My father, now in his upper 60s, remembers scratch testing from when he was a kid in the 1950s. He was allergic to most environmental and many food allergies, some of which he later outgrew. Some he didn’t – bee venom – and he still has an Epi pen. The tests really haven’t changed much in 50+ years. But the world around us has.

We do skin prick tests annually. They’ve gotten a bit easier to handle as the kids get older, but it’s still a long time to wait for a reaction without scratching your back.

Skin testing results are not a pure predictor of reaction. They’re directional though. The reaction on my son’s back next to M is from milk. We suspected a milk allergy early on in his infancy and it’s just gotten worse, as his immune system has developed. It’s disappointing that the numbers are not going in the other direction, but what are you gonna do?

Last year, low numbers on the tree nuts led us to a series of food challenges for almonds, walnuts, cashews etc.

My kids are now cleared to eat almonds but the little one won’t. Sigh. One can eat walnuts but the other can’t. I have multi level food prep and storage happening in my kitchen now when we make chocolate chip cookies.

I make the plain batch first, and add walnuts to the second batch after. The walnut batch is baked on parchment paper (disposable). They’re stored in separate containers labeled with kids’ initials.