Re: Digest Number 2813 - allergy tests

March 9, 2001

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The IgG was helpful to us because it showed allergic reactions to things my

son had not eaten in months (such as gluten). I think it's important to pay

attention to what was eaten (and not eaten) in the weeks before drawing the

blood so you can read the results accurately. We had a sky high reading for

bananas, which we hadn't been sure about (I thought it may have been a sugar

thing), and I had let him have one shortly before the test. In comparison to

that, the gluten reading was low, but because we knew he wasn't eating gluten

we interpreted that as a high allergy reading. When you fill out the form it

asks you to mark off 20 foods that your child eats, and you should be sure

that all the foods you want to know about are checked off, regardless of

whether your child is eating it. You can always feed your child some of the

questionable foods if you want to look for high reaction in the test, but we

weren't willing to do that (except for the banana) and just tracked what he

was eating instead.

It was also nice to have those results on hand when we were preparing the

health care plan portion of our son's IEP - I had documented evidence of food

allergies which made the school district take our diet concerns much more

seriously.

Find a pediatric GI who will take you through it -- it's worth it. Good luck!

CC

In a message dated 3/8/01 12:12:21 AM Eastern Standard Time,

<< Subject: IgG allergy tests

Hi all,

I want some opinions on IgG allergy tests. There is a lot of conflicting

info on this test. Some say it will only determine what you have been

recently exposing yourself too . Others feel that it measures long term

allergic response to certain foods. Has anyone ever seen, really SEEN

improvement from eliminating the food that is on results from this kind of

test?? Did any of you feel that it did indeed reveal to you a real

allergy--one that you could see the effects of a slip up from??? Thank you

for the info sharing, Dont know which Dr's to trust anymore!!!!

>>

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