We have not had testing done for a very long time, but when we did, our allergist would only test a few related allergens and a few typical environmentals. He was opposed to testing to broadly without reaction histories to substances or foods. We currently have the ped check her RAST for PN, TN, egg every few years. I do think we need to see an allergist to explore environmental allergies.
I am a member of a group on FB, and just saw photos of a very young child covered with what looked like 30 patches up and down her back and arms. Is this typical, or why would one need so many tested at one time? I think I would get hives from that anyway, and I have no know allergies, but can have dermatographic skin at times.
DS had 26 environmentals tested, our new allergist prefers to spt on the arms not the back. We then had to go back for intradermal testing of 6 items so she could make up the proper allergy shot solutions. DS currently gets 4 shots each Monday.
How old was your DD when the last testing with the allergist was done?
When DS was young, the allergist only did a pediatric panel for environmentals and maybe there were 10 spts, but they had mix for grass, for trees, etc, instead of testing each type of grass common to the area.
Well, dd had RAST done in the past year, just for egg, PN, TN. No skin testing since around 8-9 years old, I do not think. She has never had testing for any EAs other than cat, dust, I do not think. She is + for dust and cat. We probably have a dusty house, just maybe. ;)
I think we need to schedule some skin testing and really dig into purging the house so we can get her room and all th ebedrooms empty and pull the carpeting. Lay down HW. We want ot anyway. Just so much junk around! It is overwhelming, but she is miserable. The carpeting is simply to old, even though theirs look pretty good.
So, that much testing is typical? I mistyped above. The picture I saw was 30 patches, as best I could count. I was wondering if that is excessive, but sounds like your ds underwent a similar testing.
Becca,
Some of what I see and hear in my area of country is that some allergists go to the max on the diagnosing end of things -- yes with 30+ SPTs in one fell swoop. I think this is part of the "test for everything" mentality that is becoming more prevalent in MDs, even if not necessary for the symptoms presented by patient. (Sometimes "test for everything" is part of the "make sure we cannot be accused of not taking all and extreme lengths for diagnosis".)
In years past (and in older docs we see) there was/is more conservative approach -- test for just the immediate concerns and Top 8. Come back for more testing on other things as warranted. False positives on SPT (& then unnecessary worries or eliminations) has always been a reason given for NOT doing tons of testing all at once.
Different docs do have different approaches. Personally, I've always wondered if the tons-of-testing-at-once is a money maker for the docs -- why not do 25 in the same time they can do 5 and then maximize profit, right? You can run more patients through at higher $/patient in about the same time. (If they are using those "caterpillar stamp" type pricks, then it really is fast compared to the individual hand pricks, though even those are faster now.)
False + is my concern. Reaction history trumps testing, right? But, I can see with environmentals, if trying to diagnose for shots and eliminating allergens in the home, etc... If it is reliable. Is it?
I think we need to basically gut our home. Sigh...
A false positive in an environmental isn't going to alter your life like removing say wheat from your diet due to a false positive. I guess in order to ferret out what she's allergic to, you have no choice but to test a bunch of environmentals. So hard to just use reaction history only with environmental allergies...which allergen is causing the stuffy nose?
Becca- is your DD on a daily antihistamine?
We have used Claritin, and Zytec, and she seems to think Claritin is better, but I think I will get Zyrtec again after this runs out. I think she is catching more colds due to chronic sinus issues, which muddies the waters.
This is all pretty new over the past 9 months or so. I am guessing that since I stopped hiring cleaning help about 2 years ago, that I do not keep up with the dust an dmold/mildew issues as well as the hired help did. I know I don't. Back can only take so much. So, time has perhaps allowed for more dust in her bedroom, especially, and the rooms we rarely use, as I don't clean them as often as the rooms where we live all the time. I also think she should be doing some(most) of her own cleaning in her personal spaces, but it does not happen often.
http://allergicliving.com/2010/07/02/asthma-allergies-detox-your-indoor-air/ (http://allergicliving.com/2010/07/02/asthma-allergies-detox-your-indoor-air/)
Posting this article because it has some good info.
Due to the amount of hard flooring we have in this house, we invested in a robot vacuum that picks up a ton of dirt (mostly dog hair and dirt the dogs have tracked in) on a daily basis. My sister has one also (no environmental allergies in her family) and she is amazed at how much less dust there is in the house.
I also have area rugs in our family room and dining room and living rooms. They never used to be an issue. But I do need to vacuum more often.
Hezz, I think that we are going to have to get one of those, ourselves. The third dog really puts things over the top-- it's awful.
