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Welcome to the University of Michigan Food Allergy Service. Your
physician has referred you to an Allergist to evaluate and diagnose
a possible food allergic condition. Depending on your insurance,
you may self-refer as well. Allergists are either Pediatricians
or Internal Medicine physicians who have two to three extra years
of training in the diagnosis and treatment of allergic and immunologic
diseases.
When you first meet with the physician, you will be asked questions
regarding you or your child’s symptoms, what foods may have
caused problems, as well as a review of the past medical history.
The physician will then perform a physical exam looking for signs
of allergic conditions.
The next step includes specialized testing to determine what foods
to which you or your child may be allergic. The preferred method
of testing is skin prick testing. This technique involves using
a plastic tooth-pick like device to introduce a small amount of
allergen under the skin. If you or your child is allergic to a
particular food, the skin at the site tested will become red, bumpy
and itchy, similar to a mosquito bite. After 15-20 minutes the
testing site will be examined and each food tested will be graded
to determine the presence of allergy. Prior to you or your child’s
visit, be sure to stop antihistamine medications for 5 days. This
type of medication interferes with allergy testing. Please go to
the list of medications
to stop.
In some cases, your doctor may elect to do a RAST (blood test)
to evaluate for food allergy. Antihistamines do not need to be
discontinued prior to RAST tests. Please see the description of testing
for food allergies for a more detailed description of the testing
procedure.
Once the foods to which you or your child may be allergic have
been identified, the physician and a food allergy educator will
discuss the treatment of food allergy, how to avoid the foods identified
and answer other questions you may have.
Depending on the findings of the visit, patients are usually seen
in follow up in 1 month, 6 months and 12 months after the first
visit. |
