Food Intolerances: ELISA Test

Five years ago my middle child (then 4 yo) was tested for various allergies by an allergist (Dr. Phillip Ranheim in Lake Stevens). I don't recall the names of the tests -- blood draw and stool sample. I already knew he was allergic to milk, but he was still having allergic reactions (tummy ache, rash, etc.). The results came back with soy, eggs, corn, and I think a couple other minor ones.

The allergist said milk didn't show up because he hadn't had any milk prodcts (milk, whey, casein, etc.) since he was 4 months old -- there was no milk in his system to test or react to. The allergist also said soy was his biggest reactor. Knowing that, we have avoided all soy and been careful about quantity and frequency of eggs and corn. It seems to work well for us.

Good luck!

We have only done the test for gluten, and his IgG's were very high!!!! Removing all gluten, while hard and somewhat expensive, is SOOOOOOO worth it. His behavior is MUCH improved. I do what ever I to avoid the gluten. I make/buy special bread, make a lot of his goodies, remove play doh (it too is wheat based)-even licorice has wheat flour!! I read all labels. While all the label reading is hard and life takes adustment, it is so much easier to deal w/him and train him. We will be doing the full test (96 foods) later this week.

My daughter was tested at 9 months. She seemed allergic to everything!! Since I was nursing I had to give up all the same foods. She showed a high response to corn and dairy among a long list of other things. It made our family eat better. We learned to read lables. We tried all sorts of new foods. I consider it the best nutritional education I have ever had. We slowly reintroduced foods (over a 3 year period) and now at 7 years old my daughter does not struggle with food allergies.

There is nothing lost in going "nutso" for three weeks and seeing if it helps your boy. Enjoy the adventure. Then reintroduce things one at a time and see if you agree with the results.

So you know it took us a month to figure out things before we could say that we had cut everything out. It was many days of "failing" and many hard grocery shopping trips.

L.,
You have every reason to wonder. Years ago I had the "scratch" test done and the only thing my parents go out of it was that I was allergic to chickens, pollens,grasses and a very tearful daughter from the cuts. Needless to say I had terrible seasonal allergies as a kid.
As an adult I have great results with an ND. The first test results for me showed gluten and egg allergies, plus some little ones, but the eggs and gluten were off the scale. After omitting those foods from my diet, I felt so much better. Years later I had the test done again just to see how things were going. The interesting thing is that I had not eaten anything with eggs or even eggs and the results were still off the scale.

Well, I have had great results with the tests. I just avoid the foods and when time has gone by I try to introduce them again. If I have a reaction then I know that I need to stay away from it.

You are worried about gluten. I completely understand. Avoiding gluten is like avoiding germs, difficult. I have done it for over 14 years and I haven't died of starvation like I thought. Your son is lucky because he is very young to start eating different types of foods. For me it was difficult because I had eaten Taco Bell, BK, McDonalds various restaurants all my life. I love the food, but I just can't eat it anymore. Of all the allergies I have, Eggs, Gluten and SOY are my worst. Try having these. No chocolate bars, no cake at parties, etc.

I see the tests as very informative and they help me make informed decisions about what foods I should eat and avoid. I also eat healthier because of it. If you are on the fence about the results then have another test done.

Be well.

I have the opposite problem. My daughter is celiac, and only one MD and my naturopath agree that she is celiac. HOwever, the results show for themselves. When she's off it, she's a different child, digestion and eating are much better, and her brain is fully functioning instead of being shut down.

My advice would be, take those things out of her diet that the naturopath recommended. Food allergies don't always show up when expected. For example, I could eat dairy then have a migraine without fail 24 hours later. You cannot tell how long it takes for a food allergy to really manifest in someone's body.

See what happens when they are taken out of the diet. It has to be taken out at least 4 days. Some doctors recommend two weeks. If there is a change for the better, then you know bingo, that's right. If there's not, maybe the test scores got mixed up and try the test again, or a different test to confirm. You can try taking out dairy for 4 days, for example, then take out peanuts and wheat for 4 days. The other thing about food allergies, if they are not celiac (which is the inability to process wheat gluten - a permanent condition) sometimes there comes a time where the food allergy is no longer there. So this is not necessarily a permanent condition.

My naturopath worked with the standard Paclabs and other labs that medical doctors use. Maybe she can get alternative tests there to confirm. However, food allergies can be so serious as to cause autism, so I wouldn't play around with this.

By the way, you can make gluten-free bread that tastes pretty good - Pamela's Baking mix in the bread maker tastes just as good as gluten bread. Places like PCC and Whole Foods Natural Markets have gluten free produce and also recipe books that help with avoiding allergens.

I don't know anything about the ELISA test but I have a baby who's allergic to a laundry list of foods and we are both avoiding them (I'm nursing her). It took some research and changes in thinking about food, but my whole family is healthier for it. And now that I'm used to reading labels and I've found those foods we can rely on, grocery shopping is as easy as it was in the past.

Gluten is mildly difficult to avoid - but not nearly as hard as cutting soy or corn which hide in lots of foods. There are a ton of gluten free products in natural food stores/sections. Ask an employee to show you the gluten free selection. Substitute rice pasta, cooked rice and potatoes in your dinners. Check out http://www.bobsredmill.com/home.php?cat=109 if you need baking supplies that are gluten free.

Dairy is tricky because, at least on the allergy tests, it has a really high false negative result. So if your son reacts to it, just remove it.

