Hello,
We had DS rast tested for peanut, on the recommendation of our allergist
A little history: DS reacted to peanut when he was 11 months old and the daycare he was attending gave him a peanut butter cracker. The reaction involved facial swelling and we considered it anaphalactic as he had a hive on his hand too.
After that incident, we saw an allergist who did a SPT (positive), got an epi-pen, and pulled him from daycare. Since then, my husband and I have worked opposite shifts so one of us is always with him. About 5 months after the initial reaction, ds was at the Y day care while my husband worked out, and he was, again, given a peanut butter cracker. He did have a reaction. I was not there to see it but DH said he was starting to swell, so he gave him benedryl. He worried about waiting too long on the epi, so he administered that as well. The reaction stopped right away.
OK, so fast forward to now. It's been almost 2 years since that second reaction.
Since then, as far as we know, he has not been exposed to peanut. However, he used to suffer from severe eczema. About 6 months ago, it disappeared, almost overnight. It has not recurred and his skin is perfect now (knock on wood), except for some slight scarring behind his knees where we never could control the eczema before.
So, our allergist suggested a RAST test to at least give us a baseline number. We got the results Friday.
Peanut was .38
According to the allergist, under .4 warrants a challenge (does that sound right??)
HOWEVER, he would rather be safe than sorry (I love my allergist). So, he wants to wait another year, then do another rast and see what it looks like. Then, he wants to do another SPT. If that is negative, then we will talk about challenging.
So, while I would love to do a challenge now and get it out of the way, I think that is definitely the safe plan.
Another year of epi-pen carrying and avoidance won't be so bad, right?
So, does that sound like a reasonable plan with those results? The allergist says it looks like ds is on the track to outgrowing...is that possible?

Does anyone know what the numbers on the RAST test mean? This is the first one we've had.
Thanks!

My daughter was just RAST tested today, for wheat, dairy and egg. I want to know, too.
L.

I'm not too good with RAST numbers, so I can't comment on that part...but I have heard that its common to do the RAST...if thats low then you can do an SPT...then if thats neg do a challenge in the Drs office. Apparently you can get a neg RAST but still have a pos SPT....I think waiting another year sounds like a good idea....