Food Allergy Question

HI J.- My daughter had an egg allergy as an infant/toddler. She outgrew it, as most kids do. The best tactic at this age/stage is to avoid the eggs altogether. After age 2 or more, he may be able to tolerate eggs baked in things that have been baked a long time (cake, for example) because the baking process helps break down the protein in the white, which is what he's allergic to. Things like muffins or cookies, or pancakes aren't cooked long enough to do this. My daughter is now nearly 10. She can eat any baked product with eggs in it, but doesn't "like" just plain eggs, or omelets, etc. I believe this is still linked to her egg allergy, and her body telling her to avoid them.

Avoid it until your allergist feels it can be introduced under his/her supervision at their office DO NOT DO IT ON YOUR OWN!

My daughter was diagnosed as allergic to eggs and milk at 8 months .... we've been an epipen family ever since, but fortunately, never had to use it. I have had to use benedryll a few (some scary) times. (Like when the ice cream server scooped her sherbet instead of sorbet, but told us it was the sorbet - that was a scary time, she was 4 then.) I have noticed that she has become more and more tolerant of foods with eggs and milk COOKED in it - as in, muffins, cake are fine, but raw milk and eggs are not fine. She is 6.5 now. I think it really depends on how severe your child's allergy is. You should get an allergist, and work together. Good luck.

My 19 month old son developed a rash after eating egg whites when he was about 7 months old so we just avoided them and fed him egg yolk at his doctors suggestion without a problem. After eating 1/2 a pb sandwich at 14 months old, he developed a rash and vomited so I brought him to the doctors and they referred him for testing. He tested positive for peanut and egg white allergy. We were told to totally avoid both and have done so. We carry his epipens everywhere. I feel that total avoidance is best. He will be retested at 3 years. People have told us about new ways that are being developed to desensitize and hopefully that will be an option if his allergies continue, but at 19 months we're more comfortable with avoidance. Good luck!

My daughter has some severe food allergies as well as medication allergies. She is watched closely by an Allergist and he has discussed with me the possibility of experimenting with building up her tolerance but I discussed it with my daughter (9yrs.) and she is not comfortable with it. I would not do this unless you have agreement from a specialist and do it properly because you do risk an overexposure which can be life threatening. Good Luck and I hope your son does not develop any more allergies.

B. O

Just an idea on how to separate the eggs easily.
Cook it in a little frying pan with some pam spray - the whole egg, careful not to break the yolk, and when it is cooked all the way through (flip it once carefully to make sure) it is very easy to peel the yolk and white apart. There is a skin that keeps them separated (you'll see it once it's cooked) so they literally never touch. No worries of cross-contamination.

Hi J., Please do not "challenge" your son on egg. A food challenge is when under a doctors suppervision you introduce an allergen a couple of ounces at a time in 15 min intervals for up to 3 hours increasing the dose each time. My son was 9 months old when I found out he had a egg allergy then I found out that he was allergic to well over 40 foods. I found a great allergist and my son just turned 4 and because of food challenges he is able to eat about 10 more foods that he was prevously allergic to. Please dont challenge him on your own with out a doctor present, anaphlyatic reaction is so scary and quick that you cannot risk it with out a doctor. Then after a challenge test you have to basically pump that allergan in his system for up to a week and watch for gastro upset, eczema or plain irritability, cause those are signs of an allergy and just because he might not have anaphylactic right on the spot it could be giving him refux that he might not beable to tell you. My son has had food challenges to chicken, beef, rice, pork, wheat, soy and a few others so I diffinately believe in challeges but only in a doctors office where they are well equiped to handle a severe reaction. I was a medical assistant for years and seen emergencies of some kind many times but when its your child it all goes out the window. On a side note, there are great products that replaces egg, Eggery (sp) found at whole foods or hanafords or even applesauce so you can diffinately bake w/o eggs. Well I hope this infomation finds you well and just talk to your allergist they will give you the best advice. Good luck.

Ann-Marie

My son was diagnosed with an egg allergy around 15 months. His allergy was well into the moderate category, and we completely avoided anything that had eggs in it. He was retested at 23 months and had outgrown the allergy. My advice would be to keep avoiding it completely. If you are thinking of slowly introducing the food, I would let your allergist know so they can guide you in the process. Also, be sure to have your epi-pen ready just in case! Good luck!

My kids were diagnosed with food allergies, they had reflux as babies. I absolutely avoided all of them until they were old enough to tell me how they felt when they ate them. Here's the thing. Even though they now tolerate them quite well (They're 8 yrs old), I know that they're not good for them. The strange thing about food allergies and intolerances is you don't know how they're going to manifest themselves. Not everything results in a rashes and breathing trouble. Ear infections are allergy related, bad acne is allergy related (That's my pain, give me an egg white during that time of the month and I'm toast). My son rarely has wheat, when he does he snores (slight inflammation of mucous tissue). He never snores otherwise. So, I guess what I'm saying is allow your child to be involved in being aware of how various foods make them feel. When they're old enough that will allow them to become responsible enough to ration what they eat. My son turns down ice cream, he would rather have sherbet because it doesn't "stuff him up" his words. He has better will power than I do. Both of my kids know the food groups and choose (I KNOW CHOOSE) healthy snacks. I wish I had been parented the same.

J.:

My son was diagnosed with egg, milk and peanut allergies when he had trouble going from formual to milk. We avoided those foods with eggs, milk (and of course peanuts!) Our allergist told us our son most likely would outgrow the egg & milk allergies. At 3, we tried a little bit of milk - no problems.

