Allergy Testing and Treatment for Young Children.

I used to be a medical assistant for a allergy and asthma doctor. YEs 5 yr olds will have the skin test done on the back. If you are uncofortable with it you can do a blood test instead.
My opinion after administering the allergy injections to so many people. I did see results of allergies totally diapearing. BUt only after taking the allergy injections for a lengthy time period. Lots of people on the allergy shots told me they felt much better on them than not. You really have to stick with them or they will not work.

My son is 10y. He's been on allergy shots for around 5y.

For foods, you can ask they they test against a blood sample. For environmental, they usually like to have the skin test done. My doctor has my son lay on his belly, and then has 3 panels of 10 needles. 2 are applied at the same time, followed by the 3rd. the whole thing is over in 30 seconds. The hard part then come trying to get him to sit still for 15 mins. My dr. does the tests on the back and the panels so that the kids won't see the needles and get stressed.

Allergy testing has improved greatly since you had your testing done. I work for a national testing laboratory and have a great deal of experience with this, especially this time of year. There are several types of blood test as well as the skin prick tests mentioned. I won't try to pimp out the brand name of the test but I would ask your pediatrician about Total IgE blood testing. It tests for a wide variety of environmental and food allergens at the same time based on the region you live. Most insurance comapnies will pay for testing once per year so have the doc add on any potential allergens initially so you won't be hit with a big bill. Good luck.

I glanced at your responses so far, and they have all addressed the method of testing pretty well. I noticed, however, that none of them (as of right now anyway) has addressed that actual allergy shots themselves, should you end up going that route. It also sounds like you REALLY want to avoid that b/c of the trauma for your son if he were to undergo that sort of treatment/therapy.

My son is 13. When he had just turned 12, we had his testing done. (We went with the IgE blood testing Christine W mentioned below). He has been getting injections every week for almost 2 years now, and it has helped. He still has a while to go yet, and even though he still takes Zyrtec or Allegra daily for his symptoms, they actually are enough now. Before, he had almost zero control with medication. He was CONSTANTLY blowing his nose, sneezing, congested, had the nose wrinkle and I swear I'd be rich if I had invested in Kleenex. Really. He would easily go through a full sized box every 3-4 days. Sometimes faster. The floor board of my car looked like a trash bin just from the drive to school in the mornings. I honestly do NOT know how he functioned at school all day. I sent BOXES of tissues to his teachers.
At any rate, now his symptoms are manageable and he seems much better, though not totally symptom free. Totally worth it. And he is STILL improving.

As for the shots themselves--yeah.. he is NOT a big "I love shots" kid, lol. But the shots they use to administer allergy injections are with the tiniest little needles. My son gets 2 each time (one in each arm, from 2 different vials of serum--yeah... he has that many allergens)... and he has ZERO problem with it. Every week for the past 2 years. He LIKES to go. The shots are an inconvenience (because he needs to remember to wear a short sleeved shirt, and he has to stop whatever we're doing to make it to the appointments) but he likes to sit in the waiting area post-injection and play the video game consoles they have there.
It isn't like going for a "regular" doctor's appointment either. You don't sit and wait for your appointment each time b/c the doctor is behind schedule. You really almost don't even have an appointment. You pop in on your "regular" day and the nurse calls him back, administers the shots, and he plays video games until the timer goes off (you have to wait 20-30 minutes to watch for any reaction). He doesn't even go into a treatment room. Just to the lab area, where he sits in the blood draw chair and she gives the shots. No big deal.
And believe me, he was PETRIFIED of it before we started doing them. He had very recently been traumatized by shots to treat double pneumonia. And that was a big needle. It was in his butt/lower back muscle. It was painful. And it was 3 shots. One, for three days in a row. He literally was so sore from them that he couldn't SIT in a chair to go to school. He cried with those.

But the allergy shots? ... not a biggie AT ALL.

I have had my twin sons tested. We had a blood test done on one of them when he was 2.5 years old due to a reaction with peanut butter. The advantage of a blood test is that it can test for a lot of things all at once. But getting blood drawn on a little one is tough.

A little after my sons turned 3, we got them both tested with the skin prick test. For the one that was allergic, we wanted to get more details on which nuts he was allergic to. For the other, we wanted to verify that he did not have food allergies and confirm whether he had outdoor allergies. We could have done a blood draw again but decided to try the skin prick test.

Personally, I'd rather see them suffer through one blood test over the skin prick test...especially since one son had strong reactions and was very unhappy. With a skin prick test, the kid has to sit with an itchy back for 10 minutes (or longer) for the reading to be done.

