Allergy diagnosis

Skin prick allergy testing scratches the skin, rather than puncturing or piercing it and is a fast and reliable test for the diagnosis of food and environmental allergies.

A small number of possible allergens are dropped onto your forearm. The skin is then scratched to see if the allergens react with certain ‘allergy’ cells in the skin. If it does cause a reaction, a red itchy mark will appear, which may indicate an allergy, and if so, we can work out the best advice on avoiding and managing the identified allergy.

It is important that any antihistamine containing medicines are avoided for five days prior to the test otherwise they can interfere with the results. Please contact us in advance if you have any questions.

We also provide allergy blood testing for specific IgE as well as testing for other conditions associated with chronic urticaria, or screening for nutritional or immune deficiencies. The blood can be done on the day of your clinic visit on the same floor with one of our experienced paediatric phlebotomists. These tests take a few days to return and are discussed at follow-up appointments.

What parents say:

“Dr Brough was an invaluable support to my family following the emergence of several food allergies in my infant son. She assisted us through multiple stages of testing, investigations and food challenges and was always able, both in person and remotely, to provide informative and helpful guidance and best practice on overcoming obstacles and challenges.

She was kind and re-assuring in her approach and we would not hesitate to recommend her to anyone experiencing challenges in respect of food allergies.”