Perhaps your child has had a known food allergy for some time, and now there’s reason to believe that the allergy may have been outgrown. Maybe you’re in the initial diagnosis process, and your child’s allergist has ordered an oral food challenge. Or perhaps your physician would like to do a food challenge to rule out other types of food allergy reactions, such as Food Protein Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome (FPIES). Regardless of the reason why the oral food challenge has been recommended, if you’re like many parents, you may find the thought of a food challenge quite frightening. During this test your child will be fed the very food that you believe may cause a reaction.

 

In a situation like this, you may have a lot of questions running through your mind. What exactly will happen during the oral food challenge? What if my child reacts? What if my child refuses to eat the food? What do I need to do to prepare for the test? The blood test and/or skin prick test already came up

positive — doesn’t that mean my child is allergic to those foods?

Knowledge is power! This article will address all of these questions and more…so you will be able to approach an oral food challenge with confidence.

Getting an Accurate Diagnosis is Critical

When a child is diagnosed with potentially life-threatening food allergies, this diagnosis affects many aspects of the child’s and family’s quality of life. The many precautions that must be taken in order to avoid the allergen can be quite challenging and stressful. If the child is allergic to multiple foods, the diet must be carefully monitored to avoid malnutrition and the potential development of an oral aversion (i.e., the reluctance or fear of eating a food).

While handling all of this is quite doable — severe food allergies are safely and successfully managed by thousands of people every day — food avoidance should not be done unless it is actually necessary. Getting an accurate diagnosis is therefore critical.

 

Oral Food Challenges are the “Gold Standard” for Diagnosis

Many people mistakenly believe that food allergies are strictly diagnosed based on skin and/or blood tests alone. As Dr. David Stukus explains in his blog post for KFA on What You Need

to Know about Diagnostic Allergy Testing, blood tests and skin prick tests are more accurate for ruling out specific food

allergies than they are for diagnosing food allergies. While they are a very useful part of the diagnostic process, a positive result on one or both of these tests is not always definitive, in and of itself, as diagnostic for food allergy.

The more important question is: can your child actually eat the food safely? If your child can eat the food without developing any symptoms, then he or she is unlikely to be

allergic to that food. Thus, the oral food challenge — the “feed it to them in a clinical setting and see if they react or not” test —is the only truly accurate test available.

Please keep in mind, though, that food challenges must be done under proper medical supervision and typically

should only be done at home when thoroughly discussed and recommended by your allergist (this will depend on your child’s history, her/his test results, and the food involved).

 

 

Download document