Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Tests and diagnosis
By Mayo Clinic staffTo evaluate whether you or your child has an egg allergy, your doctor may:
- Ask detailed questions about signs and symptoms
- Perform a physical exam
- Have you keep a detailed diary of the foods you or your child eats
- Have you eliminate eggs from your diet or your child's diet (elimination diet) — and then have you eat the food in question again to see if it causes a reaction
Your doctor may also recommend one or more of the following tests:
- Skin test. In this test, your skin is pricked and exposed to small amounts of the proteins found in eggs. If you're allergic, you develop a raised bump (hive) at the test location on your skin. Allergy specialists usually are best equipped to perform and interpret allergy skin tests.
- Blood test. A blood test can measure your immune system's response to eggs by measuring the amount of certain antibodies in your bloodstream, known as immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies. A blood sample can be tested in a medical laboratory, where it can be tested for evidence of sensitivity to eggs.
- Food challenge. Because other tests aren't always conclusive, your doctor may want to do a food challenge. This test involves giving small amounts of the offending food and then monitoring the child or adult for a reaction. If no reaction occurs, more of the substance is given, and you or your child will again be monitored. One reason for doing a food challenge could be to confirm that your child has outgrown his or her allergy to eggs.
If your doctor suspects your problems are caused by something other than a food allergy, you may need other tests to identify — or rule out — other medical problems.
- Food allergy: An overview. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/topics/foodAllergy/PDF/foodallergy.pdf. Accessed July 12, 2009.
- Kurowski K, et al. Food allergies: Detection and management. American Family Physician. 2008;77:1678.
- Lack G. Food allergy. New England Journal of Medicine. 2008;359:1252.
- Anaphylaxis. Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. http://www.aafa.org/print.cfm?id=9&sub=23&cont=324. Accessed July 16, 2009.
- Chapman JA, et al. Food allergy: A practice parameter. Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. 2006;96:S1.
- Sicherer SH. Food allergen avoidance. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed May 22, 2009.
- Egg allergy. Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. http://www.aafa.org/print.cfm?id=9&sub=20&cont=523. Accessed July 16, 2009.
- Flu vaccine and egg allergy. American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. http://www.acaai.org/public/advice/Fluvaccine_eggallergy.htm. Accessed July 16, 2009.
