What’s happened?
Children recruited into the study between 30 May 2023 and 7 May 2024 who had a skin prick test to wheat were tested to wheat pollen instead of wheat flour.
What does this mean?
This means that the dietary advice based on the skin prick test result to wheat is not reliable.
What should I do?
You do not have to do anything. However, if after reading this information you would still like your child to have a skin prick test using wheat flour, please contact us.
Was the skin prick test safe?
Yes – there is no risk to your child from having a skin prick test to wheat pollen.
What about the other study foods?
The skin prick tests for the other foods (cow’s milk, hen’s egg, soya) and the dietary advice that you were given for these foods was correct.
I think my child may be having symptoms hours or days after eating wheat – do I need an allergy test?
Usually not. Normally, if a delayed allergy is suspected, the advice is to try excluding it from your child’s diet for up to 4 weeks (to see if the symptoms improve) and then reintroduce it for 2 weeks (to see if they worsen again).
But if you are not sure, the best thing to do in the first instance is to discuss this with your GP.
What is the difference between wheat pollen and wheat flour?
Wheat pollen is used to detect sensitisation to the pollen from wheat, which is usually in the form of hay fever symptoms. Wheat flour is used to detect sensitisation to wheat when it is eaten as flour.
How common is allergy to wheat?
Allergy to wheat is uncommon. In one study, Venter followed-up child from birth to 10 years. While 1 in 50 reported wheat allergy, this was only confirmed in 1 in 200. Of 827 children, only 1 was found to have persistent, immediate-type allergy to wheat; and 3 had wheat intolerance (gut symptoms).
Wheat allergy should not be confused with coeliac disease, which is when the body’s immune system attacks its own tissues when gluten is eaten. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley and rye.
What does this mean for the study?
We have informed the people that monitor the study on your behalf and agreed how to deal with it. We have let everyone in the study who’s affected know and are now only using wheat flour in our skin prick testing. We will be able to analyse the results from cow’s milk, hen’s egg, and soya as originally planned, but not the findings for wheat for affected participants.
How did this happen?
The order form for the wheat allergen did not clearly distinguish between pollen and wheat flour. The bottle the wheat came in was only labelled “Wheat” with an order code (not “Wheat pollen” or “Wheat flour”). The error was found when we came to order some more wheat allergen.