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Home > Services > Great North Children’s Hospital > Children’s allergy service > What happens in clinic

What happens in clinic

There are a few things you'll need to do if you come to our allergy clinic

Children playing with puzzle

If you have an appointment at our children’s allergy clinic there are a few things you’ll need to do to prepare.

  • Allow a couple of hours for the appointment, as you may need to see a few members of the team and require an allergy test and/or blood test.
  • If your child is taking antihistamine medicine (eg: Piriton©, Zitek© or Clarityn©) they will need to stop taking them for five days before they come for their appointment as they might interfere with the test. Please be aware that some cough and cold remedies (such as Benylin© and Medised©) contain antihistamine so these should not be taken either..
  • Please bring details of your child’s medicines with you to the clinic.
  • If you suspect fruit and vegetables may cause a problem and wish to be tested for these, please bring a small quantity of the particular fruit/vegetable with you to the clinic.

Please note

Your child does NOT need to stop any other medication such as asthma inhalers, nasal sprays or other medicines. If your child uses inhalers please bring these and their spacer device with you to the appointment.

We have skin prick test extracts for many allergens such as nuts, egg, milk, fish, pollens, animals.

We often have medical and nursing students in our clinic we will ask you for your permission for them to sit in before your consultation. We appreciate your support with their learning.

If you have any queries, please contact the team on:

0191 2825984

Information videos

There are some great videos online to prepare your child for the test. If you are concerned, or if your child has special needs and you would like to discuss this before your appointment call us on the number above.

For children and parents

You can watch this video before the appointment, depending on your child’s age and ability.

Sophie has a skin prick test to check for allergies: little drops are placed on her arm and a tiny pricks are made through the top layer of her skin. Sophie is happy and relieved when she finds out this doesn’t hurt.

There is an episode of the CBeebies show Get Well Soon with Dr Ranj which describes allergy testing in a child friendly way.

BBC iPlayer – Get Well Soon Hospital Series – Allergy

The episode of Operation Ouch below, talks about allergies in an understandable way.

For young people and adults

Drs Fiona Culley and Akhilesh Jha fromImperial College London demonstrate one of the main tests used to diagnose allergies, the skin prick test.

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