Talking Allergies

My son 2.5 yrs with cow's milk protein allergy has been told we can introduce dairy in baking and he would tolerate it fine. I'm just wondering what kind of baking and what kind of dairy in baking I should try first...muffins with some butter in the recipe? Pancakes with some cow's milk in the recipe? Where do we start??? Any help would be great. Thanks!

Was it your allergist that reccomended that you try it? If it was did they do a challenge first? I would be worried about trying it for the first time at home with only epi-pens at hand. If you haven't received specific instructions on how to do it, i'd get an appointment with the allergist so they can explain it to you. As far as i'm aware, the longer it's baked the better, so muffins or a cake would be best but honestly I have no idea how it really works.

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Daughter 3.5 years) - Dairy, Eggs, Peanuts, Sesame, Beef; asthma and eczema
Daughter (2 years) - Peanuts Eczema
Son (7 months) - Contact allergy to something food undetermined

There's an article in this month's Allergic Living on this very subject. http://www.allergicliving.com/features.asp?copy_id=384 I read it with interest, as my son can tolerate 'skim milk powder' baked into a cracker, but not 'modified milk ingredients' baked into a cookie, and my daughter can tolerate one muffin with egg as an ingredient, but not three pieces of corn bread also with egg.

Yes, as the previous poster said, I would be looking for additional instructions from my allergist regarding what to give, how long it is cooked for, how much, how often, etc. Hope it goes well!

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DD 2004 Allergy to peanuts, egg, sesame, and new: lentils and chick peas
DS 2006 Allergy to peanuts, tree nuts, milk, egg, kiwi fruit, eczema

I read that same article in the magazine and I want to discuss this issue with our allergist. What interested me the most in the article was that for some children eating allergens in baked foods was helping them to increase their tolerance of the allergen and perhaps helping them to outgrown the allergy. The doctor quoted in the article said that eating the baked allergen should happen in the office of the allergist like an oral challenge.

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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

I loved that article too - it's so nice to see such progress being made in dealing with milk allergy! Our allergist won't even let us consider it due to the fact that my son's 1st anaphylaxis was a single bite of a hot dog. He concluded right away that it meant he was going to be allergic to baked / cooked milk (even though I don't think there was any milk in the hot dog). But in his early years, we noticed that he was able to tolerate many things labelled with modified milk ingredients, but definitely not milk ingredients or skim milk powder. After the anaphylaxis though, we stopped letting him eat anything with modified milk.

Going on 2 years without a reaction (our longest ever!!), but RAST is still >100, so no signs of growing out of it any time soon

Well, our son's allergy is not sever enough to require an epi-pen. He usually gets an itchy mouth, and will vomit whatever he eats that is dairy, but he's never had trouble breathing. After a vomitting episode, he is fine. So, our first visit with the allergy specialist, he did the test on our son's arm and told us to avoid dairy but he could have it in baking. We were reluctant, so we never gave it to him in baking. He had a few reactions within the past year (itchy mouth, hives, vomitting), so at our second appointment, he still tested to have the allergy but again we were told he would be okay to try dairy in baking. This is all so new to us, so I didn't even think of asking what type of baking we should try it in. Do you still think I should contact the specialist and get his recommendation, or do you think I should try muffins/cake first? I just hate it when our son gets very sick from dairy so I'm quite nervous to try this...

Oh and yes, I read the article too which gave me the confidence to want to try the baking this year

I think I mentioned this in another post, but my son's dairy allergy started out much the same as yours - after he vomited, he was just fine. It wasn't until 2 years later that it turned into anaphylaxis, and it affected his breathing for the 1st time.

Our allergist, who we started seeing when my son was 2, was furious that our family physician had advised us to try milk every 3 months. So I'd agree with the others who say you should probably do it in the allergist's office, with specific instructions about what temperature to bake at, length of time, etc. Even 35 years ago after I reacted to an antibiotic, my Mother would only ever give me a new medicine when she was sitting in the parking lot of the local hospital (she was a nurse). And since you don't have an Epi, it's better to do this where there would be one close by. I know it sounds crazy and super paranoid, but many of us have been there - only to NOT have an Epi when anaphylaxis hit our children the 1st time, after witnessing several minor reactions that only every required Benadryl.

