Talking Allergies

Hello. My 11 month old son has been recently diagnosed with a dairy allergy and we're working to discover foods he can safely eat. The Government of Canada pamphlet entitled "Milk: one of the nine most common food allergens", available as a PDF on the gov't website, lists brown sugar as a "possible source of milk". I cannot figure out how this could be. I have looked up brown sugar on wikipedia, as well as molasses, to see if there might be something added during processing, and nothing jumps out at me. I have Rogers golden brown sugar in the house and it does not have an ingredient list on it. So, now we're afraid to give him anything that has brown sugar in it, in spite of the fact that this does not seem logical to me. Does anyone have any information about this to suggest that brown sugar either is or is not okay for people with a milk allergy?
thanks,
Carol

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Carol

I have never worried about brown sugar or even thought of it to be honest. I never read that it could be a source for dairy. You should contact CFIA to find out why it is on the milk list. Carmel sauces / flavouring has a lot of brown sugar and sometimes dairy. That is the only connection I can think of.

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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

We use brown sugar here all the time with no problems. My bag also does not list ingredients and I'm ashamed to admit I never even looked at it before using, and we check EVERYTHING. Never occurred to me it could contain dairy. I'll be curious to see what others say about this.

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DS Sept 2006 - peanuts, tree nuts, dairy, eggs, coconut; contact reactions. Asthma. Many animal and environmental allergies.
DS Oct 1990 - Environmental allergies

We use brown sugar and molasses, as well. If the ingredients listed caramel, we would not use it.

Read the ingredients and it you are not sure contact the company and inquire.

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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

Thanks everyone for your helpful responses. I will contact the CFIA to inquire why brown sugar is listed on the pamphlet.

Carol

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Carol

Hi everyone,

I also realized that I never checked the ingredients for my brown sugar. Anyway I went to the grocery store and there were 3 different types of "brown" sugar (yellow, brown and another which I can't remember the name of). The yellow and brown sugar stated 100% naturally sugar in their ingredients. The third listed caramel as an ingredient (which usually contains dairy). The third was a mixture of a few ingredients. I'll bring a pen next time and write the name of it.

boys' mom

I would not assume caramel usually = dairy. It's often derived from corn. It's worth calling to confirm, rather than to avoid it without checking.

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