OT.......Allergist and a 4 yr old

[Trentmom]

Hi.

I am taking my almost 4 year old to an allergist tomororw. It is his first appointment and want to know what to expect.

Has anyone taken a 3 or 4 yr old to an allergist recenlty for their first appt?

Can you please tell me what kind of test they do??

DS has asthmatic allergies.. In his 4 years of life, he has been in the hospital 4 times, with a bad asthma attack triggered by allergies and real bad colds.

He is always congested, too.

The dr finally put him on singulair and he does pulmicort once a day for maintenance.

Plus, he takes albuterol, via the nebulizer, if he has a bad cold and is wheezing.

Thanks for any and all info you can give me.

 

[EnchantedPrincess]

My dd and ds both see an allergist. My dd has asthma as well, but only triggered by certain things and she is on Xopenex as needed but they started seeing the allergist for their food allergies. During both their first appointment, they did blood work to confirm the food allergies. Other than that, it was mainly just a question and answer session.

 

[dddisrunner]

Hi.

I am taking my almost 4 year old to an allergist tomororw. It is his first appointment and want to know what to expect.

Has anyone taken a 3 or 4 yr old to an allergist recenlty for their first appt?

Can you please tell me what kind of test they do??

DS has asthmatic allergies.. In his 4 years of life, he has been in the hospital 4 times, with a bad asthma attack triggered by allergies and real bad colds.

He is always congested, too.

The dr finally put him on singulair and he does pulmicort once a day for maintenance.

Plus, he takes albuterol, via the nebulizer, if he has a bad cold and is wheezing.

Thanks for any and all info you can give me.

My goodness when I read your post I felt like I was reading about my son. My son will 6 next week and has been hospitalized 3 different times for asthma related conditions. He had RSV at 7 weeks and pneumonia twice. I took him at 2 years old to be tested for allergies and he was given a skin test on his back. The nurse gave him 23 different pinches to exposures of all types of tree's, pollen, dust, grasses, mold and insects. Nothing significant really showed up. I was so frustrated because he was ALWAYS sick (or so I thought) the allergist prescribed singulair and zyrtec as a regimen. This helped somewhat but he still had breakthrough symptoms such as a runny nose, throat clearing and coughing. Again soooooooooo frustrating! Finally I decided to call CHOP Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a miracle happened! All of his symptoms were purely asthma related they performed many test and sent me a HUGE packet of info to fill out and then told me that they have had many cases such as my sons! Let me tell you I felt like I won the lottery! If you would like to PM me I would be happy to pass along the doctors name and give you more info! Good Luck!

Diane

 

[Trentmom]

My dd and ds both see an allergist. My dd has asthma as well, but only triggered by certain things and she is on Xopenex as needed but they started seeing the allergist for their food allergies. During both their first appointment, they did blood work to confirm the food allergies. Other than that, it was mainly just a question and answer session.

That was what I was afraid of?? Ds does not do well with needles......

They tried to do an iv on him when he was in the hopsital last month to give him his medicine.

I told them, no, I rather it be orally ingested. But, they insisted this would be better.

Well, after 3 misses, I said STOP...Give it to him orally Now.

I was so mad...

Thanks

 

[Mkrop]

I took DS9 and they did the prick test up and down his arms (maybe arms bc he was older) two rows on each arm. It broke out in the section that was all outdoors, he is allergic to everything outdoors, tress, grass, weeds, pollen. he also was given a breathing test where he ahd to blow into a tube that "blew" out computer generated candles. And lots of Q&A.

 

[Manda]

Are you going to a pediatric allergist? That makes a big difference, IME.

My DS has been seeing an allergist since he was 1 1/2. He's only ever had blood allergy tests to confirm that he'd positively outgrown his dairy allergy. Blood allergy tests are generally only used for food allergies and usually only used when they know what they are specifically testing for. In our example, my son was skin test positive for dairy and soy. After he stopped testing positive for those via skin test, the doctor wanted a secondary test to make sure he was 100% over the allergies before she gave the go ahead to start dairy. So, he's only had blood test once. Although, they'll often give blood tests rather than skin tests for children under 2 because there is some belief that skin tests aren't accurate on young children (and under 2 don't usually develop environmental allergies yet any way).

The skin tests have never been a big deal for us. We've always had prick tests rather than scratch tests. My son barely even notices it. The only thing that bothered him was when they wiped him with the alcohol swab (cold) and wrote on his back with the marker (tickled). They use a tiny needle and pricked him for each allergen the tested for - in our case, soy, dairy, cat, dust, grass, ragweed, pollen, mold. He didn't even flinch or feel the pricks. Then, he watched TV in the office for 20 minutes. His back felt itchy a couple times and I'd blow on it and he'd feel better. After the test is over, they wipe his back again to stop the reactions and then he's fine. If there's a severe reaction, they'll give them Benadryl (or I guess an Epi-Pen injection if very severe).

For the asthma stuff, they just listen to him breathe, ask a lot of questions (a LOT), and have him blow out into the tube that measures him lung capacity, I guess.

All in all... very easy appointments, but long. He loves his asthma/allergists and never complains about going there. He's four now and just had his pre-winter check-up and pretty much everything is under control now (I think we're on the cusp of outgrowing all this completely). For this appointment, all we did was chat about how great he's doing and have him blow in the tube.

 

[3littleHalls]

It depends on the allergist. My kids see a pediatric allergist. On their first visits he did the skin tests(looks like a white rectangle) that they put on their skin. There is a histimine place where they are supposed to re-act, then the rest of the places are tests spots. The kids have to be off all allergy meds(no benedryl, zyrtec, etc) for 5 days before testing. If the dr does lab work you don't have to do the 5 day thing. My youngest has eczema so bad she had no places clear to do the skin test so she had her labs drawn. We took her to the lab where we knew a person that was excellent at drawing children's blood. If they have a person at the dr's office that draws labs make sure they are good with kids first. My middle child also has a food allergy where they check his blood for how bad a reaction he could have if exposed. Good luck! I actually felt relief finding out what was hurting my kids, and what I could do to help.