We will periodically have the one with food allergies re-tested to see if he might grow out of the food allergies. The blood test results are a number so you can monitor the number over time. Unfortunately, the number result does not indicate what type or how severe the reaction will be.

As far as accuracy, I'm not sure which is better. I've been told it's good to get confirmation using both tests. I've also been told that for the blood test, the number result that indicates an allergy is different for under 5 than over 5. Also, I try not to read into the results too much. I've gotten the skin prick test done on myself and it showed a mild allergy to cats, but in reality, cats are by far the worst allergic reaction that I have. It's just another example of where the test result is not an indicator of how severe a reaction one will have.

But overall, I think the tests are definitely useful so you can try to avoid the things that might trigger an allergic reaction...especially for kids.

As far as I know the only treatment to (permanently) eliminate allergies is shots. I've been told the success rate with shots is higher in children than in adults. Shots don't work with food allergies which isn't an issue for your son.

If there is some other reason to do blood work on your son, like a check-up or something, you can request they do the allergy testing at the same time. Then you don't have to do an extra shot.

It sounds like the allergies are seasonal if they are suddenly getting worse. The other possibility if you have a pet is that he has developed an animal allergy. I wasn't allergic to cats until I was 8 or older. It's definitely worth taking him to a pediatric allergist and discussing options. You don't have to do shots. I maintain my own allergies with medication. Also, if zyrtec isn't working, then maybe another medicine will work better.

If his symptoms are worse at night when he is sleeping, it could be that he has indoor allergies as well. Mold and dust mites are common ones. We ended up ripping out the carpet and putting in wood floors and non fabric window coverings in my sons' room to help reduce dust mite issues.

I recently had my 10 year old son allergy tested and I was nervous about all the different shots of allergens too. But to my suprise all they did was take his blood. Guess things have changed in the last few years. u I would call his pediatrician and ask how they do their allergy testing. And yes I think it is worth it. Never hurts to make the call, afterall it may not be allergies at all might be something with a simple fix. My son was getting lots of symptoms too, it ended up that is was a cold that just kept lingering, it would seem to be going away and then come back even worse

Oh don't do shots. Go to naet.com and go that way. It is non-invasive, fun for the kids and you, easy, and works. Find a doctor who does that in your area through naet.com and read the story of why this is better.

N.

my daughter has had food allergies since birth, she is 6 now and we only will do blood tests on her. The allergist would like us to do the skin test but we are very conservative and do not feel she needs to be put through that. It is totally your decision. She had been on zyrtec for years and we recently took her off and seems to be doing OK.

Do what you think it right for your child.

Talk to your general pediatrician and ask for a referral to a pediatric allergist. They can talk to you about testing and various treatment options. Singulair daily (4mg) is what our doctor prescribed for runny nose & congestion.

We were sent to a pediatric allergist after a really bad reaction to our son's first taste of peanut butter (we now carry an epi-pen, because it's that bad). Because of this, they did skin-prick tests to determine if there were other allergens we should try to avoid, and he came with another food allergy and with 3 or 4 environmental allergies. He will be retested periodically, starting at age 4.

He is not on shots, but that may be done at some point in the future (I hope not, though).

Because we have a history of family allergies (both DH & have some environmental/season allergies) and DS has eczema and allergies, there is a really high chance of his developing asthma (we were told that when DS was 6m old; our pediatrician is really up on allergies bec. she has 2 kids with severe allergies & 1 w/ asthma), so we didn't mess around and glad to get a referral to a good allergist (though there was no way of predicting a severe peanut allergy).

If this is going to be ongoing for your son, you might want to see if you can find a new regular pediatrician who is really experienced with allergies.

we've done all the allergy testing there is. if your son is afraid of needles, he won't be able to see the grid they use for the skin prick testing. they do it on his back. that said, it's not comfortable because they poke and move it around a little. at least that's how they did it a few years ago.

anyway, after doing all the regular allergy testing, we have had the best luck doing a sensitivity test through our ND. it comes up with some weird results sometimes but i challenged them and they were all true :( my allergies have been better since i have avoided the foods that my body reacts negatively to (even those that did not show up on regular allergy tests). the only downside to the testing is that he has to hold a metal rod in one hand while the ND presses a rod into the palm of his other hand.

i know it sounds 'woo-woo' but it actually works.

There are two types of allergy tests. One is under the skin and that is the most conclusive. The other is blood test but you get a lot of false positives and not as reliable. I would talk to your doctor about the best course of action because depending on the type of allergy, there are different treatments. Sounds like you are trying to do the best in terms of natural remedies.

