Seafood vs fish allergy

[olgagora]

Hello

My 3.5 yo boy Adam has almost 20 food allergies including dairy, egg, peanut, nuts, soy, beef and wheat. He's had skin prick and blood tests before and is under the care of a children's hospital. However, getting in touch with his allergist is near impossible in between appointments hence my question here.

Adam's bloods showed a RAST score of 1 for Cod and we’d seen mild skin reactions with cod and seabass before (light rash around the mouth whilst eating them) but not with tuna (which he hasn’t been tested for). He's had a swollen lip and full body hives from smoked salmon. We haven’t fed him any fish at all since about 12 months ago. He’s never eaten any seafood whatsoever. We’re not sure whether he has a problem with seaweed (I was using it about 6 months ago to sprinkle on his food) but I haven’t tried it with again since.

Would you advise against trying seafood (lobster, prawns, crab) with him or do you think we could give him a tiny amount and see if it’s ok? Is there any reason to believe he’s also allergic to seafood if he's allergic to some fish?

Kind regards and many thanks in advance

Olga

http://allergickids.wordpress.com

[Dr Helen Brough]

Dear Olga,

Many thanks for your post.

The proteins in fin-fish and shell-fish are very different and just because your son is allergic to fin-fish it does not mean that he will be allergic to shell-fish. In fact some children can tolerate tuna even though they are allergic to other types of white /oily fish as tuna has less of the allergenic protein Gad c 1 that many fish allergic children are allergic to.

I would recommend that at your next allergy appointment you ask to have skin prick tests to tuna as well as shell-fish (prawn, mussel and crab skin prick test extracts are usually available). You could even consider bringing small amounts of cooked and raw tuna and shell-fish (each food in separate little bags) to the clinic for modified skin prick testing (prick to prick testing of the actual food) then your allergist can decide on the basis of these tests.

I hope that is helpful.

Best wishes,

Dr Helen Brough