 

[mrsbert]

My DS9 has an appt. tomorrow with an allergist. I was going to call today to ask what I should expect. This thread helps a bit. Thanks to the OP for posting.

 

[Trentmom]

My DS9 has an appt. tomorrow with an allergist. I was going to call today to ask what I should expect. This thread helps a bit. Thanks to the OP for posting.

Good Luck Mrsbert and you are welcome

Well, today went great.

It was a lot of Q& A. Listening to him breath and checking out the nose and his ears.

No skin test or blood drawn. He said at his age, you get a lot of false positive and in time it will tell. He didn't want to torture him.

They don't do the breathing test at this age as it is hard to get an accuate reading.

So, for now, said to look into getting rid of our carpet and look into getting rid of our cat. It won't stop what he has, but will definitely help.

We have had our cat for 5 years now and ds will be so sad. He said you don't have to get rid of it, just a thought.

He said to continue on his daily treatments on pulmicort and singulair.

He is schedule d in December for a follow up.

Thanks everyone for all their great advice.

It really helped a lot

 

[WantToGoNow]

My son has been seeing an allergist since he was 3 -- he's now 6.5. He is allergic to Latex and is just starting to show allergy to milk and eggs. They did blood work for the Latex and the dairy. The other visits he gets the tests on his arms -- they aren't really needle sticks, more like a slight scratch. He takes Zrytec and Pulmicort in the am and Singulair at night. He also has a Xopenex inhaler and respules for the Nebulizer if his symptoms get bad enough.

 

[Trentmom]

I took DS9 and they did the prick test up and down his arms (maybe arms bc he was older) two rows on each arm. It broke out in the section that was all outdoors, he is allergic to everything outdoors, tress, grass, weeds, pollen. he also was given a breathing test where he ahd to blow into a tube that "blew" out computer generated candles. And lots of Q&A.

Yeah, they didn't do any kind of tests as they said he is a little young for that and time wil tell. No need to torture the kid now, he said

Are you going to a pediatric allergist? That makes a big difference, IME.

My DS has been seeing an allergist since he was 1 1/2. He's only ever had blood allergy tests to confirm that he'd positively outgrown his dairy allergy. Blood allergy tests are generally only used for food allergies and usually only used when they know what they are specifically testing for. In our example, my son was skin test positive for dairy and soy. After he stopped testing positive for those via skin test, the doctor wanted a secondary test to make sure he was 100% over the allergies before she gave the go ahead to start dairy. So, he's only had blood test once. Although, they'll often give blood tests rather than skin tests for children under 2 because there is some belief that skin tests aren't accurate on young children (and under 2 don't usually develop environmental allergies yet any way).

The skin tests have never been a big deal for us. We've always had prick tests rather than scratch tests. My son barely even notices it. The only thing that bothered him was when they wiped him with the alcohol swab (cold) and wrote on his back with the marker (tickled). They use a tiny needle and pricked him for each allergen the tested for - in our case, soy, dairy, cat, dust, grass, ragweed, pollen, mold. He didn't even flinch or feel the pricks. Then, he watched TV in the office for 20 minutes. His back felt itchy a couple times and I'd blow on it and he'd feel better. After the test is over, they wipe his back again to stop the reactions and then he's fine. If there's a severe reaction, they'll give them Benadryl (or I guess an Epi-Pen injection if very severe).

For the asthma stuff, they just listen to him breathe, ask a lot of questions (a LOT), and have him blow out into the tube that measures him lung capacity, I guess.

All in all... very easy appointments, but long. He loves his asthma/allergists and never complains about going there. He's four now and just had his pre-winter check-up and pretty much everything is under control now (I think we're on the cusp of outgrowing all this completely). For this appointment, all we did was chat about how great he's doing and have him blow in the tube.

That is great that he is starting to outgrow it...Hope ds does that as he gets older.. He already has outgrown the ezcema for the most part.

It depends on the allergist. My kids see a pediatric allergist. On their first visits he did the skin tests(looks like a white rectangle) that they put on their skin. There is a histimine place where they are supposed to re-act, then the rest of the places are tests spots. The kids have to be off all allergy meds(no benedryl, zyrtec, etc) for 5 days before testing. If the dr does lab work you don't have to do the 5 day thing. My youngest has eczema so bad she had no places clear to do the skin test so she had her labs drawn. We took her to the lab where we knew a person that was excellent at drawing children's blood. If they have a person at the dr's office that draws labs make sure they are good with kids first. My middle child also has a food allergy where they check his blood for how bad a reaction he could have if exposed. Good luck! I actually felt relief finding out what was hurting my kids, and what I could do to help.

I feel better knowing what is wrong with my ds as well....But, since being on the singulair, he is doing great....less wheezing and getting out of breath so easily

My son has been seeing an allergist since he was 3 -- he's now 6.5. He is allergic to Latex and is just starting to show allergy to milk and eggs. They did blood work for the Latex and the dairy. The other visits he gets the tests on his arms -- they aren't really needle sticks, more like a slight scratch. He takes Zrytec and Pulmicort in the am and Singulair at night. He also has a Xopenex inhaler and respules for the Nebulizer if his symptoms get bad enough.

Ds take the pulmicort and the singulair... He has the zrytec, but the singulair seems to be doing the trick, so we only give him the zrytec if his allergies are really bothering him bad...