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Hello,

I recently posted a general food allergy question thread.  I am
summarizing responses, and have found many of them very helpful.

  I have a question now about blood testing accuracy and usefulness for
food allergies.

Have you found them useful/accurate?  Is there a high rate of false
positives or negatives? Do I have to be eating the food at the time of the
test to get a reaction..that is, as with the Celiac blood test, one needs
to have a certain amount ciculating to get a positive reading.  Or does
this not matter with most other allergies?

I would consider them perhaps more a tool, going by the reaction of
ingested foods, but wonder if getting one done might help pinpoint some
things to keep a watch out for (since I seem to have delayed reactions).
My allergist seemed to think blood tests and skin tests are a waste of
money for food allergies. Skin tests I understand, but I would like
another opinon about how blood tests can be used.

Additionally, I have read that results for ELISA and RAST are pretty much
similar--do you, in your experience, find this to be true?

Thanks,

Saskia

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