Allergy testing

We've suspected Aaron had a nut allergy for awhile.  We were pretty sure after he threw up at my sister's house while eating peanut butter pancakes, but we waited until his 3 year checkup to get a referral to an allergist.  Our appointment was just this month.  We had the option to do a scratch test on his back or a blood test.  Since he's never had his blood drawn and the allergist felt that a skin test was safe, we opted for what we thought was the less traumatic option.  

After talking to us, she decided to test for peanuts and cashews (the first time he threw up where we thought it was possibly from food was after he had cashews) and some other environmental allergens.  I have allergies and he's had eczema, so he's very likely to have allergies.

First, the nurse drew some dots on his back:

Then she did the scratch test.  As soon as she did the first one, he started to cry, but he was a brave boy and she was able to quickly finish the test without a problem.  I've had this kind of testing done and I know it's a little painful and then itches like crazy.  The next picture is immediately after the allergens were applied.

Afterwards, we had to wait 20 minutes to see if he reacted.  We played our word game where we take turns saying a word that starts with the letter that the previous word ended with.  He was hopping up and down the whole time in excitement.  He did try to scratch his back a few times, but we stopped him and kept him distracted.  Here's what his back looked like after 20 minutes.

Peanut and cashew are on the far right.  He's pretty allergic to both.  Which is consistent with what we've seen, but everything I read online sounded like peanut and cashew allergies don't typically go together.

He's also allergic to dust mites, some kind of outdoor mold, and he's mildly allergic to dogs and cats.

The good news about the peanut/cashew allergy is that it makes him vomit.  The allergist said when kids throw up the food, it gets it out of their system and that's typically the end of it.  But at least one time he didn't throw up the small amount of peanut butter until hours later.  So it is possible that he could have an anaphalactic reaction, it's just unlikely.  We now have an epi-pen on hand just in case.

She wants to test him again in a year.  She says tree and pollen allergies tend to develop later, and given my history with allergies, she seems to expect he will develop more allergies as he gets older.