Children’s Allergy Clinic – North London

A new children’s allergy service will be opening at 999 Medical Centre in October 2022.

The team will be led by Dr Neeta Patel who has been a Consultant Paediatrician since 2005. Neeta, set up and leads the paediatric allergy service at the Whittington Hospital, which is the largest such service in North London. She will bring with her senior paediatric allergy nurse Dee Brown and paediatric allergy dietician Miriam Tarkin. All members of the 999 children’s allergy team have over 15 years experience working in paediatric allergy.

Key reasons to see a paediatric allergist:

Infant eczema is often the first sign of a tendency toward allergy. The paediatric team is able to effectively manage this distressing condition, but also proactively diagnose and manage food allergies which are often associated with eczema, ensuring they don’t affect your baby’s overall health.

Allergic conditions in older children can include asthma and hay fever, as well as eczema and food allergy. Understanding how each of these allergic conditions present and interact with each other is key to their effective management and the cornerstone of good,holistic, allergy care for children.

Consultations:

Initial consultation

Dr Neeta Patel will see you and your child for the first part of the consultation. Many children require allergy testing such as skin prick tests and/or blood tests. The results of skin prick testing are available within 15 minutes. Whilst waiting for the results you and your child will receive advice and education from Dee Brown (for example about how to apply eczema creams, how to use an Adrenaline pen, correct inhaler technique for asthma, correct nasal technique for hay fever. When the results of the skin prick testing are available you will see Dr Patel and to discuss the management plan tailored to you child.

Advice from a dietician is often central to the management of food allergy in children. Miriam Tarkin is a highly experienced paediatric allergy dietician who will be able to provide both face to face and video consultations

Further consultations

May be needed to assess response to treatment, undertake further allergy testing, check if food allergies have been outgrown and which foods can be reintroduced, and monitoring of other allergic diseases such as asthma and hay fever.

Other services

Our specialist nurse can also provide home visits, (to assess allergenicity of home environment, provide anaphylaxis and adrenaline pen training for other family members and carers).

She also offers advice and support on choosing an allergy aware nursery and school for your child, and can provide allergy & anaphylaxis education and training sessions for childminders/ nursery /school staff

Allergic Conditions

Conditions that we commonly see include:

Food allergy: management is usually by avoidance. We can advise you what your child can and cannot safely eat. It is usually possible to re-introduce some foods over time and we will guide you as to where and how this is safely done.

Eczema: this often starts in infancy, early management with the right treatment creams is essential to minimize the chance of ongoing chronic eczema as your child gets older.

Hayfever -seasonal /perennial (allergic rhinitis):  this often starts from about 3 years of age. We know that poorly managed hayfever can have a significant effect on children, including sleep problems and poor concentration at school. If your child also has asthma, it can make asthma symptoms worse.

Asthma: this often starts in mid-childhood. If well managed, your child should have a normal healthy active life doing everything that other children can do.