What happens in clinic?

If you have an appointment in our allergy clinic there are few things you ought to know.

The appointment might take a couple of hours, as we aim to perform a medical assessment, any allergy tests (blood tests or skin prick tests) that are needed, and if possible and relevant, for you to meet one of our paediatric dietitians for nutritional assessment and advice.

If your child is taking antihistamine and if possible and safe to do so, please avoid giving your child antihistamine for a few days before clinic as this might interfere with the test (in particular skin prick test).

• Short acting antihistamines such as Chlorphenamine (also as known as Piriton© and Allerief©) should be stopped two days before the appointment.
• Longer-acting antihistamines such as Cetirizine (also known as Zirtek© or Piriteze©) and Loratadine (also known as Clarityn©) should be stopped for 5 days before the appointment.

Some cough medicines such as Benylin© and Medised© also contain antihistamine and should be avoided.

Furthermore, please also avoid applying any steroid cream to your child’s forearms on the day of the appointment.

Your child does not need to stop any other medication such as asthma inhalers, nasal sprays or other medicines.

Please bring details of your child’s medicines with you to the clinic including inhalers, spacer device and adrenaline pens if applicable.

For skin prick testing we have solutions for the most common allergens. However, if there is a fruit or vegetable that you are concerned about, it is helpful for you to bring it to the appointment as we can use it for skin prick testing.

We at times have medical students in our clinic and we will ask you for your permission for them to sit in before your consultation. We appreciate your support with their learning.

There are some great videos online to prepare your child for the test. 

For parents:

Sophie has a Skin Prick Test: little drops are placed on her arm and a small lancet is used to make tiny pricks through the top layer of her skin.

Sophie is very happy and relieved when she finds out this doesn’t hurt. This test is used to check for allergies.

You can watch this video yourself or together with your child before the appointment depending on their age and ability.

For young children:

There is an episode of the CBeebies show Get Well Soon with Dr Ranj about allergies and describes allergy testing in a child friendly way.

Deep has some mysterious itchy red bumps all over his body. Dr Ranj thinks he might have an allergy. They decide to investigate the cause of it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b092041b/get-well-soon-hospital-series-2-3-allergy

For school age children:

Operation Ouch is packed with incredible facts about the human body.

Fronted by identical twins Dr Chris and Dr Xand van Tulleken, they experiment and explore their way through the fascinating world of medicine and biology. This episodes focuses on allergy.

For young people and adults:

Dr Fiona Culley and Dr Akhilesh Jha (Imperial College London) demonstrate one of the main tests used to diagnose allergies, the skin prick test.