Eggsellent News

It seems that our daughter's egg allergy is gone. We made a switch to a new allergist in November and not only do we prefer our pediatric allergist, we have good news to report on the egg front.

First of all, find a pediatric allergist!
Back in November we took our daughter in to see a new allergist. We did not hit it off with our first allergist and I left the office very concerned about the level of care our daughter received. I discussed my concerns with a pediatrician that I know, and he confirmed that given the rapid rate of change in allergy research a pediatric allergist was the way to go. He also knew an allergist in our area that was very current with respect to her knowledge and helped us get an appointment.

In our first visit with our new allergist we did a new skin prick test (SPT). The first allergist did a SPT when Madeleine's arm was covered in so much eczema that there was barely enough room on her arm to do the testing. Many people (including us) have questioned whether we should not have been sent home to return another day.

Our first allergist also did not break the skin when he did the skin prick test (SPT) for peanut. Apparently current research indicates that the chances of a SPT triggering anaphylaxis are sufficiently low to allow the skin to be broken, especially since the test is administered in the care of an allergist.

Our new allergist is great with our daughter and very current in her research (at least from our vantage point). I am very glad that we made the switch.

Eggsellent News!
Of course it helps that in our first visit with our pediatric allergist that Madeleine did not react to egg in her skin prick test, though dogs and peanuts are still a concern. The negative SPT for egg was followed up with a blood test that confirmed that the egg allergy does appear to be gone. Let's hope that's true!

On Monday we have our egg challenge ... stay tuned for the results!

Mixed results on peanut
Though we were excited about the results on the egg front, it was interesting to learn the results of the peanut allergy. Though the SPT produced a 14mm wheal, which is very large, it has been shown (1) that an 8mm wheal is a reliable indicator of a peanut allergy incidence, but has a weaker correlation with the allergy's severity. "The positive predictive accuracy of the (SPT) is only in the range of 50-60%, meaning that a positive reaction will only predict a positive food challenge in 50-60% of patients." (2)

"No Peanuts, Please"
So it appears that we are in the clear on egg and given the mixed results for peanut, we may have good news there in a couple of years. In the interim, it's "No Peanuts, Please" for Madeleine.


References
1 - Hill DJ, Heine RG, Hosking CS, Pediatr Allergy Immunol, Oct 2004
2 - A. Ives, J. O'B. Hourihane, Current Paediatrics, Oct 2002