Help explain allergies

[aida]

My DD2 is now 8 months old. Her GI found blood in her stool at 3.5 months and we changed her formula to Elecare. At 6.5 months, we did an allergy blood test and it came back positive for milk (class IV). We then went to an allergist. We didn't retest for the milk since the blood work was positive but tested for a bunch of other foods. So far, she is also allergic to rice. She has been eating baby food and puffs that contain rice and the allergist said to stop giving her these foods. However, she has been fine on these foods and isn't irritable and doesn't show any signs of rash etc. I'm wondering if giving her these foods with traces of rice will make her allergy worse. Any clue?

thanks

[~ Vik ~]

I don't want to go against your doctor's advice, but I'll share our story regarding Dylan's egg allergy as it seems quite similar to yours. It's a long story so I'll condense it

We've known Dylan was allergic to dairy since 5.5 months. We got an allergist's referral around 16mo after several mystery reactions and wanted to know what was going on. His blood results were surprising - he gets hives on contact with dairy, but those levels were his lowest. His levels were twice as high for eggs! I was stunned, because he had eaten egg white pasta multiple times with no problems. However, contact with actual eggs causes instant swelling and hives. The way my allergist explained it, Dylan is allergic to eggs in their natural state (so if you have to crack an egg to make it, it's unsafe) but eggs in processed foods seem to be ok.

I'm still quite careful because of the severity of Dylan's reactions, and TBH he can't eat many processed foods anyway because of his other allergies, but I continue to serve pastas and the like that he's had safely in the past.

Hth

[aida]

Wow, very interesting. I was trying to research whether blood or skin tests were more accurate but couldn't find a solid answer. My allergist said they are the same but her nurse said the skin test is more accurate. We tested for milk through the blood test but not the skin test and vice versa for rice. I guess I'll just have to take it slow and see what happens. I read a recent study that was conducted on kids with peanut allergies and now there is evidence that giving your kids peanuts early may help prevent the allergy.....who knows at this point.

[~ Vik ~]

In our experience the blood test was more accurate, but that was because of Dylan's eczema. Apparently, kids with eczema have more sensitive skin and can sometimes give a false positive reaction. So we did the skin test first and followed up with s blood teat to confirm the results.

[Buntybear]

In the UK they do the blood test first and then the skin test after a year as they say it won't be accurate until then.