Okay, he seems to have Seasonal Allergies.
(I am not a Doctor, this is just my opinion).

I have seasonal allergies or to just dust in the air and during windy days it is more irritating. I have been like this since I was a child.
So, my parents got me an air purifier for my room and the house.
But I grew up with pets etc.
But no carpet in my room etc.

I did not get allergy shots.
Nor allergy treatments etc.
And mainly because, my allergies was not and is not debilitating and I know and my parents knew, what irritated my symptoms.
As an adult, well I take Claritin. I do not like Zyrtec personally, because it makes me TIRED and GRUMPY.
Then I also have Asthma so I have an inhaler. But this was diagnosed and per my Doctor, since childhood.

The thing is: per seasonal allergies... you can see a specialist. And depending on how bad or debilitating his allergies are, then he can use prescriptions. Personally I never had to take the multiple shots per week. And my parents didn't want me to have to go through that.
AND also because, my allergies didn't bug me. Sure I sneezed/had runny nose/stuffed nose, etc. But it really was a no big deal to me. And my parents never went overboard in giving me things for it each night.

At a certain point, it is useful to do allergy testing. Especially if the allergy is debilitating or dangerous for the child/person. But I do not believe, that simple seasonal allergies, has to be dealt with with multiple shots every week. As a kid and even now, I am fine despite my seasonal allergies. And I just need to have a Kleenex box around.

As long as there is pollen and dust and especially on windy days, a person's seasonal allergy will get a tweaked. It will always happen.
And, the "cough" that you get because of it, is typically due to the "post-nasal drip" of the mucus going down a person's throat. This causes the "gag reflex" to then trigger and the person coughs.
Coughs occur because of: (1) post nasal drip, or (2) chest mucus, or (3) both.

As a child and now as an adult with those allergies, it really is not debilitating for me.
So I have not had to go overboard in taking medications for it. And I just live with it.
BUT if your child's allergies are debilitating or dangerous for him... then certainly prescriptions or targeted medicines, per his diagnosis, would help.

Try to keep your home, less dusty using an air purifier in his room and in rooms he frequents etc.
When he goes outside, change his clothes when he comes home or back inside, because, pollen and dust that is unseen by the naked eye, can still be clinging to his clothing and then it will irritate his allergies.

We had my 9 year old son tested last spring. I was really hesitant to do it because of the pain involved but I am so glad I did it. It is very nice to know what the kiddo is allergic to, you can anticipate and perhaps avoid problems that way.

Now my son's back looked like he had been flogged (my hubby's word) because he reacted to almost everything, but it didn't feel nearly that bad to him. They laid him on his tummy, gave him his choice of Tootsie Pop lollipop and used a needle to just scratch the surface and applied the drops of different allergens, there were probably 30 places in all. He had to lay there for about 10 min. and then they came in a "read" the results. When they were done they gave him an antihistimene to help calm his back down.

The experience was not nearly as bad as what I had thought it was going to be.

M

My 5 year old was tested last August for allergies. She had been congested and had been coughing for a long time and would complain about her throat hurting and she also complained about not being able to breathe, especially after eating. DH has severe allergies and I have allergies too, so we were sure that she must have had allergies too. They used two paddles with all of the needles and allergens on them and pushed them both onto her back at the same time. It was over really quickly. DD cried for a few minutes and then she was fine. It turns out that she didn't have any allergies at all. They diagnosed her with acid reflux and all of her problems disappeared as soon as she started taking medicine for that.

Wetook my son to an allergist at 13 months old for possible milk allergy. They did a skin prick test, and he had absolutely no reaction of pain. All they do is put a drop of liquid on the back and make a few pokes. I don't even think my son noticed at all, and he was just a baby, so you would think he would be sensitive to pain. I think it is similar to acupuncture, in where there are "needles" but no pain because they are so small. They also took blood tests because milk allergy is something that can be outgrown and they can track levels in the blood to figure out when to reintroduce the allergen. I am not sure if this is something that they would do for seasonal type allergies.

Allergy testing is not conclusive for kids under 5......for kids over 5 please see paediatric allergist....they will first do a blood test and put your child on a medicine regime (probably nasonex) to be followed closely.....a monthly follow up and if things don't improve they will do the test on the back where they prick you with all the different types of allergens....the results from this test will determine the severity of allergies and whether shots are needed or not..in the end it is your decision - ride out the allergies with meds or take the shots.......