How reliable is testing?

by Maya

Back in November, 2 days after Luke turned 3, we went to see our Allergist for the “Peanut Challenge Test.” They felt it was best, given his history, to have peanuts for the first time in his life right there in the office.

Before they had him eat peanut butter on his gluten-free pretzels, they first did a skin test. It was the 2nd time we have done skin testing for peanuts – and once again – we had a negative skin test result.

So, I was feeling fairly confident when he ate his first bite of peanut butter pretzel. We started with 1/8 of a tsp of peanut butter. Right away, his cheeks got bright red and he started rubbing his nose.

Then, they gave him another 1/8 of a tsp and he literally stopped breathing through his nose -his nasal passage had totally swollen shut and he started breaking out in dime-sized hives all over his cheeks. Shortly after that, he had diarrhea.

Obviously, the Allergist said that the “peanut challenge test” showed that he is allergic to peanuts.

My question remains – what about the skin testing? There are still so many unknowns in the world of allergies.

I have heard that unless you have had the allergen in the past, the body may not recognize it right away as an allergen — just like how you hear of people being severely allergic to bee stings but they don’t know about their allergy until they’ve been stung 2 or 3 times.

Luke didn’t react to the antibiotic, Gentamicin until his 3rd dose. However with Ciprofloxacin, he reacted within in 5 seconds of his 1st dose.

We are learning as we go and keeping our epipen & benadryl with us everywhere we go!

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