Talking Allergies

I recently discovered that my nine month old daughter is allergic to eggs and dairy as she reacted to it in my breastmilk. I wasn't too worried at first because according the the literature I was given, these allergies are usually outgrown. However, after reading some of the experiences here, it seems not to be the case and I'm trying not to panic! I didn't know that you could be anaphylactic to dairy and egg! The doctor's advice, of course, is to stay away from these two foods and all will be well. However, is it because people are being so obsessively careful and staying away from the offending foods that the allergy gets more severe? I have no idea how severe her allergies are except that her eczema would flare when I ate dairy or egg. On her skin test, dairy and egg were a "3" on a 4 point scale. It seems that much of the info I have read is conflicting and I don't want to do the wrong thing. I don't know... I'm just a newbie here and I don't have allergies myself.

My question is, what factors affect whether you grow out of your allergy or not? What makes a food allergy get more severe?

Thank you,

Sylvana

Hi Sylvana,

Lots of other people will have some more technical info for you, but from our experience, we've been told it's best to strictly avoid all ds's allergens in order to help him have a better chance of outgrowing his allergies. I'm presently avoiding my son's allergens in order to continue breastfeeding him. It can certainly be tough, but it only gets easier!

Has your doctor said anything about when you might try re-introducing the offending foods? One benefit of continued breastfeeding in the case of allergies is that you can first trial foods through breastmilk, which is of course less risky for your child than feeding it to them directly! This is something we've tried with both soy and dairy, on the advice of our allergist.

It's great that you've found the forum so early in your journey, so you can get lots of help. It also sounds like you have a good doctor, especially if you've already been able to get allergy testing done. Good luck, and feel free to private message me.

Marla

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*Son, 5 years old: Asperger's, allergic to eggs, peanuts, and mustard seed (outgrew dairy and soy)
*Son, 23 months old
*Hubby: allergic to cats and trees (non-specified types)
*Self: allergic to penicillin

Sylvana,

I don't have any tecnical advice for you, but can maybe give you some hope. My daughter was about 6 months when I first introduced formula, and soon found out she was allergic to milk. We then found out she was allergic to eggs and possibly sesame seeds. She would get a red rash around her mouth when she ate these foods. We strictly avoided them until she was three, and upon reintroduction, found she had outgrown her allergies!! She is now 14, and is still allergy-free. I breastfed my next two children longer and neither of them have had allergies.
So good luck, and I hope this will happen for you too.

Soccermom

It is true that most children outgrow these allergies. There are some of us with children who have not. Unfortunately we (our children) are in a small minority. So there is definitely reason to be hopeful. However, until your child outgrows the allergy I am wondering why you were not prescribed an epipen to keep just in case. Particularly with such a strong positive skin test. Toddler years are difficult to avoid accidental exposures. Toddlers put everything in their mouths and if you are getting together with other toddlers they will likely have a bottle or sippy cup around full of milk.

Also, were you given good information about what foods contain milk and alternate names for milk. For example, most margarines contain milk. It might be listed as whey.

As for what to do to outgrow an allergy. Avoidance and breastfeeding. There is really no other advice given. If there were we would know about it. As to how to predict severity of an allergy. Again, there is no way to predict this also.
Good luck.
Kate

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11 year old daughter -- lives with life-threatening allergies to milk, eggs and peanuts; seasonal allergies (birch, maple, ragweed); pet allergies; asthma; and eczema
9 year old son - no allergies

Thanks Marla, Soccermom, and Kate for your support. No Marla, our allergist has not said when to try to reintroduce these foods, only saying that it takes the body a few years to forget. Soccermom, I can't breastfeed anymore because when I restricted my diet so severely because of my daughter's allergies, I stopped producing very much milk. Yes Kate, I have some literature about allergies from the doctor's office.

I just get confused with the conflicting advice. My friend's son also has a milk allergy and his doctor's advice was to try milk every now to see if he has outgrown it. Our doctor on the other hand is saying strict avoidance. Can unsuccessful reintroduction cause more harm down the road?

