Allergy Services

We diagnose and treat children with allergies and their related conditions including asthma, eczema, hay-fever and food allergies.

We look at your child’s allergies overall and assess the impact and potential treatment on their emotional and nutritional well-being.

Our children’s allergy service is part of the Dermatology Department at Amersham Hospital.

Our team

We’re a team of specialists including:

2 paediatric (children’s) consultants
a doctor with a specialist interest in paediatric allergies
a paediatric allergy dietician
a dermatology nurse and health care assistant

We provide families with advice, diagnostic tests for your child and practical help all in one visit to our clinic.

What to expect at our clinic

We’ll carry out tests to find the cause of your child’s allergy and prescribe the most appropriate treatment.

Skin prick test

Your child may have an allergy test called the ‘skin prick test.’ It’s one of the most common allergy tests. It involves putting a drop of liquid onto your child’s forearm that contains a substance they may be allergic to. The skin under the drop is then gently pricked.

The test can also help us identify if your child has an allergy to latex and airborne substances such as dust.

Contact allergy and patch testing

This helps to find an allergy to a substance that came into contact with your skin. For this test, you’ll need to visit us a minimum of three times in the same week so that we can monitor your child’s skin reaction.

Photo patch testing

If your child has an allergy on an exposed part of their body, for example their hands or face, we’ll do a photo patch test. This helps us to identify an allergy to chemicals such as sunscreens or cosmetics. Some chemicals only cause an allergy after they have been exposed to sunlight.

Treatment and managing your child’s allergy

Depending on the type of allergy, treatment may include:

an inhaler
nasal sprays and/or eye drops
lotions and creams
antihistamines
adrenaline auto injectors for severe allergies.

We’ll tell you how to use inhalers and nasal sprays correctly, and how to manage eczema.

We’ll also explain what to do if your child has an allergic reaction including the correct use of antihistamines and adrenaline auto injectors if necessary.

If your child has a severe allergy

Anaphylaxis is a severe and potentially life-threatening reaction to a trigger.

Triggers are often something that you’re allergic to such as certain types of foods, medicines, insect stings, latex, contrast agents and general anaesthetic.

If your child has a severe allergy and has anaphylaxis, we may prescribe them with an adrenaline auto injectors.

There are 3 types – Jext, Epipen and Emerade. Follow the links below to find out how to use your adrenaline auto injectors:

How to use Jext

How to use an Epipen

How to use Emerade