Children’s allergy service

Our children’s allergy service at the Leicester Royal Infirmary provides a comprehensive, specialist-led service for children and young people (up to 18 years; new referrals accepted up to age 16) with suspected or confirmed allergies.

Our multidisciplinary team includes consultant paediatricians, specialist children’s nurses, and paediatric allergy dietitians. We offer expert assessment, diagnosis, advice, and education for a wide range of allergic conditions, including:

• Food and drug allergies
• Hay fever and allergic rhinitis
• Eczema and allergic skin conditions
• Allergic gut disorders

Outpatient clinics

We run a range of general and specialist allergy clinics each week:

• General clinics: Wednesday and Friday mornings; Monday and Friday afternoons (fortnightly)
• Specialist clinics: Tuesday and Thursday afternoons (e.g. for multiple food allergies or eczema with food allergies)
• Nurse-led diagnostic clinics: Friday afternoons
• Dietitian-led clinics: Tuesday afternoons

Most clinics take place at the Leicester Royal Infirmary; Monday clinics are held at a local GP surgery.

We use a ‘one-stop’, multidisciplinary approach, so families typically see a doctor, nurse, and dietitian during the same appointment. The team works together to carry out medical assessments, skin prick testing, spirometry, device training, and dietetic advice, all in one visit.

Diagnostic daycare assessments

We offer daycare-based, supervised diagnostic assessments for:

• Food allergy: Oral food challenges help determine whether a child has outgrown their allergy or confirm uncertain diagnoses.
• Drug allergy: Supervised testing to assess suspected drug reactions.
• Vaccine allergy: Supervised immunisation for children with suspected vaccine-related allergies.

Food allergy desensitisation

While many children naturally outgrow food allergies, some may benefit from oral desensitisation therapy—a gradual, medically supervised reintroduction of allergenic foods (e.g. milk, egg, wheat) to build tolerance. Our dietitians lead this service, and we are also involved in national research into peanut desensitisation.

Immunotherapy services

We offer allergen immunotherapy (also known as desensitisation) for children with severe allergic reactions to:

• Grass, birch pollen, or house dust mites (hay fever and allergic conjunctivitis)
• Animal allergens (e.g. cats, dogs, horses)
• Bee and wasp stings