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Allergology
Allergology
What are allergies?
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Does your child have a blocked nose, bouts of sneezing or itchy eyes? If so, they may be allergic to pollen or dust mites. Does your child have difficulty breathing, a persistent cough, or are they regularly diagnosed with bronchitis or bronchiolitis? If so, they may have asthma. Does your child consistently develop a skin reaction, bloating, abdominal pain or even more severe reactions after eating a particular food? If so, your child may have a food allergy or intolerance.
Please do not hesitate to make an appointment with our Pneumology-Allergology (Pediatric) department if you think that one of these situations applies to you.
Care management
During the consultation, the doctor will first take a detailed medical history of your child’s health condition. Additional examinations may then be proposed, such as allergy tests (skin tests or measurement of antibodies in the blood), respiratory function tests (for children aged 6 and over) and oral challenge tests (more specifically for food or medication allergies). These tests help confirm the diagnosis or monitor the progression of your child’s condition. Finally, treatment and advice will be prescribed. Sometimes, opinions from other specialists (dietitians, dermatologists, ophthalmologists, ENT specialists, etc.) are requested to optimise your child’s care.
Advice
If you suspect a severe Food allergy or Severe asthma attack, go to the Emergency Department or see your general practitioner or paediatrician to receive initial treatment and advice. Unfortunately, waiting times for our consultations can sometimes be long; primary care doctors are there to support you while you wait for your first appointment in pneumology-allergology.
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At H.U.B, and more specifically at Erasme Hospital, we have developed expertise in the management of Food allergy. Your child will be seen in a joint Food Allergy consultation by the paediatric allergist and the dietitian specialising in allergology. We offer accurate and safe diagnoses of Food allergy so as not to impose an elimination diet if this is not necessary. To do this, we perform an oral food challenge in your child, offering them the food suspected of causing the allergy in increasing doses, in hospital, in order to identify allergic reactions and treat them appropriately. Indeed, skin tests and blood antibody measurements do not always make it possible to establish the diagnosis with certainty. This oral food challenge provides certainty.
Once your child’s Food allergy diagnosis has been established, we can offer you reintroduction of the allergen at home, following a well-established protocol personalised to your child, in order to desensitise them to the allergy; the aim is therefore to make them no longer allergic to this food.
Associated services
Associated services