Question:
My 13 month old son has frequent ear infections, wheezing when he gets
colds (the doctor's have me give him liquid ventoLin, which makes him
hyper), and often gets red blotchy skin (although he does not scratch).
His father has many allergies and asthma. The doctor's only seemed
concerned with treating the symptoms and think that it is to premature
to test for allergies, meanwhile he frequently is in pain from ear
infections and his skin is constantly dry and blotchy. Anyone heard of
testing infants for allergies?
Answer:
We're going through this with my son (who is 2 1/2). He had a
life-threatening reaction to an unknown alergen. We've been told that
alergy testing is not at all reliable until after age 4, and the best
course of action before that is to keep treating the symptoms. You
could also ask your doctor to prescrbe (or tell you the correct dosage
for an otc) an antihistimine, to see if that helps, especially with the
ear infections. My son's ears got so bad last spring that we finally
had the tubes put in...not one infection since. Our son was tested for allergies at 18 months old. They usually don't
test before 2 years, because the results may be incorrect, but because our
son also has diabetes, he had so many food restrictions that we jumped
ahead and had the tests done. We also had problems with ear infections - I would HIGHLY recommend ear
tubes. Our son had them put in at 8 months of age - what a blessing!
Re the allergy tests - our son is re-tested every six months and we are
now able to start trying some baked goods with egg in them. His allergies
are milk, eggs, fish and peanuts. Our allergist says that 90% of kids
outgrow the milk and egg allergies, so here's hoping. Air-borne allergens
(dust, hay fever type things, etc.) don't seem to be a problem for him -
only foods.
Our daughter had multiple ear infections which stopped when we cut wheat and dairy
from her diet, and introduced an echinecea preparation. Tubes should ONLY be used
if the child actually has a fluid build up - our daughter did not. Our quick allergy test to new foods was to take a small amount of the food, rub it
on her cheek, and check for reactions, ie hives.
Also naturopaths have some sort of passive test for allergies which a friend of ours
swears by.
You can get your infant tested for food allergies or airborn
allergies with a blood test thru Immuno Labs. We had both our
kids tested because of chronic ear infections. If they stay away
from the foods they're allergic to they're fine. If you want more
information call Imunno labs and talk with Jackie Cicora at
1-800-231-9197.