I have to say, especially to Momtobunches, that I'm completely totally scared. I'm so scared that his allergy WILL turn into something more serious/anaphylaxis. I'm very very scared. I don't feel well informed at all. I don't feel like I have all the information I need. I certainly don't feel like my husband and I have a lot of support, especially from our family I don't really feel like people are cautious around our son. Even this past weekend, Grandma was serving ice cream to her grandkids all around our son. They are all so little, they don't know to not go near our son with dairy on their hands. Even if his reactions are slight right now...what would happen if they went near our son with melted ice cream on their hands? Its just so frustrating. I am feeling very mixed about trying dairy in baking, that's for sure. Maybe I am better off to wait until we are in the allergists office, but now we can't get another appointment until December. He books up soooo fast, it's awful!

Maybe you don't have to book an appt - if he told you to do it, just go and do it in his waiting room (and wait at least an hour aftewards - after a cooked food, sometimes it takes the stomach a little while to process the food so the reaction could take longer. One of my son's was almost 2 hours later!) At least you'll be there, and it'll be a safe place to be. And believe me, I know how you feel. We did not know what we were dealing with. I grew up on a dairy farm, so my whole family was completely in denial. He had those minor reactions every 3 months when we mixed 1/2 oz of straight milk into his bottle / soy formula, so after complete avoidance for 2 years we were completely and totally shocked when had had an anaphylactic reaction after a single bit of a hot dog. It made no sense to us. We called my husband's family to the ER after the next one, and once they saw the toll that it took on him (it's only 1 of 2 times in my father-in-law's life that he cried), family gatherings are no longer an issue. My mother-in-law said that seeing him in that distress just about put her over the edge, she's never seen a human being turn that colour before. No, they don't make all meals milk-free, but they are completely aware of cross contamination, and we've never had any issues since. We just bring his own food.

Contact on the skin from ice cream may produce a hive or two, that's what happens to our son, but it has to be ingested to produce anaphylaxis. If ice cream is everywhere, just keep him out of the general area until it's all cleaned up.

Allergists base their advice on the info that they have at the time, past history, results of blood / skin tests etc, so given all the research happening, your allergist may very well feel comfortable giving you that recommendation. And like the article in the magazine said, maybe giving it in baked goods now would help him grow out of it! 8 years ago, they thought that total avoidance was the only way, and it worked completely opposite in our case. If we had been given that advice 8 years ago, I'm sure we would have tried it - but we would have done it with emergency help available close by.

Dairy allergy is very, very scary. Our son is also allergic to nuts ... but in 10 years, he's never had an accidental exposure to that, your know? They're much easier to avoid. Milk is very difficult. But don't lose hope ... it's also one of the most commonly outgrown. Welcome to the board, I've been coming for 5 years and it's the only place I know where I can find people who understand, and are going through the same thing. So much great advice here!

Just had his 10 year old RAST drawn today ... we'll know in 6 weeks if he's finally getting those levels down. So far it's >100, every year. If he's still >100 our allergist is going to knock us to the every 2 year callback list

Talk to your allergist or his receptionist. An appointment can be long and drawn out but a consultation to clairify a few things, well, that's different. S/He may be able to squeeze you in between patients. Get the details from him/her:
How much dairy should be cooked into the food?
Should it be whole dairy or just caesin?
What should you look for and when should you stop.
If you see a reaction, what should you do?
How long should you observe for a reaction?
How soon again should you introduce dairy again?
Can you do this in the waitingroom?

Do not do anything if you are uncomfortable.

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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

Well, well, well ... we have an interesting update! We had the appointment today, and my son's RAST is finally ON THE CHARTS!! Okay, so it's still 60. But it's always been >100, so this is huge progress. Also, he skin tested negative to the allergists' milk extract, but was skin test positive to the actual milk.

Presented with this evidence, our allergist wants us to do a baked milk challenge. I even had the summer issue of Allergic Living magazine in my hand (which my son was in!!) to remind myself to discuss it with him.

So we're booked for October. He didn't give us any specific advice about how much milk, he said it matters more how well-cooked it is. So either cake or bread was what he suggested.

We had a very interesting discussion about the current research, especially milk desensitization, which he is not a huge believer in due to the fact that up to 30% of kids will spontaneously grow out of the allergy during the study period anyways, so the conclusions of the study are never certain. We discussed some other very interesting stuff which is not for this topic - will find a place for it later. Funny - it struck me when I laid awake in bed last night that his RAST would be down. I have no idea why I thought that, we've never had any encouraging results in the past.

I hope everything goes well!

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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