Allergy testing

[Anonymous]

Can an allergist do anything for a baby who is only 6 months old?

Jacob still has this rash on his face and back, which started when we started the neocate (three weeks ago). Our GI had us switch to Elecare, but the rash is still there…..I realize that it may take awhile for a rash to heal, except his seems to be a lot better in the morning and worse come nightime.

Now they are saying that he is a “mystery child” and it’s not possible to be allergic to these formulas. Told me to change my air filters!??!? I could scream!

Johanna

[Anonymous]

JohannaC wrote:

.

Now they are saying that he is a “mystery child” and it’s not possible to be allergic to these formulas. Told me to change my air filters!??!? I could scream!

Johanna

wow that would make me mad….
anyway allergy testing is not accurate under the age of 2 i believe. plus it doesnt detect intolerances either.

[Anonymous]

Hi Natalia! This is completely off the topic, but one of the other ladies on another post noticed that my 6 month old silent refluxer is on AR Lipil pre-thickened formula. She thought you might have posted on this formula before, and that it might not allow meds to work. I never doubted using it before, because my ped-gastro specialist highly recommended it….any info would be great! Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Taylor had the skin test done when she was 5 months old, they did food and environmental. The allergist did mention since she is so young they typically do not do the testing but since our Peds MD was so concern since we switched so many formulas and was about to switch again, he made the exception. It is true the skin test at this age is not 100% accurate and it doesn’t show intolerances but it was a good start for us. The skin test confirmed what I believed and since we have been avoiding milk as much as possible, corn, and corn syrup she has been doing so much better. She is on Zyrtec since she is always congested most likely due to the milk protein in the goats milk but she won’t switch entirely to soy.We are going to see him again when she is 1 years old and he will do more testing I’m not sure what so we can get the go ahead to introduce milk and corn products. For us the allergist was really worth it, it confirmed my thoughts, it is now written down in her charts proving to myself, the GI, and the Peds MD that there truly was something wrong with the formulas that she was on and she was not a “mystery child” and I’m not a overly crazy mother! Alexis’s mom2006-12-8 0:54:7

[Anonymous]

My son had his allergy test done when he was 10 mths & it helped us greatly. Like it was mentioned many do not do testing this young because it is not always accurate & it doesn’t show intolerances. Our GI really didn’t want it done but our second Ped pushed to have it done. The allergist first said he would not do testing & as I was getting ready to walk out the door called me back in & said he changed his mind.

My son was kinda the “mystery child” too because my first ped was not aware of a corn allergy and did not know about Neocate. He basically walked out on us when my child was at his worst!!! My son had a rash over his entire body and eczma on his face. I kept tell the ped that my son could not handle any foods he tried & something was wrong with the formula; he looked at me as if I was crazy.

I wasn’t crazy because the testing showed my son had a reaction to over 16 food items. For us we tried Elecare first and had no success. Then we went on Neocate only (nothing else) for 2 months and saw a huge improvement but he was still struggling a little. The only thing else he was getting was his meds for reflux. So my Dh & I decided to take him off of the meds & for us that was the missing piece of the puzzle. He improved although his reflux was still there. He was actually worse on the meds then off of them. The dr had us try just about everything there was for meds & there seemed to be something in every one of them that he had problems with.

My son is 16 months old now & was tested again at 14 months & we did see an improvement as regards to the outcome of the test. A few items he is no longer has a reaction to so they listed them as intolerances. But right now he can eat bananas, pears & rice cakes. He continues to fail his food trials every day.