Do those vaccuums go over area rugs, or only on totally hard/level flooring?
Yes, over area rugs and hardwood. I only have an indoor/outdoor area rug under my kitchen table so far, I haven't found a rug I like for the family room. I do use it in DS's room (laminate flooring), but found that the dog hair where MES sleeps in our room was just too concentrated for "fido" to pick up so I do just use a traditional vacuum for the rooms that have wall to wall carpet. It definitely does not take the place of vacuuming on a regular basis, but makes it so much more manageable with shedding dogs.
The two competing companies are Roomba and Neato. My sister has the Roomba, I bought the Neato...it was less expensive and great reviews on picking up pet hair. I looked up reviews on CNET. I've already emptied "fido" (yes, we named it, my sister's is "rover", her friend's is "spot") for today, but I will try to empty the dust bin and take a picture so you can see just how much stuff gets picked up. I run it M-F at 8 am so I don't listen to it while lying in bed.
DD has had skin prick test twice. They have a "rack" of 32 pricks (one is histamine and one is saline, the rest are allergens) that goes on her inner forearm all at the same time (our allergist does not test on children's backs).
For fruits she had skin prick tests that were racks of 6 pricks they created with fruit I brought in. These were also on her inner forearm and done at a different time.
She's had a variety of combinations of RAST testing over the years depending on our concerns at the time....foods and environmental.
DD is allergic to both kinds of dustmites. Our allergist gave us a long list of things to do to the house and her room to make her quality of life better but suggested we make changes a few at a time until we reached a point that worked....meaning everything on her list might not be necessary to do.
This is what works for DD.
DD has carpet in her room. She has curtains in her room. (I originally thought we had to pull the carpet and change the windows but chose to do that last and in the end it was not necessary) Her mattress is encased. She has a special pillow and pillow case. I wash her sheets once a week, her blanket and quilt about once every two months. I vacuum (I bought a Sebo vacuum with a hepa filter) her room and the whole house once a week. She dusts her room every other week and vacuums her room once a week. Once a year after tree pollen season I wash her curtains, 2 other times I will put them in the dryer on air only.
When she was young the allergist had us use a humidifier in her room for her asthma but all that did was make it worse, turns out dustmites love humidity. When I stopped using that her asthma and allergies were much better.
We also have filters we change on our furnaces.
Ok, so I hate to post a picture of the dirt from my house, but this is what my Neato vacuum picked up this morning. We have two very hairy dogs that shed constantly and track in lots of dirt.
[spoiler]
(http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu281/hezzier/IMG_0338_zps743a4487.jpg)
[/spoiler]
I have it set to run M-F starting at 8 am. It covers 3 rooms that are attached so today it vacuumed, recharged and then finished vacuuming. It was done by 11 am. I think on Mondays it may recharge more than once because there is more dirt, but not sure. This is about what it picks up daily.
LOL, my dd may shed that much! I find her hair everywhere.
We have only a hamster, so no pet hair issues, but lots of dust, pollen, grass after dh mows, and we usually remove our shoes.
Thanks. That is helpful. I wonder if we could "set" it down in our sunken living room, and then return it to the regular floor level after a bit... Our ground floor is entirely cork and hardwood, but it's got that darned sunken living room.
You can just carry it to the sunken area and press start. It will just stop once it has clean that whole area...it will not go down the steps or at least that's what the info says. Then put it back on the charger, press start and it will start cleaning the regular floor area. It also comes with a magnetic strip that you can lay down in areas that you don't want it to clean or go into, so I have a strip at my doorway going into a TV room with carpet, that I prefer to just vacuum that myself.
I carry it to DS's room and close the door, I know it's finished when I don't hear it vacuuming anymore.
How many lego bricks can it hold? ;)
Ha, not sure so far it hasn't been an issue, the threat of losing electronic time is enough motivation to clean up his floor so "fido" can vacuum.
The better question is how many DOG TOYS it will hold... (auuuuughhh)
Becca is dad's hamster in her room? The boys were initially fine with the gerbils until they magically multiplied. It was all downhill from there. Also wondering if the bedding for the hamster is causing an issue for her. Chips were bad for DS1 but the recycled paper didn't cause an issue beyond our initial bluffing.
YKW, I am thinking that could be an issue. She spends increasing amounts of time in her room, and he has only been in there for a year. She has been bad for about 9 months.
Interesting...I believe the allergist said at one of our visits that there were to be no pets in DS's room. She also said no open windows in his room either which works for his room since he only has a window in the slanted ceiling that only opens part way anyway. Thankfully we didn't have a too many really hot days this summer.
