Talking Allergies

How do I get a 100% diagnosis on my sons dairy allergy?

He is 2 months old and was diagnosted by his pediatrics doctor at 5 weeks old with this allergy due to intestional bleeding, mucus and gas caused from dairy passing to him from my breastmilk.

Im new to this scene so Im going to ask a question youve probably answered 100 times before Who do I go to see and what tests do I ask for?

Thanks a ton

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Kids: 3
Allergies: Just the baby with his dairy allergy
Husband: The mans a walking health hazard
Me: No food allergies that I know of

I was told by my doctor that I couldn't get any testing (skin prick test) done until my son was at least 2 years old. He had reactions to egg at around a year old. I had to wait for over a year before I could get testing done. It could be different by location? I'm on Vancouver Island in B.C.
I know they can do blood testing, but I'm not sure about what age they can do this at?

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Married mom of 4 living children and a baby girl in Heaven.
Between myself, my husband, and our children we have way too many allergies to list.

Our daughter was 14 months old when she was tested at Sick Kids in Toronto. She was having severe reactions at that point (hives, swelling, vomiting) not just gastro. She was referred at 9 months and it took a while to actually get an appointment. Since your child is so young they might wait a bit perhaps to test since many kids outgrow allergy by one year. But testing can be done before 2 for sure especially if your child is going to be in the care of someone else (daycare or babysitter).

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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

Welcome to the ambiguous world of food allergies. You can pretty much toss the idea of ever knowing anything 100% right out the window! The only thing you can be certain of is that everything is subject to change. Reactions, ingredient lists and even what the allergists believe regarding causes, outcomes and the possibility of outgrowing the allergen.

That having been said...
Don't accept that you have to wait until your child is 2 or 3. Our allergist accepted our referral when dd was 10 months old (although she was 15 months before she saw him). Ask for reasons for the wait.

They might be hoping that he'll out grow his dairy allergy but the facts that they would base that assumption on are old and new studies are showing that milk allergies are not being outgrown as much as they were in the past.

Don't accept a wait and see approach without a game plan. What are you axpected to do in the mean time? To tell you to come back in 2 years and to not let the door hit you on the way out is not enough.

So, what can you do now? I think I read that you've removed dairy from your diet . Can you keep a food diary of what you eat and how he seems? Be aware that many items, such as lotions and medications contain dairy.

I hope you see a marked improvement in his condition, this may be an indicator that yor on the right track. If you don't, what's the next step?

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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

My daughter manifested with eczema at birth that gradually worsened until she was a mass of weeping itching oozing skin by 4 months. The only way she could sleep was if you held her and held her hands pinned down so she could sleep. I was too uneducated at the time to understand this was a sign of allergies, but the doctor I was seeing finally caught on (at about 4 months of age). I was told at the time that the earliest reliable skin testing could be done was at 6 months. We had an appointment on the day she was 6 months old! Found out she was allergic to dairy, eggs, and nuts. Removed those from my diet, added some baby allergy meds. New kid! Instant change. Baby number three they were able to skin test at 4 months of age. (No allergies.) Please do not stop asking for reasons why there should be a delay, and do not be afraid to demand what is right to keep your kiddo healthy. You can test as soon as you can get in to the allergist. Don't wait. You'll both feel better. You are the strongest advocate for your child.

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Daughter #1 eczema, asthma, and allergic to eggs, dairy, beef, nuts, soy, wheat, dogs, cats, and grass
Husband intolerant to dairy, allergic to grass and dust
Daughter #2 "outgrew" allergy to dairy and egg

Our first sign of allergies was when Kaden developed eczema at one month old. After being told by one doctor that it was just a rash and would go away, we finally found a doctor that told us it was infantile eczema and that we had to determine the cause to make it go away. We made many changes to my diet (I was BF). After trial and error, his eczema cleared up after I removed dairy. Never thought of food allergy though. Forward to 4 months old when we gave him solids for the first time and he got hives from the rice cereal (contained milk powder - obviously I didn't read labels as well as I do now ) I was convinced it was the milk, our GP was not. Said it was unlikely but after showing her photos of his reaction she said no foods until he was seen by an allergist. She didn't think he would be able to be tested though because he was so young. Fortunately we were seen by the allergist within a month, who did do SPT. Dairy was the only positive at the time. Egg and nuts developed within a year.

BTW, we did not realize at the time of the dairy positive how serious food allergies can be. My 18 year old reacted (vomiting, diarrhea) to dairy when I was trying to wean him at 8 months old. I was told at the time that he had a dairy allergy (no testing was done, just the words of the GP) and to give soy until he was able to digest the milk. Did that and a few months later he was able to drink milk with no issues at all. So when we were told Kaden had a dairy allergy I really did not take it seriously because I was still thinking about Tim and how easily he grew out of his "allergy". I'm thinking now that maybe he had a dairy sensitivity and I'm realizing how lucky I was that he did not have the same sort of reactions that Kaden does because I was so ignorant of the issue back then. Sorry to ramble, I just want to make it clear that yes, you can get tested at a young age. And keep in mind that even if your child does not test positive to dairy with SPT, it could be that they have a non-IgE allergy, which I believe can also present with the same reactions that you are describing.

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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

My daughter also reactted through breast milk.it wasn't until she was 6 months that we confirmed it though. First your gp's job is to refer you to a specialist. You need to be refered to a pediatric allergist. If he/she won't do that they aren't doing their job and you need to see someone else. I had to do that very same thing. Second my daughter had the skin prick test at 6 months, that was the soonest we could get in to see an allergist. To confirm her allergy we had a blood test. It was very challenging getting blood out of a 9 month old. Please tell me your doctor prescribed an epipen.

Evelyne

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Mother of two.
One year old with allergies to flax, dairy, eggs, wheat, barley, rye, oats, legumes, kiwi. Outgrew soy!
Four year old with a peanut allergy.

My daughter had skin and blood tests done at 6 months old. She is allergic to dairy and other things (eggs, soy, wheat). She was reacting severely to all of these things while still exclusively breastfeeding. It was a remarkable difference in her when I cut these things out of my diet - she is 15 months old now and still breastfeeding (and due for another round of allergy testing).

Our allergist did warn us that under 1 year old, allergy test results can be unreliable. For that reason, he considers an observed reaction to be equivalent to a positive test result. So whether or not you get confirmation, I would go ahead and cut out dairy and see what happens. It might take a couple of weeks to see an improvement.

Good luck!

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6 year old son - eczema and sensitive skin
4 year old daughter - allergic to nuts, peanuts, sesame seeds, mustard and eggs; has outgrown allergies to wheat and legumes (by age 2) and to dairy, soy (by age 3.5).

It can take 4 to 6 weeks for the allergen to clear completely from their little baby bodies. Wich makes it hard to know sometimes if your doing it right because it takes so long to see positive results. This was the case with my youngest. That information was not something that was easily found when we were trying to make her better.

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Mother of two.
One year old with allergies to flax, dairy, eggs, wheat, barley, rye, oats, legumes, kiwi. Outgrew soy!
Four year old with a peanut allergy.

It is important that you know, that it takes time to be absolutely able to make an allergic test that is correct to one hundred percent, but that'sjust an advice, from myself. Actually sometimes it saves lives to simply wait until a child is old enough to make such a test, because accuracy is a very important factor when it comes to make sure that you know what your child is allergic an to protect it from eventual upcoming problems, accidents and so on.