Allergies can be tough.
I know.
I've got two children with multiple food allergies,
environmental allergies, as well as asthma, eczema,
and allergic rhinitis.
And I bet if you're watching this,
you've probably got similar concerns with your kids too.
This is one of a series of videos Mumsnet
are making about allergies.
So to check out the rest, subscribe
to their YouTube channel.
Today, I'm here to tell you a little bit more
about diagnosing feed allergies and the testing process.
So how many children actually have allergies?
To explain about that in a little more detail,
I've got Dr. Adam Fox, who's a paediatric allergist,
to help us out.
Thanks, Emma.
If your child has got allergies, it's
really important to remember that you're not alone.
Over the last 30 years or so, there's
been a dramatic increase in the number
of children who suffer from allergic rhinitis, asthma,
and eczema.
Genetics are really important when it comes to allergy.
If you've got one parent with allergic problems,
then you've got about a 30% risk of having some yourself.
If both parents are suffering from allergies,
then that increases to around 60% to 80%.
But there are some kids who come from families where nobody's
got allergies at all, so it's really difficult to predict
when allergies are going to arise.
When my son was born, in 2013, he was a very unhappy baby.
He cried, he vomited, he didn't sleep,
and by the time he was about 10 weeks old,
he was developing severe eczema.
So I knew something wasn't right,
and I needed to take him to see a doctor.
And it's really helpful, when you
come to the appointment with your doctor
to talk about concerns around allergy,
that you bring as much information as possible.
Keep a diary of any symptoms that have happened.
If you suspect a particular food,
bring it with so that there's a list of ingredients,
because all of that will help taking a detailed allergy
focused history.
Sometimes getting a diagnosis can actually be a huge relief,
because it means you can start figuring out what you do next.
There's two types of food allergic reactions that we see.
One is known as an IgE-mediated or an immediate type reaction.
The other is known as a non-IgE-mediated
or a delayed type reaction.
We understand a little bit more about the immediate type
reactions.
These happen when our immune system makes a mistake
and wrongly develops a response to harmless things,
such as food, that can potentially
harm the body when they happen.
They involve the immune system producing
something called immunoglobulin E, which is an antibody.
And when you eat something that you're allergic
to, the immunoglobulin E recognises it and causes
your body to release a chemical called histamine.
Histamine is the chemical that causes the symptoms that we're
all familiar with of allergic reactions,
and in the most extreme form, the potentially life
threatening condition called anaphylaxis.
Non-IgE-mediated or delayed type allergies
are less well understood.
They involve a different slower acting part
of our immune system, and don't involve the allergic antibodies
that the other sorts of reactions include.
Cells in the immune system recognise foods that
you're allergic to and produce chemicals that lead to a whole
range of different symptoms, typically some hours after
you've eaten them.
This can make it much harder to diagnose,
because the symptoms don't happen quickly
after the food's been eaten.
If your GP suspects your child had an IgE-mediated reaction,
which means an immediate reaction to food, drugs,
or another substance, then they'll
refer you on to an allergy clinic, where
you can get more testing.
And there's two tests that we perform very commonly there.
The first is a skin prick test.
It's a very old fashioned test, but a very reliable one.
What it involves is putting small drops
of the different things that we suspect that your child might
be allergic to onto the forearm, and then, very gently,
prick through that drop into the skin.
That means that the immune system that sits just
under the skin gets to see the protein in the extracts that
are on the arm, and it tells you what it thinks about it.
If there are allergic antibodies there,
then within 10 to 15 minutes, they'll
come up with a little red bump, and the size of that bump
relates directly to the likelihood
that you're allergic.
It's important to mention that just because you
get a positive test, it doesn't mean that you are allergic,
nor does it mean if it's negative
that you're not allergic.
You have to interpret the result together
with a clinical history.
What's happened when there's been an exposure to that food?
A blood test is just as reliable.
It's as sensitive and specific as a skin prick test,
but sometimes it's helpful to have two pieces of information
rather than one in order to make your decision as
to whether you think somebody is allergic or not.
We do allergy testing on babies from very early infancy,
and it can be very helpful and reliable.
So my children have both been tested yearly
when they're young.
This gives you a chance to see if they may have outgrown
an allergy, if you're able to start reintroducing a food,
or just if anything has changed.
As they get older though and the likelihood of them
outgrowing something decreases, these visits to the allergy
clinic will probably become less frequent,
and you may go to three yearly or even beyond that
as they get into adolescence.
It can feel really overwhelming, lonely,
and upsetting to see your child in pain or to watch them
have a bad reaction.
But keep going.
Find the right help, get that referral to the allergy clinic,
and you will get to the bottom of it eventually.
Once you've figured out the diagnosis and the testing,
then you can learn how to move forward
and how to manage it in your everyday life.
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