Dr Nickolls will perform skin prick testing during the appointment if it is indicated.

Skin prick testing is appropriate if a child has a history of an allergic reaction to a food or significant allergic disease (e.g. allergic rhinitis, asthma, eczema) thought to be due to environmental triggers.

Skin prick testing is NOT appropriate and will NOT be performed to:

• Check if a baby is at risk of an allergy prior to introduction of food into the diet

• Determine if a child has a food intolerance

• Determine if a food is causing eczema to flare

What to bring

Not all foods are available for skin prick testing and some skin prick tests are more sensitive if fresh food is used. If your child has a suspected allergy to a food that does not commonly cause allergic reactions, or to a fruit, vegetable or seafood, please bring a small (1 teaspoon) sample of fresh or frozen food to the appointment.

If skin prick testing is going to be performed, please with-hold all antihistamine medications for 48 hours prior to the appointment.

This includes oral medications (e.g. Claratyne, Zyrtec, Telfast), nasal sprays (e.g. Dymista, Ryaltris), eye drops (e.g. Zaditen, Patanol). You can continue to give asthma preventor and reliever medications, steroid nose sprays and steroid creams for eczema.