The great thing is that at 3, he really should start outgrowing any food allergies. You can cut out all offending foods for two weeks, try adding one at a time - wait two weeks between reintroductions (it can take dairy, for example, up to 2 weeks to leave one's system and thus cause a reaction) and see if he reacts.

Good luck!

I noticed my son reacted to wheat/gluten at five weeks. After removing it from my diet all of his symptoms disappeared. I really think a "food challenge" or food elimination is the best test of all. There are many false positives and false negatives with blood tests. I've heard that the scratch tests are better and/or you use a combination of the two to evaluate the results.

With that said, my son reacted to pecan bread (we didn't know it was pecan bread, we were focussing on the fact that it was gluten free). I don't know exactly which blood test we had, but we had him tested for a laundry list of things and the only thing he came back positive for was.....yep, Pecans!

Here is my problem with it though. I've read that you have to have had an exposure to the food in order to test positive on the test. As it turns out as far as I know he has not been exposed to any thing else he was tested for. Therefore it doesn't seem likely he would have antibodies that would show up to those foods. The ped claims he has probably been exposed in slight amounts without me knowing, but because of his wheat intolerance we are very careful about what goes in his mouth so I really doubt this. So, I'm not celebrating yet that it may only be pecans, because to me that seems pretty unlikely.

So, my advice on the dairy is...if you know he reacts then don't give it to him, and also ask about the scratch test and see an allergist if you haven't already.

Finally, the gluten thing isn't as hard as it seems. Once you get the hang of it it's not bad. It's actually much harder to avoid soy as it's in EVERYTHING.

Sorry this is more about me than you, just letting you know that there are lots of us out here.

HAve your child evaluated for Celiac Disease. CD is very easy to treat, but can be deadly if left untreated. CD will cause ulcers in the intestinal tract, which leads to difficulty absorbing many foods, not just gluten. Common reactions when someone is untreated CD are sensitivity to citrus, milk, nuts, soy, eggs, garlic and shellfish. Once the CD is treated and ulcers clear, the only ongoing food "allergy" is gluten.

Again, CD can be a very serious disease if left untreated. It is related to brain damage, malnutrition, osteo-porosis, seizures, ADHD-like symptoms, depression, anxiety, growth discrepancies, hormonal discrepancies, kidney failure, heart failure and death.

I am also a little suspicious of these allergy tests. The only thing my husband can cook, and does cook is eggs, in their various forms. He specialises in eggs sunnyside up and omlettes. Since he took that d*** test that says he is allergic to eggs, well we haven't had a meal cooked by him since!!
I would pay as much attention to signs and symptoms as I would do the test results. I am on constant poo petrol. I think this tells me more than anyone else can. I see a very obvious result when either of my little ones eats something they don't digest so well. I have a 1.5 and a 2.5 yr old. Though the 2 yr old is potty trained, I still get to see her poo. If she eats too much dairy it gets really soft. If she has too much fruit juice her urinary tract gets red and sore. I SEE the correlation. If her brother eats too many tomatoes or berries, his poo burns his bottom and he gets diaper rash. I can see that he can't tolerate goat milk from the store (gas, tummy ache, loose stool, diaper rash) but he is thriving and loving the fresh raw unpasteurised goat milk I get him from a farm. I haven't had either of them tested cos I feel that I just know and see what they shouldn't have.
Eventually we become accustomed to the things we are sensitive to and stop showing symptoms. Pay attention while they are young, and learn more from this than tests will show you. You will need these tests when they are older when life starts to cover up their true form. In the meantime, enjoy the simple signs that your children tell you and enjoy noticing them. Tests are important and useful and helpful and I know you are doing this to help your child, but I really feel that young children, who haven't consumed too much "crap", are better laboratories than adults who are further from perfect. Children are blank slates, so I think that observing them and watching the effect food has on them is more revealing than allergy testing. Just my opinion. Experiment with what the test says. Wheat free for 3 weeks is not that hard and long enough for you to abstain, reintroduce and watch....

I am glad that you used the name of the test. i have been looking for some way to diagnose what is wrong with me and i can't afford the medical docotrs test for what i think is wrong. I beleing i have a gluten allergy. I have been trying the gluten free diet for almost a month and a half now.I am feeling SOOOOOOOOOOO much better. My back pain has stopped, I have reagular un painful bathroom visits. Sorry if that is an over share, but i know that is a symptom of lactose intolerance too. I hope that you can stick to the diet beacause if he has been feeling bad this might fix it for him. I have twice now tryed somethign with gluten in it since starting the diet. The first time was to see if it was really working or if i was just feeling good. (That was after about a week and a half of no gluten) the last time was three days ago I really wanted some onion rings from red robin while we were there. It didn't turn out well. But I think that it is important to give in once in a while, but i wont be again for a long time.

Have you tried the organic milk? My son was allergic to milks and cheeses. We went to England for a vacation and found he could eat THEIR dairy products. Over there, they don't let the farmers use any hormones.
Have you done the N.A.E.T. yet? That's what got rid of all my family's allergies. Good luck!

Hi L.,
I have alawys wanted to do that test as my daughter has autism and have read so much about these things. I did the gf/cf diet for 8 months and decided not to continue. Why did you have him tested? Doing the gluten free part is hard, but once you get used to it it becomes second nature. My friend recently went gf and she feels so good. I would love to chat with you about it. ____@____.com
If you want to email me. Thanks and good luck B.