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I had the allergy blood test done last march. It was both the ige and igg test. ( short term and long term reaction). It tested for the 199 most common allergies- food and environmental. It took 6 weeks but that is because it got sent to the states and I am in Canada.

Two weeks. We tested for the common allergens, and DS1 is allergic to eggs, dairy, and peanuts. Later he had a skin prick test, which confirmed the allergies we knew about and added dust mites to our list. He had a follow up 6 months later with another blood test, which showed improvement with dairy. In 3 months we will be back to see if he can have heated dairy in a muffin.

While allergies can be overwhelming at first, there are a lot of options and alternatives now. Chances are also high that kids can outgrow many of the common allergies. Hoping that will be the case for my LO.

@78h2o: Thank you! That's really helpful. I'm kind of surprised there aren't more tree nuts on there.

@Baby Boy Mom: The tests are covered by insurance for us. Unfortunately the test does require two vials of blood, and it's not easy. Our doctor recommended going to the local children's hospital to get LO's blood drawn since they are more experienced with babies and toddlers. DH sat in the chair and held onto LO while they drew his blood. We put Daniel Tiger on to distract him, but it was still tough.

@yin: What age did you take him in to get tested? I'm about to broach the subject with our pedi as I think my little guy had a major skin reaction to peanuts.

How long did it take you to get the results back? About a week

Did your LO turn out to have allergies? Yes, tree nuts and peanuts.

Did you insurance pay for the testing? Yes

For food allergies, do they test for about 10-15 things?? I know they don't test for everything, but just wondering how many they include in the regular panel? We tested for peanuts, tree nuts, and shellfish.

We tested at age 2 for DD1. It was just a skin test. We didn't do the blood draw until she was 3. She handled the blood draw at 3 very well because she understood what was going on and why we needed to do it.

DD2 is going to need testing, too, but we're waiting until 2 years as well. So far we do not feed her any dairy, eggs, tree nuts, peanuts, or shellfish. I have been giving her small amounts of dairy and eggs periodically, but she gets a rash around her mouth and neck right away so I know that she hasn't outgrown that yet. I won't give her any tree nuts, peanuts, or shellfish until we've had the allergy test. She is 15 months old.