Skin allergy testing for EoE

• By Armyfam5
• Reply 3364433
• September 10, 2012 at 5:22 pm
• Report post

We had allergy testing and have had great luck with it do far. We had to take out many things, because it turned out that his allergies were most of the 8 you take out plus many more...we have removed them all and his last scope was clear. We were super excited...but don't know if it was the oral prednisone as well as the nasal fluticosone he was on. His dr seems to think it was mostly med related, but we will see. We have taken him off of the orapred and are going to see if he has any reactions. It is hard for him because he usually has no complaints...we are hoping that now he will know what it feels like to have the swelling and stricture in his esophagus and can feel the difference now that it has been gone in case it happens again and comes back.

Good luck! I know it seems so hard when they are so little. Mine was also little when he was young but didnt figure this out until this year and he just turned 11.

• By ln4182
• Reply 3365244
• September 10, 2012 at 11:37 pm
• Report post

our son is 20 months with EoE. he was skin tested a couple months ago, which was life saving for us! he is allergic to some obscure things we never could have guessed to eliminate, and he is much improved now that we know what to avoid. my understanding is that with EoE GI docs need to work hand in hand with your allergist and maybe even a dietician. it helps to have as many minds working as possible!

• By Jessica-EMPOWER-WA
• Reply 3365891
• September 11, 2012 at 9:14 am
• Report post

Most people with EoE don't actually have true food allergies, which is what skin testing will show. If you suspect any IgE-mediated allergies, then allergy testing is a good idea, but if you're looking for EoE triggers, it might not be so helpful. Also, at the APFED conference this year, the allergist noted that skin tests for dairy are highly innacurate and are often false negatives. Recent studies have shown that removing the top 8 allergens is just as effective as using allergy testing directed elimination diets.

• By KellyB1
• Reply 3365940
• September 11, 2012 at 9:30 am
• Report post

We do allergy with my daughter. Hers have changed every year for the last 2 years. We contunie to cut the positive foods. This time the list qas crazy only leaving jer turkey and fish or beans for protien. We have follwed it super close. She lost 25 pounds since feb. We just got a picc lime to give her nutrients. But her scope was clean for the first time since diagnoses 2 1/2 years ago. I have cut the artifical flavorings of the friut oa was postive for. I did because she is postive watermelon and we used a shampoo that was this scent and her head itched. The same thing happened with a body soap of different flavor that she was also positive for. So she can have all thw skittles she wants except orange. Lol.

• By wildehailey
• Reply 3366201
• September 11, 2012 at 11:07 am
• Report post

I think it all depends on the child too, you cannot always believe what the doctors and statistics say...patch testing if it doesnt work 100% and things dont show up atleast it will give you an idea of things to avoid...sometimes allergies dont show up on skin tests because they arent exposed long enough I mean you could really tell when we removed the patches that he was allergic to a wide variety of things and as soon as we took those out of his diet a week later no more chronic diarrhea and that was the first time my son had had solid stools in months...it was seriously a life saver he had lost 2lbs in 2 weeks and that was a lot for a 15 month old.

• By CaraEoEMom
• Reply 3366768
• September 11, 2012 at 2:50 pm
• Report post

Alex's mom already knows our story, but I'll weigh in with our experience for everyone else...Our child had mild eczema as a baby, mild seasonal allergies & asthma through childhood, and developed EoE at age 12. All scratch tests, subq injections, & patch tests came back negative for her as she doesn't have true IgE food allergies. However, her 1st EGD showed eosinophils well over 100 on biopsy samples. After an 8-food elimination, the 2nd scope came back completely clean. We've discovered that dairy is bad but beef is not...and we're still in the process of testing the rest.

• By Shannon_in_Texas
• Reply 3371682
• September 13, 2012 at 10:55 am
• Report post

We used patch testing, skin prick, and even went so far as RAST in an attempt to triangulate on my son's triggers.

His reaction is not typical of EC. We don't know there is a problem until he starts losing weight and gets a cold/flu/cough that he never seems to recover from. He has never experienced immediate symptomology (and I mean with minutes to days) of eating an offending food. He has ALWAYS pooped normally no matter what.... at 9pm.... regular and normal as clock-work. So food trialing is extremely risky for him as recovery/healing from the process that started the weight loss and sickness takes as many weeks as it took for his body to get hurt enough to start exhibiting weight loss that is outside of normal fluctuations. erk.

We felt compelled to use every resource available to us to try and focus on foods that were clean on ALL tests to start with even though false negatives and false positives exist. It at least provided some direction instead of a total shot in the dark.

I really hate experimenting on my child and anything that could possibly help was taken into the equation. Anything that he showed positive for on any of the tests are at the bottom of the food trial list.

The plethora of information available on EGID is overwhelming and so much of it is opinion or patient experienced based. The problem with patient based experience is that every time a doctor gets a new patient the odds of disease presentation are at baseline. So if by random chance a doctor has never had an EGID patient with an IGE trigger, then the doctor has a natural tendency to discard IGE information as relevant. Your family may not fit the pattern the physician has seen in their practice previously. It also doesn't mean that in the long run the doctor won't be proven correct. However, unless there is a published study in a reputable setting and journal that follows the standards and protocols for an experiment and documentation stating that IGE allergies are not a contributing force to the EGID process, then an assertion by a physician that allergy testing is not useful is strictly conjecture and hypothetical only. But that is just my humble opinion..... ; )

Listening to my Mommy Instincts has helped my child considerably. I don't know everything but I know my child better than anyone else in the world.

Good Luck,
Shannon

• By luvmikidz
• Reply 3398816
• September 23, 2012 at 8:40 am
• Report post

Testing has proven helpful with my daughter, it helps narrow down what to eliminate. Sometimes she reacts first and then months later it ends up showing up in a skin prick test which validates it in my mind. She has tested positive for some things that I may not have suspected before (like squash) and so when making something like zucchini muffins i may have questioned the other ingredients .... it just helps watch for and narrow down avoidance foods for us. I would encourage getting them done as it is fast/no side effects etc.. so if it can help why not.

• By Cullens_Mom
• Reply 3405429
• September 25, 2012 at 3:46 pm
• Report post

We did skin prick and the patch testing. The skin prick only showed 3 or 4 IgE very hardly reacting to allergies. He did not react to known EGE triggers. When we patch tested ALL came back negative, including re-tested ones from his skin prick test. So it was no help to me because he is apparently all EGE reactions and not IgE reactions. Which is good in a way and bad because I have to go food by food and note any reactions.