This is part five of Autumn’s post. The rest of her story can be found here:
part one, part two, part three and part four
As soon as her son turned one, Autumn made an appointment for him to see both an allergist and a GI doctor.
Results of the allergy test
The general assumption among the doctors, based on Autumn’s son’s symptoms, was that he had allergies. They hoped the allergy test would show them what he was allergic to.
However, to everyone’s dismay, the testing didn’t provide any answers. The allergy test came back negative meaning her son didn’t test positive for any allergies.
According to the test he wasn’t allergic to anything: Not dairy, soy, or even nuts. Now instead of clarity, there was more confusion.
The discrepancy between the rest results and the symptoms
Here’s where a good detective would’ve compared the test results with all the symptoms and realized something was not adding up.
Autumn’s son’s reactions to both the dairy and soy formulas signaled something. After all, he wasn’t drinking a hypoallergenic hydrolyzed formula for no reason. Clearly, something was going on.
Further testing should’ve been the natural response to the discrepancy. Instead, for some unknown reason, the allergist chose not to go down that route.
Instead he concluded that Autumn was making an issue out of nothing, even insinuating that she may be the problem, not her son. He basically accused her of being a hypochondriac rather than listening to her concerns and trying to figure out what was going on.
He was so confident Autumn’s son didn’t have allergies that he also discouraged her from taking her son to the GI appointment she had scheduled. He explained that GI testing would be invasive and cause her son a lot of trauma and it would all be unnecessary because he didn’t have any allergies.
So not only was the allergist ignoring Autumn’s concerns and labeling her a hypochondriac but he was also shaming her for wanting to take her son to the GI.
Allergy testing doesn’t test for ALL allergies.
As it turns out the allergist was wrong. Allergy testing doesn’t test for ALL allergies.
What the allergist should’ve known is that the standard allergy test only checks for common IgE-mediated allergies. According to the National Library on Medicine, these types of allergies are “characterized by the rapid onset of symptoms following ingestion (eg, anaphylaxis).” This means a person with an IgE-mediated allergy reacts quickly to the allergen. Reactions can occur within a few minutes or up to 2 hours after being exposed, according to the website Tiny Tots Nutrition .
But there are also other types of allergies called non-IgE-mediated allergies. These take longer to manifest. According to the National Eczema Societies “Allergy factsheet,” non-IgE mediated allergies can take anywhere from several hours or up to 3 days for a reaction.
So for the allergist to say Autumn’s son had no allergies was incorrect. A person can test negative for IgE-mediated allergies and still have allergies. The more accurate diagnosis would’ve been, he doesn’t have any IgE-mediated allergies but he may have other allergies based on his symptoms.
Bad advice
Since Autumn didn’t know any of this information at the time (nor was she told about this), she chose to follow the allergist recommendation and cancel the GI appointment. She certainly didn’t want to put her son through pointless testing that would only cause him pain.
Unfortunately, it was bad advice and the negative ripple effects of that decision were far-reaching.