I honestly cannot imagine never opening windows. The only EAs she was ever officially diagnosed with were cat and dust mites. And we owned a cat at the time to which she was non-reactive.
becca, if you suspect severe allergies to tree pollen, ragweed, mold, grasses, or other outdoor allergens, then opening windows or even screen doors isn't an option at the problematic times. We never open house windows or even car windows since we're allergic to all environmental allergies. It's not ideal, but you get used to it.
Bedding, feed, hamster dander -- there could be numerous triggers there. Would she be open to doing a trial of the cage in a different room and seeing if her allergies improve? If they do, then you could try changing the type of bedding and see if she can tolerate having the hamster back in her room, and then try changing feed etc.
We can't open windows either during tree pollen season and when a neighbor or DH cut the lawn. DD at this older age does not want her window open at night, ever. She will always ask me if she can have it closed, the night air bothers her.
Keeping windows closed will be a HUGE issue with dh. OMG. He will come home from work, turn off the AC and throw open all the windows on many summer nights. Just because he thinks it is cool enough to do so. We will need a Dr. to tell him before he will keep the house closed off. I will keep windows closed if I must, but would run the ac much more if we do so. Anothr issue with him...
Of course, if we find she needs this, we will do it. But right now we need testing to hone in on possible triggers. If I were to take a guess at any changes in the past year, it would be the hamster in her bedroom. I have told her a few times to take him out. Sigh. Just did it right now again. We have a spot for him in the "music room." It is a space where she could avoid being in frequently.
Yeah, do test.
Oh wow. Yeah, windows not open very often for us. I remember in college one Summer I lived in the garage apartment of my minister in Fort Worth. This was actually grad school the summer before we married. My host (the wide of our minister)was so happy. She said she had dried my sheets on the line outside. I must have had a look of terror on my face, because she asked me what was wrong. Sheets filled with pollen is what was wrong.
They are about as bad as sheets or towels folded on the bed of an indoor cat owner. There's just no way I can be near them.
Yeah, we do not do that. I really think it is connected to the hamster. She has had a very red eye a few times of late. relieved by antihistamine drops. He is out of her room officially today. Need to clean deeply there as well. Bedding is done. She has oo much junk in there, esp. stuffed animals. She will not want to get rid of them.
Yeah, my DS does a little better without stuffed animals. I ended up putting them in a big plastic bag (the kind you squeeze the air out of) and then letting him take them out every once in a while to play with. I also have an air purifier (not the ionic kind, but the filter kind) that I run whenever I think an allergen has been kicked up.
Quote from: becca on October 01, 2014, 04:39:13 PM
Keeping windows closed will be a HUGE issue with dh. OMG. He will come home from work, turn off the AC and throw open all the windows on many summer nights. Just because he thinks it is cool enough to do so. We will need a Dr. to tell him before he will keep the house closed off. I will keep windows closed if I must, but would run the ac much more if we do so.
Yes! This! It took the allergist saying so for my DH to get the windows down and AC on.....yes even at night when it's "cool" outside. ~)
I feel your pain. Oh I could have written that one!
but...... it does not stop the comments when windows are down about how nice it is outside (well go outside then!), or when there is a day I can open them and I have to hear how much better the air smells! And how we need fresh air! Even though about every other day that isn't windy, while DD is at school, I open the house for a couple hours in the am and then get the AC going a few hours before she comes home to filter the air again.
I am lucky to have understanding relatives who will shut their doors and windows before we arrive to help "decontaminate" the house.
becca, would it be reasonable to tell her to vacuum the stuffed animals if she wants to keep them? I vacuum stuffed animals once per month, and that seems to control the dust problem. You can put them through the washing machine, but they probably wouldn't hold up to many washings.
Update: I cleaned the heck out fo dd's room, bed, put on a ne barriet cover on her pillow and mattress, and nothing seems better. Made an appt with the allergist, and got one in a month. She said no antihistamine for a week before. I forgot to calrify. Does that mean any type? No benadryl either if she is feeling desperate some night? None of those short acting cold medicine ones, like dimetapp? Nada? That will be a long week. :(
But, she dis say the testing can be done that very day after he takes her history, even though we have not been in for 5-6 years. So, at least all in one appt. I hope I don't get lectured for feeding her baked eggs. I am just going to gloss over that one, lol. She *never* reacted to baked sweets, or panacakes. He just took her off of all eggs of any kind when he did her testing, and based on her one contact reaction with a meregue powder in an icing. She is not eating eggs regulalry enough for me to think that is her issue wuth the congestion either. That is sporadic, if I happen to bake.