Shellfish Allergy

Joey (age 6) had his first ever visit to our Allergist this week. We had suspected that he might be allergic to shrimp and the Allergist decided it would be a good idea to run a shellfish skin allergy test to see what came up….

Joey is very allergic to shrimp & crab and also allergic to oysters & scallops. In addition to those allergies, he is “borderline allergic” to lobster, salmon, and tuna, although those 3 responses were so minor that he may not be allergic to them…they were considered “questionable.”

Shellfish doesn’t worry me as much as the nut allergies do, but what really gives me peace of mind is that Joey will have an epipen & benadryl supply at school, just in case something comes up… especially given that he has never had any exposure to tree nuts and has never been tested for them either.

As a side note, I appreicate our new Allergist & his opinion on testing… he confirmed that there are so many false negatives with allergy testing & also there are sometimes false positives. He would rather go by “life experience” than testing…and so he only did the shellfish allergy testing with Joey because we had an experience with a hive & swelling when someone kissed him after eating shrimp. Otherwise, we would’ve never known until he actually convinced himself to try something new & different…at what age, 29?