His intollernace showed up as gas pains and
    passing semi-digested milk solids.  He has been on soy ever since. 
    Recently I purchased a jar of baby food custard pudding.  I gave him a
    few spoonfuls one night, and he was fine.  I failed to tell my husband
    NOT to give it to him the following day, and he proceeded to feed him
    th rest of the contents of the jar.  Within minutes he had vomited most
    of the contents of his stomach, and developed a VERY blotchy face. No
    lumps, no breathing difficulties, but very blotchy.  His pedi seems to
    think it was probably the eggs, and not the milk, which caused the
    reaction.  The reaction lasted about 30 minutes, with no distruption in
    his attitude (still played, smiled, tore apart my bakeware storage
    cabinet, etc), and had no after effects.  Does this sound like egg, or
    milk allergy?  
    Sarah

    Re: behavioral symptoms of allergies.  Here are a few I've been around.
    
    My sister gets depressed, weepy, and downright mean within a few hours
    after eating anything with tomatoes in it.  I get the jitters from too
    much dairy like some people do from too much caffeine.  Another sister
    gets sleepy and disoriented from milk products.  (Give us a pizza and
    we're free entertainment.)
    
    A little boy who had his allergy tests the same day I did went
    completely ballistic after eating bananas -- tearing around the room,
    screaming, punching, climbing walls, etc.  Until they discovered the
    allergies, his doctor had been planning to put him on Ritalin.  (His
    mother fed him bananas on his cereal every morning, so he was like 
    this most of every day.)
    
    Hope this helps,
    Beth

re .10:

I guess you could say he went bananas (sorry, I couldn't resist).

    Just went thru this 6 months ago with my son Alex, now 3.5 yrs old.
    Alex was having major ear infections and his adnoids were always
    enlarged.  So we went in had tubes in his ears and adnoids out,
    3 days later he got yet another ear infection.  ENT specialist said
    let's test for allergie.  I refuesed to put Alex thru the
    scratch tests so we opted for the blood test (called RAST testing).
    They take blood out of the childs arm and test it for what
    they called the NorthEast pattern which is all molds, dust, pollens,
    all environmental stuff, plus we tested for milk, wheat, cats, and
    dogs.  Low and behold he is highly alergic to milk products.  Now we 
    do not know if he is allergic to the lactose or protein in milk,
    because the blood tests will not indicate that, only scratch tests
    will.
    
    Since we have had him off of milk, no ear infections at all!

    This might be "rat holing" so let me know Moderator if you want me to
    delete this note or feel free to move it.
    
    RE .12  Are you at all upset or angry or anything thinking that you
    had your son's adenoids taken out and ear tubes put in when it turned
    out to be allergies?? Maybe there were other problems you didn't
    mention. 
    
    I think I'd be pretty upset to opt for "surgery" when it was allergies.
    Who do you "blame" for this - the pedis for not suggesting allergies
    and recommending an ENT for adenoids and tubes or the ENT doctor for
    not testing for allergies first. The ENT doctor obviously knew it could
    have been allergies but it wasn't suggested until after the fact.
    
    Any thoughts?? There may be more to it then described in your note.
    
    Andrea

    .13
    
    You bet I was ticked off (to put it mildly).  My son has had ear
    infections since he was 6 months old, the ENT we went to (same one that
    did the surgery) said Alex would be a good candidate at one year old
    for tubes because of his ear infections.  I refused to hear of it. 
    Then the winter came, and he continuted to get ear infections.  We
    brought him to pedi then to ENT and not once did they mention
    allergies.  Now my son drank lots and lots of milk and it never even
    rang a bell with me or my husband that he was highly allergic to it.
    
    My brother had allergies since he was born, and the symptons were
    sneezing, hives, hard time breathing, ecezema (?), so those were the
    symptoms I was looking for not ear infections.
    
    Two days prior to the surgery I took Alex to another ENT (3 specialist)
    and he indicated he would also put tubes in and take the adnoids out,
    so that is why we went thru with it.  Figure 3 specialist all say 'DO
    IT' they must know what they are talking about!
    
    After the operation the ENT specialist told me that even if Alex did
    not have tubes put in, that he would have to come in for surgery to
    release all the buildup in his ears from his nose draining into his
    ears because the adnoid was not doing it's job.  I'm still ticked off,
    but my son is healthy and running around (driving me crazy!) so I'm
    just grateful that everything turned out OK.
    

    It seems like tubes in the ears have become the 1990's equivalent
    of "bleeding".  The kid has ear infections?  Let's not look for a
    cause, let's just put tubes in the ears.
    
    I'm not saying the tubes aren't valuable for some kids, but . . .
    
    --bonnie

    
    reply: .13, .14, and .15
    
    Speaking from experience, My son's Pedi did suggest Allergy testing
    before seeing an ENT.  We went for the testing, believe me this is
    something that I would not want my son to go through again.
    
    From the testing we found out that he had allergies to Milk, maple
    pollen, corn and a mild reaction to chicken.  So we all the above
    (except the maple pollen but that only happens once a year) and
    the poor kid still had ear infections.
    
    My son had 4 ear drums rupture and then the ENT would finally schedule
    the surgery.  A week before the surgery Josh had another infection and
    the ENT gave him Celcor (Only think that works for him) to clear it up
    before surgery.  Two days after the surgery he had another infection,
    just like your son, my ENT explained that the infection probably
    hadn't cleared up all the way.
    
    Ever Since Josh hasn't had "ONE" ear infection.  
    
    All I am trying to say is that yes! Your ENT or Pedi should have had
    the allergy testing done first, BUT! it may not have done any good!
    It hard for you to be sure if that the reason your son hasn't had
    an infection since is because the tubes or the elimination of Milk.
    
    The tubes were necessary for my son and I don't agree with --bonnie
    on my situation, I had to beg my ENT to do the surgery I was afraid
    that Josh was going to have hearing problems from all the times my
    sons eardrums were rupturing during the time he was trying to determine
    the cause.
    
    Tina

    re: .16
    
    I didn't at all mean to imply that the tubes are never justified
    and it certainly sounds like they were in your son's case; in fact
    it sounds like they should have been done sooner.  My son's best
    friend also needed them since chronic ear congestion was impairing
    her hearing.  But one of his other friends got the tubes after
    exactly 1 ear infection, and a girl at his preschool had them put
    in without checks for allergies or other problems even though the
    mother told the doctor there was a family history of food
    allergies.  
    
    I'm just saying that many doctors seem to be far to quick to
    resort to what is after all a surgical procedure without clearly
    assessing the problem, the risk, and the  benefits.  And only the
    parents of the girl with the hearing congestion were told of the
    risks of having the tubes put in -- one mother was even told the
    procedure was risk-free.  Well, nothing medical is risk-free. 
    
    When I was little, many doctors thought that the best treatment
    was "pump them full of antibiotics whenever they get a cold," and
    it wasn't until later that they figured out that too much
    antibiotics built up an immunity and were otherwise not
    necessarily good for you.
    
    --bonnie