Another case in point. My neighbor's son had a milk allergy (why is this so prevalent???) and she tried giving her son milk again at the age of one year and he was absolutely fine with it. No trace of an allergy. Perhaps there is a window of time early in a child's life where you can successfully reintroduce an allergic food and then if you pass this window, the allergy gets severe again??? Grasping at straws...

Reintroducing foods without first testing negative on a skin test, and testing low on a RAST is INSANE. My mother in law did this to my husband as a child and it resulted in numerous near death experiences for my husband. So unnecessary. Some kids outgrow it, some don't, and exposing a child unnecessarily is only going to make the allergy more severe.

What I have found is that doctors have very little training on allergies. Family doctors and anyone NOT an allergist can suggest things which are not in line with the thinking of allergists. Your doctor is suggesting strict avoidance...yes...that's definitely the way to go.

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DD age 9 1/2 -peanuts, nuts,
DD age 7 1/2 - milk, eggs, chicken, peanuts, treenuts, cats, dogs,
DS age 2 1/2
Husband- asthma, eggs, treenuts, fish, shellfish environmental
Self - penicillan, eurithromiacin, mild laytex allergy.

You might be receiving anecdotal stories of milk allergy from people who were in fact really not milk allergic at all. Many people confuse milk allergy and milk intolerance. Some of these parents might of had babies who fussed or had digestive problems with milk rather than an immune system reaction which is an allergy. There are so many myths and misunderstandings about milk allergy.

If there was a window in regards to milk introduction I have never heard of this. It has never been discussed on this forum or in any of the books I have read. An allergy diagnosis is difficult and misinformation can be dangerous. My advice is to read reliable information about allergies. The Sick Kids book, The Complete Kids Allergy and Asthma Guide, is a good start. You sound a little overwhelmed and maybe there is a little hint of panic in your note. For our family, good information was the way to take control of our situation and it also helped us sort out myths and facts about allergy.

Follow the doctor's advice. Challenging an allergic food at home can be very dangerous especially without an epipen. Hang in there.

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11 year old daughter -- lives with life-threatening allergies to milk, eggs and peanuts; seasonal allergies (birch, maple, ragweed); pet allergies; asthma; and eczema
9 year old son - no allergies

You're right Kate. I am panicking somewhat (and I have read the book you mentioned). It's just been so hard for me to accept this news. The hardest part to accept is that I have little control on the outcome - whether my daughter grows out of her allergy or whether she will go on to acquire other allergies or asthma (so the allergist tells me). I want to be proactive and minimize all risk factors that will make this more serious and get her on the road to healing. I would love to hear stories from moms who have children who have outgrown their allergies and what they attribute it to. Even though not very scientific, a mom's instinct and insight are very valuable. Anyone out there have a theory as to why their children outgrew their allergy?

Our daughter is also allergic to milk and egg. She was diagnosed at 10 months when she reacted to cottage cheese. I felt guilty as I was drinking milk, eating eggs and breastfeeding. In my mind it was my fault that she was allergic. I have since come to understand and accept that I did everything I could to raise a happy healthy child. She has a pre-disposition for developing these allergies. She may have gotten that from either parent just as she may have gotten her wicked sense of humour from either of us. We can't change that.
The first year is such a learning curve. Once you get the information and put it into practice you start to notice many people who come in contact with your child and how little they understand. You have to teach grandparents, friends and even the Dr sometimes!
Know that you will not always see eye to eye with your spouse.
We have found that removing all egg or milk from the house allows us to to feel safe. Even our cat has egg-free and dairy-free cat food!
Eggs are relatively easy to replace in baking (1 1/2 tbsp oil; 1 1/2 tbsp water and 1 tsp baking soda) and the good news is you can lick the spoon when baking! Milk can be replaced with soy milk or water.
If you are giving soy milk in place of regular milk ask for a nutritional assessment from a qualified dietician (Dr's referral) as soy milk = 2 % milk and children under 2 years of age require homogenized milk as they require the additional fat. (We were told to increase fat intake by 7 tsp daily) With such a restricted diet it is a good idea to get professional advise.
There are some great cook books out there but a search engine and the internet works well too. Check out your local library for lifestyle or cook books (vegan diet is egg and dairy free).
It will get easier, I promise.

