Scratch Test Baby

We went to the new EGA wing of UCH yesterday to see the paedriatric allergist. Arriving at 10.30 and leaving at 12, I know this cos I've got the piece of paper I was supposed to hand back to the receptionist here, whoops.

The allergist informed me he didn't do blanket testing of everything, good I thought. We talked about what reactions Erbie had been having and that he may grow out of it. We talked about free school milk and I asked him who lined all the toy dinosaurs back up after each child had been in. (Certainly not him, sometimes the children do). He seemed impressed that I was so well informed (mainly that I knew what casein was) and asked where I worked to know so much. I said I just read the internet a lot, much to his chagrin, so I told a little white lie and said I sometimes worked at the British Medical Association, which satisfied him.

So 2 nurses do the skin prick allergy testing. One to entertain the baby and one to scratch. Erbie sat on my lap, while one nurse held his left arm over a pillow, to his side. First she wrote 1, 2 ,3 ,4 on his arm in biro, next a drop of control liquid was put next to the number 1, blotted then a scalpel blade dotted quickly on top to break the skin. Much entertaining involving puppets and flashing lights from nurse 2 in front of Erbie. Then another control drop of histamine was put next to the number 2 (histamine is what causes an allergic reaction). Next milk, then boiled milk.

Sleeve down, nurses happy, Erbie happy, all over within 5 minutes.

Back to the waiting room full of parents with buggies and children for a 10 minute wait. Then up with sleeve, he'd had a big reaction to the milk and a slight reaction to the histamine and boiled milk. The nurse drew around the welts in biro and stuck tape on top, she then peeled this off, taking some of the ink with it and transferred the outline to a paper chart.

So, nothing we didn't know then. He has a contact reaction to milk, and milk protein, so no dairy in his diet and then back for testing again in a years time. This means no cow, goat, or sheep dairy products. I've recently tried him on soya milk and he seems to like it.

So next comes proper weaning, which I'm scared about. There will be tears, on both sides no doubt, but I feel it is time, my baby boy will be a year old soon.