Allergy Testing and Your Child

If you are taking your child for allergy testing, it's common that you might want to know what to expect, especially if this is your first time. When you can prepare your child before the appointment, it will also help her to be more relaxed for the appointment and in the time before it. Children are often apprehensive when they don't know what to expect from an appointment.

Here are some steps to help you and your child become more comfortable with this process:

繚 Find out all of the details about the process first so that you can talk it over with your child. This will allow you to be prepared to answer any questions that might come up.

繚 Talk with the allergist about any medications your child should discontinue before the testing and how early you should discontinue.

The allergist that your child is seeing should provide you with preparation instructions as well as guidelines on what you can expect. It's important that you read over all of this and ask any questions before the appointment date if you have them. You can then help prepare your child for what she can expect in the appointment.

Allergy testing is not typically done on children under the age of four, with the exception of blood testing that is sometimes done to rule out some things. However, blood testing for allergies is not thorough and skin prick testing is usually done later.

Allergy skin testing today is very non invasive. Small plastic panels or pre-prepared allergens are pressed onto the skin of the back. The child will need to lie on her tummy with her back exposed for the testing. You will then wait 15 minutes before the tests are read for the results. This skin prick testing can determine common allergens such as trees, grass, weeds, animals, cockroaches, dust and more.

Your child may experience some itchiness or burning sensation at the site of the skin testing but otherwise, there are no symptoms except in rare cases where your child has a serious reaction to one of the allergens.

Once the testing is complete, your child's allergist will be able to give you results so that you know what she is allergic to. In addition to trying to avoid these triggers, such as bee stings or peanut butter, your child may also be set up for allergy shots that help maintain the symptoms of seasonal allergies and allergies to things in the air such as pollen or ragweed.