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Allergy Remedy Warning Article
Allergy Remedy Warning
from:The "inappropriate" tests could provide false results and will not help most youngsters with the condition, which leaves skin red, itchy and swollen.
The health watchdog also warned that complementary medicines have not been rigorously tested.
In new guidance to NHS staff and patients, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), the Government's drug and health advisory body, said: "The effectiveness and safety of complementary therapies and food supplements for eczema have not been adequately assessed.
"Caution should be exercised with the use of herbal medicines in children, especially any herbal product that is not labelled in English or does not come with information about safe usage."
The Nice guidance, on managing eczema in children from birth to the age of 12, said steroids have been deliberately added to some herbal products, meaning children could receive a too-high dose if they also have steroids prescribed by their GP.
While regular massage with skin moisturisers (emollients) prescribed for eczema can help alleviate symptoms, other treatments are unproven, it said.
Sarah Purdy, a GP in Bristol, said: "It's not intended to have particular relevance to any professional group (who offer the tests)." It was more about ensuring test results were "accurate to the standards that we would expect any NHS allergy test to be delivered".
"We were hoping that, by suggesting this, we could protect people from having spurious tests and getting results that are not to be trusted.
"We have also made recommendations around when parents should seek allergy testing on the NHS."
Sandra Lawton, a nurse consultant in dermatology who also worked on the guideline, said she had seen many cases "when parents spent lots and lots of money on inappropriate tests".
They had received "misinformation" from friends or colleagues telling them to try allergy testing, she added.
Dr Sue Lewis-Jones, a consultant dermatologist and chair of the guideline development group, said such testing did not benefit the 80 per cent of children in Britain with mild eczema.
Most food allergies were outgrown by the time the child was about five while older children tended to suffer airborne allergies, such as to cat dander and dust mites.
The tests often did not show anything other than that a child's immune system was a bit "jumpy", she said. "I think it's very important that parents do not waste their money on unnecessary testing."
The guideline is aimed at health workers and parents caring for the one in five schoolchildren in Britain who have eczema.
It recommends giving families a choice of which emollients to use and prescribing them in large enough quantities (250g to 500g weekly) so they can be used regularly.