So we got back a little while ago…This was a really tough day. Emmett basically was held down to a table on his stomach and given 16 shots at the same time into his back. It was horrible to have to hold him like that. We had to hold him there for 20 minutes and I hated every minute of it. However, I only wanted to do this to him once so we had to make it work the first time. Fast forward 20 minutes and we get the results. The results of the scratch show that he isn’t allergic to anything….. WTF (pardon my online French), seriously, how is that even possible? The blood work shows he is is allergic to milk,egg and lactose. The scratch tests show he isn’t……. I literally want to go beat my head into a wall. We went there for answers and we got nothing but more questions.
The Allergist wants everything removed from his diet for 6 months and then we will “food challenge” him and see what happens. For now we have to carry an epi-pen around with us in case he has a reaction to anything. I really, truly don’t understand this. I mean what are the odds of this happening? I swear these doctors are trying to kill me slowly with stress.
My son had that allergy testing done, too, but for environmental allergies. It isn't fun, but thankfully our allergist was very good at getting it done quick. I agree that food allergies might not show up so well on the scratch test. I have heard that blood tests are much more reliable. If he is having a reaction to some foods, that is more of an indicator. Hopefully you get it figured out soon…you all have enough to deal with. : (
Thanks everyone. It's frustrating when you get conflicting information from tests that are supposed to be answering questions not asking more. He does have the food allergies and has his entire life. They just didn't show in the scratch test. These aren't contact allergies though. They are digestive and I gather that different? Anyway I wanted to say thank you for the support you have shown my family. I am humbled and grateful. 🙂
Contact allergies are different from digestive allergies. (as it was explained to me when I had it done) digestive allergies DO NOT show up usually on scratch tests unless they are severe….contact allergies (dust/pollen/nuts in severe cases) are the ones that usually show on scratch tests. (I'm lacto-sensitive but it didn't show on my scratch test)