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Moderator
Daughter: asthma, allergies to egg, milk, peanuts, tree nuts, most legumes (not soy) & penicillin. Developing hayfever type allergies.
Husband: no allergies
Me: allergies to some tree that flowers in May
Cat: allergic to beef, pork and lamb

I know it's hard at the start - both psychologically and practically - but I have found that the best way to deal with allergies is to accept them. Some people outgrow them, some don't - but we all have to live with them in the here and now.

A member of another forum once gave me very good advice which I have never forgotten: don't borrow trouble.

So... try not to think of where you and your child will be next year or 3 years or 5 years from now with the allergies. Do what you have to do now to cope, and the rest will pan out however it does.

If you want to read about my family's journey, go to http://www.epi-man.com/keck_slides&notes_7March06.pdf . It might give you some ideas about how to deal with what's going on at the moment.

Hang in there! It does get better with time, and yes, many kids do outgrow their dairy and egg allergies, according to the experts.

K.

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Karen, proud Mom of
- DS1 (12 yrs): allergic to cashews, pistachios, Brazil nuts, potatoes, some legumes, some fish, pumpkin seeds; OAS
- DS2 (1o yrs): ana. to dairy, eggs, peanuts; asthma

Hello again,

I am still questioning the total avoidance strategy as a way of outgrowing an allergy. Our allergist's advice was strict avoicance, including all traces and I have been reading labels obsessively ever since. I hear of other people also religiously following this advice and their kids don't seem to be getting better, and the RAST numbers continue to climb. I'm still wondering if this isn't the wrong way to approach allergies (apart from anaphylactic reactions of course). Wouldn't it be a good think if your body could tolerate small amounts without a reaction and build from there? Isn't that the basis of immunotherapy? My daughter has had two RAST tests a year apart with absolutely NO exposure to her allergens in that time - not even a trace amount. The RAST numbers did not improve...

Here is an article that says DELAYING cereal may actually increase allergy risk. In the article, scientists are suggesting that perhaps the body's immune system "needs to see the food protein earlier to know it's not something harmful, and it shouldn't react to it". So perhaps my friends were right in reintroducing milk to their allergic children earlier. Their kids now have no problems with allergies while my child's allergies are not improving at all.

http://www.hon.ch/News/HSN/533062.html

It's very difficult to know what to do when there are so many conflicting stories and studies, I know.

Our story about wheat: My own son was reacting to wheat from about 2 months on... but not because I introduced it to him at that age (at least not directly). He definitely was exposed through my breastmilk. He had raging eczema because of this and it was a nightmare.

He was diagnosed at 5 months (along with dairy), at which point I cut out all wheat and dairy from my diet, and his eczema improved enormously. When I tried re-introducing wheat back into my diet (on the advice of a new allergist) when he was about 1 year old, he had hives for a week. We resumed total wheat avoidance. When I introduced barley (which is cross-reactive with wheat) to him when he was a bit older, he reacted to that as well, quite severely.

The good news is that he outgrew wheat just before he turned 3. But we were very huh about avoiding it.

So obviously we would not fit into that group of people who do well with early wheat introduction, nor would I ever have considered giving my son trace amounts to help him "outgrow" it. He had trace amounts and suffered horribly because of it.

Plus I think it's a sweeping generalization to say that all the kids avoiding their allergen are not outgrowing it. Lots of kids are outgrowing their allergens - we just don't always hear about it here. Plus I would bet that lots of kids are getting trace amounts of their allergen in their diet (either because their parents aren't aware of what to avoid or don't take it seriously enough) and feeling horrible because they are congested or have eczema, etc.

I think that's the tough part - some people might do okay with the approach of "immunotherapy" (not that I am recommending it) and others would really suffer. So how do you decide who is a candidate? Plus it's hard with very little ones beause they cannot express how they feel inside.

