Peanut allergy?

[Anonymous]

My 6 month old had a skin prick test today to check for suspected milk and egg allergies. She came up positive for an egg allergy and very positive for a peanut allergy, which the doctor added on last minute just because it’s a common allergy. She has never had peanuts before. We were very surprised to see this as allergies do not run in our families and we do not have any food allergies ourselves. She does have eczema. The doctor just said to avoid peanuts and to come back in about a year to retest but I’m not really comfortable with that. From what I’m reading it’s very common to have false positives from skin prick tests and I’m worried that not giving her peanuts in her first year would actually make it more likely for her to develop an allergy if it is a false positive. Thinking about paying out of pocket to go to an allergist but I don’t know if this is silly. Any recs for a course of action or a good allergist in the area?

[Anonymous]

Very smart of you get a second opinion. We loved Allergy Partners of Springfield. Worth a drive if you don’t live in that area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very smart of you get a second opinion. We loved Allergy Partners of Springfield. Worth a drive if you don’t live in that area.

Thank you! Did you do immunotherapy through them?

[Anonymous]

Go to an allergist. Don't leave this up to a pediatrician or family practice to manage.
I developed a peanut allergy as a teenager, and my younger DD is anaphylactic to eggs (discovered at 8mo via anaphylaxis after trying scrambled eggs). She also had severe eczema that was likely related, as I had eaten LOTS of eggs while breastfeeding (prior to her diagnosis), and her eczema completely disappeared when my milk dried up at 6mo and we switched to formula.

Bloodwork and skin test results are only reliable about 50% of the time. Lots of false positives. Your doctor shouldn't be testing for foods that have not caused a reaction. If she has a confirmed allergy, you ABSOLUTELY need to make sure you get a prescription for epinephrine (either AuviQ or EpiPen or generic) and make sure it goes everywhere baby goes. Previous reactions are not predictive of future severity.
Find an allergist, now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Go to an allergist. Don't leave this up to a pediatrician or family practice to manage.
I developed a peanut allergy as a teenager, and my younger DD is anaphylactic to eggs (discovered at 8mo via anaphylaxis after trying scrambled eggs). She also had severe eczema that was likely related, as I had eaten LOTS of eggs while breastfeeding (prior to her diagnosis), and her eczema completely disappeared when my milk dried up at 6mo and we switched to formula.

Bloodwork and skin test results are only reliable about 50% of the time. Lots of false positives. Your doctor shouldn't be testing for foods that have not caused a reaction. If she has a confirmed allergy, you ABSOLUTELY need to make sure you get a prescription for epinephrine (either AuviQ or EpiPen or generic) and make sure it goes everywhere baby goes. Previous reactions are not predictive of future severity.
Find an allergist, now.

The thing is it was an allergist so I was surprised she ordered a skin prick test for peanuts when my baby had never tried peanut before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very smart of you get a second opinion. We loved Allergy Partners of Springfield. Worth a drive if you don’t live in that area.

+1 for this practice. We moved an hour away and continued to go back until we didn’t need to anymore (DS outgrew his egg allergy).

[Anonymous]

Don't just go to any allergist. They will tell you the same thing, avoidance. My daughter's highly-recommended allergist had told me to keep her away from peanut & tree nuts for years, until I found out about immunotherapy.

Go to any Allergy Partners. Springfield office is only a couple miles from my house, but we're driving twice a month to Chantilly (Allergy Partners of NoVa) because they also offer tree nut treatment.
My daughter (9) now can eat peanut and 4 types of tree nuts. She went to ER twice due to anaphylaxis at younger age.

[Anonymous]

unclear where you're located but if in/near MD highly recommend Burcin Fraser- she's an expert in OIT and will do an oral food challenge before declaring anything an allergy (my 6 month old tested positive on skin and blood to egg and dairy but we did oral challenges of both in the office and were told to eat them and not avoid any other allergens besides her one allergy of avocado-- which unfortunately was my kid's first food). my niece has done OIT for peanuts there and now eats a large amount of bamba per day (to maintain her dose)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:unclear where you're located but if in/near MD highly recommend Burcin Fraser- she's an expert in OIT and will do an oral food challenge before declaring anything an allergy (my 6 month old tested positive on skin and blood to egg and dairy but we did oral challenges of both in the office and were told to eat them and not avoid any other allergens besides her one allergy of avocado-- which unfortunately was my kid's first food). my niece has done OIT for peanuts there and now eats a large amount of bamba per day (to maintain her dose)

Thank you! I’m in DC but I’m willing to travel anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Would a skin prick test ever be valid if the person had never had the allergen before?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would a skin prick test ever be valid if the person had never had the allergen before?

It was years ago, and maybe the thinking has changed but my baby’s allergist said that they can react to things they were exposed to via breastfeeding.

[Anonymous]

Schreiber Allergy in Rockville is also a good place to try

[Anonymous]

Fairfax Allergy Asthma & Sinus Clinic . My DC started to have on and off nut allergy reaction since age 4, neither our pediatrician nor the allergist/immunologist had idea what exactly it was after allergy test. We then found the Fairfax Allergy Asthma & Sinus Clinic and thought we would give it a try since the doctor seemed to be one of the top doctors in the area, and he pretty soon figured out after allergy test and from what we told him ( DC had allergies but not related to nut, and nut and other things somehow triggered reactions, more related to asthma, and we didn’t know DC had asthma).

[Anonymous]

This sounds old school. I also have a six month old who was in the ER the first time we gave eggs, and he tested positive for peanut too. Our allergist had me give increasing amounts of bamba puffs daily for several weeks then had me give peanut butter. He’s tolerating it without any reaction, but who knows if it was a false positive or if we desensitized him.

We started baked eggs even though he had a severe reaction to scrambled, and he’s fine. We are giving baked eggs daily now and will start the egg ladder if he stays okay with this. No family history here either. I think you should get a second opinion!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This sounds old school. I also have a six month old who was in the ER the first time we gave eggs, and he tested positive for peanut too. Our allergist had me give increasing amounts of bamba puffs daily for several weeks then had me give peanut butter. He’s tolerating it without any reaction, but who knows if it was a false positive or if we desensitized him.

We started baked eggs even though he had a severe reaction to scrambled, and he’s fine. We are giving baked eggs daily now and will start the egg ladder if he stays okay with this. No family history here either. I think you should get a second opinion!

Who was your doctor?