What happens in clinic

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

You should allow a couple of hours for your appointment as you may need to see a few members of the team and may 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 before they come for their appointment as they might interfere with the test.

Before your appointment please stop taking:

Short-acting antihistamines, such as Chlorphenamine (also known as Piriton©) two days before the appointment

Long-acting antihistamines, such as Cetirizine and Loratidine (also known as Zirtek© and Clarityn©) five days before the appointment.

Please be aware that some cough and cold remedies (such as Benylin© and Medised©) contain antihistamine.

Please speak to your pharmacist if you have any queries.

Your child does not need to stop any other medication such as asthma inhalers, nasal sprays or other medicines.

Please bring details of your child’s medicines with you to the clinic.

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.

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.

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:

Telephone: 0191 282 5984

If you think your child may need an allergy test you can find more information in our leaflets below:

Skin Prick Testing

Drug Allergy Testing

There are also 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

Telephone: 0191 282 5984

For parents

Sophie has a Skin Prick Test: little drops are placed on her arm and a small lancet is used to make tiny pricks through the top layer of her skin.

Sophie is very happy and relieved when she finds out this doesn’t hurt. This test is used to check for allergies.

You can watch this video yourself or together with your child before the appointment depending on their age and ability.

For young children

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

Deep has some mysterious itchy red bumps all over his body. Dr Ranj thinks he might have an allergy. They decide to investigate the cause of it.

BBC iPlayer – Get Well Soon Hospital Series – Allergy

For school age children

Operation Ouch is packed with incredible facts about the human body.

Fronted by identical twins Dr Chris and Dr Xand van Tulleken, they experiment and explore their way through the fascinating world of medicine and biology. This episodes focuses on allergy