allergy testing

[Anonymous]

My 5 year old is scheduled for allergey testing this week at Children's. They said it will take about 4 hours for the challenge. Any tips /advice? We are taking the ipad for lots of movies, snacks, and art supplies. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

I just did a challenge with my 20 month old son and it honestly went way better than expected so hopefully this eases your fears - if we can make it through 5 hours in small room with a 20 month old you will be flying through with a 5 year old. I think you’ve got it covered with what you said. it ended up taking about 5 hours because we had a couple hiccups with my son not wanting to eat the challenge food (see 20 month old haha). We weren’t at children’s but they had a tv they turned on to a kids channel and they took us to an observation room that was bigger than a regular drs office room thank goodness. We brought lots of toy options and rotated them through but a 5 year will probably be happy with screen time, art etc.

Lots of snacks like you said. Probably not necessary for a 5 year old but I’ll share in case - If your child is picky at all and for some reason might not like the food for the challenge, bring options they love that you can easily mix in. My child hadn’t had the allergenic food since about 7 months old so after the first two doses he was like no thanks not eating that. With a 5 year old you can likely reason but a toddler not so much so we mashed it into banana and were able to continue. I was so grateful to have a favorite food of his with us. Not sure if you can always do that but the doc said it was ok in our case (he only had one suspected -now former! allergy)

[Anonymous]

Think of it as a flight where you will have a bit more ability to move around and plan from there. You seem like you are pretty much set.

[Anonymous]

We couldn't eat snacks during testing, but maybe what you're doing is different?

Honestly, my DS was so happy to have the ipad he didn't really care where he was. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

5 is old enough to talk about what could happen during the challenge. I would try to explain to him as best you can what the process will be, and prepare him for the idea that he could start to feel bad during the test but that there are so many doctors and nurses who will be right there to help if he does feel bad, so don't be scared.

[Anonymous]

It went well! Thanks everybody.