K&T’s Mom2006-12-8 8:2:22

[Anonymous]

You got good info already. True, allergy testing is not that reliable, however, the allergists will still do it because there is still a chance that something will come up. First time Matthew was tested, he was 3months old. They look at IGe levels in general and they look at specific foods (ie when he was 3months old he was only on formula so they did not test for anything else). If your baby was never breastfed, like Matthew, then there is less of a chace to get false positives because Matthew would ahve never got my antibodies anyway…

Matthew was just retested the other day adn he is allergic to egg or so it seems. but the ped allergists are really good about allergies – Matthew is going to have a couple of more tests to determine whether this is a false positive or not… there are also false negatives, so it is not easy… you just need to see someone good.

they told me that intolerances will NOT produce excema… they will cause discomfort but that is it because they are not a true reaction of the immune system. they should not cause a reaction in the skin but that was the allergist i saw at Mt Sinai (they are supposed to be best team around).

Have you thought about contact dermatitis and stuff like that?? I have a really bad reaction to metals – it is crazy, but even touching them one day will only produce a reaction a couple of days later and i am covered in a rash, so i am careful… some babies are allergic to bleach, certain types of soap, lotion etc…

there is another mom i know whose baby has EE and it is triggered by corn syrup (even more than corn itself). But the allergist discovered that… like my allergist, they go as far as testing the corn syrup itself (or the egg itself) into matthew’s skin by scratching it…

matthewmama2006-12-8 9:49:37

[Anonymous]

onefunteacher wrote: Hi Natalia! This is completely off the topic, but one of the other ladies on another post noticed that my 6 month old silent refluxer is on AR Lipil pre-thickened formula. She thought you might have posted on this formula before, and that it might not allow meds to work. I never doubted using it before, because my ped-gastro specialist highly recommended it….any info would be great! Thanks!

here is the info:

“There is a formula that tries to address issues surrounding reflux
called Enfamil AR. It has rice starch that curdles when it hits the low
pH of the stomach making it less likely for reflux to occur. However,
if your child is on Zantac, then the stomach pH isn’t low, so the
Enfamil AR won’t work.”

(i am assuming they are talking about all the acid reducers not just zantac)

here is the link:

http://parenting.ivillage.com/baby/bhealth/0,,bt5s,00.html

[Anonymous]

K&T’s mom….yep, my GI is basically telling me the same thing (that I am crazy and he cannot possibly be allergic to the Elecare/neocate). The crazy thing is that neither of the formulas seems to really be taking care of his reflux completely either. He was on Neocate for about two weeks and it has been a week on the Elecare (so a total of 3 weeks on the amino based formulas). We are still having some really bad days and awful nights.

Thais – I have to read about contact dermatitis…thanks.

Gosh! I just don’t know what to do!?!?!

[Anonymous]

maybe his prevacid dose needs to be adjusted? maybe the lactose or the apartame in the solutabs are bothering him?

[Anonymous]

Funny you say that Natalia – because I have been doubting lately whether the prevacid is even doing anything for him at all…..maybe I should stop that for a few days…or how long would I have to stop it to know for sure (like how long does it take to get out of their systems?)?

[Anonymous]

It’s true that he could be reacting to some of the ingredients in the solutabs, but I’d try a differnt version of Prevacid (capsules or packets) or another PPI (like Zegerid) instead of stopping his meds.

Another thought…is he consitpated?

[Anonymous]

Hi Natalia…thank you for the info on the AR Lipil. We were on Alimentum with rice added until about one month ago, when our specialist had us try the AR. So far, so good. My son has not shown great improvements, but is not any worse. I was relieved to be able to make a bottle without the rice. His prevacid seems to still be doing the job. Again, thanks for the info!

[Anonymous]

yeah, the med will still work, its just that it will prevent the formula from actually thickening in the stomach.

[Anonymous]

No – he’s not constipated at all….although, something else that really baffles me….he never has gas except at night (usually starting around 2am) and this is what keeps us up all night, I think. Any thoughts on that one?!?!

[Anonymous]

Hmmm….

I think it’s common for digestive problems to arise at night that do not ocurr during the day. Probably because the digestive system slows down and the baby is fairly inactive for extended periods of time.

Perhaps it has something to do with the rice starch that’s in the AR formula. Many babies have trouble digesting rice cereal, so I imagine the rice starch could be a problem for some babies as well.

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