Food Allergy Diagnostic Testing: Myths and Facts from Kids With Food Allergies

I get this question a lot: Which tests did doctors use on me to diagnose my food allergies. To which I reply: “None, I ate the food and had a swift and severe reaction.” Eating a food and either having a reaction, or not, is still the best diagnostic tool there is. Food allergy tests, skin or blood, may (or may) corroborate history but food allergy testing at this stage, is not a predictor of severity. However, there is still a lot of confusion around food allergy diagnosis on both the patient-side and sometimes even the allergist-side.

This brief article by David Stukus, MD on the Kids With Food Allergy website clearly and concisely explains the fact versus fiction about food allergy testing: "A positive test result for food allergy is not, in and of itself, diagnostic for food allergy. These tests are best utilized to help confirm a suspicious history for IgE mediated food allergies. They have high rates of falsely elevated and meaningless results and are not useful screening tools."

See more on the Kids With Food Allergy website.

Also, you can download the free patient food allergy guidelines published by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease website to go over with your board certified allergist.

Thank you, Kids With Food Allergy for this incredibly useful information and to Dr Mike Pistiner, author of AllergyHome.org (another excellent, free resource) for bringing it my attention on Facebook.