For me, at the moment, I would not try the experiment of giving my youngest child trace amounts of his allergens (for which he has high RAST levels - meaning a high likelihood of reacting) unless we were under medical supervision, as with the studies going on at Duke Medical Centre. He's been to ER twice because of trace amounts of dairy, so I know how things might go.

For my oldest, who is 8 and able to express how he physically feels very well, I will be honest - we have tried a few things. He was diagnosed a few years ago as not allergic to eggs, and so we tried well-cooked eggs. He was okay with that but not with poorly cooked eggs (poached). We avoided all eggs for awhile, but then he wanted to try again. So he now eats well cooked eggs once in a while, and it has occurred to me that maybe if he ate small amounts of eggs on a regular basis he might be okay with that.

Anyway, I guess for me the key is the age of the child and how they can communicate. I do think for the moment it is good to follow your doctor's advice.

K.

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Karen, proud Mom of
- DS1 (12 yrs): allergic to cashews, pistachios, Brazil nuts, potatoes, some legumes, some fish, pumpkin seeds; OAS
- DS2 (1o yrs): ana. to dairy, eggs, peanuts; asthma

Our oldest (eight) was once allergic to wheat. A couple of years ago, she tested negative, and we reintroduced it. She's been fine with it since. We had become pretty good at cooking and baking with oat, barley and rice flour.

Her egg allergy results were less negative, and so we've only given her egg occasionally in baked goods. Again, so far so good.

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8 year old: dairy, seafood, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, cats, dust; asthma
4 year old: dairy, eggs, soy, peas, lentils, cats
4 year old: dairy, eggs

I just want to add my support for your situation. My youngest son is allergic to dairy and egg and appears to have environmental allergies too although those are as yet unconfirmed and we haven't gone anywhere near nuts. I suspected allergies when he was 6 months old because of his severe eczema and had him diagnosed at 13 months (he's almost 22 months now).

It is a huge thing to wrap your head around. I found getting as much reliable information as possible helped me (the book mentionned and info from AAIA). There are alternative foods out there. I'm feeling much more comfortable with DS's allergies now that it's been several months since diagnosis. I worry when we go out somewhere but when I can control his food I feel very safe.

DS's allergist didn't try to hide the fact that he may never outgrow the allergies which made it easy for me to face the fact that this will be a way of life for DS. He's so young that he will never know anything else.

I wish you all the best. I'm sure you'll find alot of support on this site.

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Jan, mom to 3 boys
DS#3 - eggs, cats, dust, eczema, avoiding nuts as a precaution
DS#2 - seasonal allergies
DS#1 - no allergies
Me & DH - seasonal allergies

When I first posted this thread seven months ago, I wanted to find out why some kids outgrew their allergies and some didn't. I asked our allergist this question, and he couldn't give me the answer. Since there was no clear-cut answer, I thought I could learn from other people's experiences. Believe me, my daughter has had absolutely no trace exposures to her allergens. If I can't read a label, she doesn't eat it. However, this strategy hasn't helped her as far as the RAST scores are concerned. In fact, she has gone on to develop a peanut allergy, even though she wasn't exposed.

I am not trying to generalize that all kids that are avoiding their allergens are not outgrowing it. However, I do get the nagging suspicion that for some kids, this is not solving the allergy issue. Doctors admit that there is much they don't know about allergies. Isn't it possible that for some kids, this is the wrong approach?

I came across this study that will evaluate whether early exposure to peanuts promotes tolerance and would provide protection from developing peanut allergy in high risk children. This is why I am troubled and what I was referring to when I said there may be a "window of time" that we must make the right decisions for our children in order to help them outgrow their allergies. Perhaps certain conditions must be met early in life in order to outgrow an allergy. It was these unknown factors that I was trying to discover when posting. Are doctors going to tell us five years from now that we should be giving children peanuts at an early age to decrease the chance of a peanut allergy?

http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct/show/NCT00 ... FA?order=7