Recently we tried a couple of bites of scrambled eggs without issue. We haven't had any issues at all with milk or eggs.

Good luck!

Hi J.,

our son was diagnosed with this around the same age. Basically it was because we had been giving him an egg a day, and his system got overloaded--never had a chance to rebalance before he got his next dose of egg whites.

Under our doctor's supervision, we cut back to 1 egg a week. She told us not to worry about "hidden" eggs--like in products that have them, or baked goods. It worked really well and we have been slowly re-upping his egg consumption. Now he has eggs three mornings a week, plus the eggs that come in occasional pancakes, etc.

The same thing happened with bananas--another high allergen food.

The doctor told us to increase variety of foods, and pay attention to leaving a couple of days between each high allergen food.

Good luck and don't worry!

If you heard all the news reports of this past week about peanut allergies being eliminated by introducing small amounts of peanut flour to children, you know that they are now saying that a positive allergy test doesn't mean the child is allergic! All these years, and now they say that having so many kids avoid so many foods for the rest of their lives was not the only or the necessary course!

However, they also said that parents should not introduce the problem food into the child's diet without medical supervision - this method of eliminating the allergy cannot be done at home.

However, there are other things that you CAN do - friends of mine have reduced their child's allergy (in this case, peanuts) substantially already and their doctor said, based on the blood tests, that they should continue what they are doing (which is perfectly safe). The doctor estimates that the child will be completely allergy-free in a year or less. I know they would be happy to share with you!

My son was diagnosed with several allergies at 6 months old after having a severe (anaphalactic) reaction to milk. Egg is one of them. He has had strong skin reaction to egg (skin turns red and puffs up when it touches egg) but has never actually eaten egg. He is almost 2 now and we are in the process of having him tested again (blood last week, skin next week) Provided his levels are not too high, our allergist will then challenge him on COOKED egg (as in pancakes, or muffins, but he will not be able to eat french toast or eggs alone). The challenge will be done under medical supervision. It's risky to try it on your own if your child has a history of bad allergic reactions to food. She said most kids do pass the challenge without a problem. It's really helpful to work with an allergist and do the testing- then you can see if your child has any other allergies too. Good luck!

Hi J.,

From my experience with chocolate allergy (only reactions was hives at around age 7)I would say to stay away from allergens. I was able to eat chocolate later in life with, what I thought, was "no reaction." What I didn't realize was that I was having a reaction. I just didn't realize it. At my last job before staying home with my children, I would eat a Snickers bar to keep up my energy. At that time in my life I also had cysts in my breasts and an ovary. After I gave birth they went away. I thought it was due to childbirth and nursing. It didn't occur to me that I wasn't eating as much chocolate. I started eating it again recently on a more frequent basis. I got a cyst on my face. I got rid of it at the same time I ran out of chocolate. I bought and ate more chocolate; the cyst returned in the same place. I stopped eating chocolate and the cyst went away on its own. Studies had been done years ago that indicated that chocolate caused cysts. Later studies showed that they didn't. I'm wondering if those that got the cysts were allergic and those that didn't get cysts weren't. So I'm not eating chocolate anymore. : ( No more cysts. I've learned my lesson. I'd rather be healthy.

From my experience, I think that when your body tells you it does not tolerate something, do not force those things on it. There may be problems occuring that you aren't aware of.

Good luck,
:) Maureen

My advice would be to keep him away from the food that causes the allergy. Reason is each reaction becomes worse and by avoiding it, he could out grow it. My son did and by the time he was 4 he was clear. Not sure if he has any lung/skin issues such as asthma or ezcema but if you avoid those it will help him in the long run. Good luck and keep educating yourself!!

I have several friends who have been able to heal their kids allergies through diet. It's not easy but it can be done. Check out diets like GAPS (www.gapsdiet.com). Good luck!

Hi J.,
I would echo most of the advice you have already received - follow your doctors advice and completely avoid whatever your son is allergic to.

My Sister-in-law's kids had terrible allergies to wheat (actaully, gluten) and dairy. She completely eliminated them and found other replacement foods to give them instead.
That supports their little systems, instead of overwhelming them with foods they are unable to tolerate or process.
Every once in a while (maybe once a year or so?) she would try them on a SMALL bit of their allergen (she is a lic acupuncturist with a great deal of medical knowledge - I would also recommend that you try under the supervision - or at least with the support of - your Dr.).

By around age 5 (for my neice) and age 6 for my nep[hew, they were both able to eat their previous allergens.

But - your son is still so little - completely avoid for a long time - will give his system a chance to heal and grow.

Good Luck, and if you are curious to talk to my SIL, just e-mail me and I will contact her.
Warmly,
E.

HI J.
My friend Amys daughter has just reduced her peanut allergies by 50% in a year. I'm sure she could explain how.
J. H

Hi,
We had a similar situation. My son was fine with eggs cooked into things but couldn't eat any plain eggs or egg glazes on cookies or anything like that [that's how we found out...Mrs. Field's uses and egg glaze to keep lots of their cookies shiny].

Our allergist said to keep giving him eggs cooked into foods but to avoid plain eggs. After about a year he tested negative and we did a food challenge in the allergy office and he was fine.

I wouldn't do anything without discussing it with your allergist first. We had an epi pen and everything. You never know what could happen.

But I do know that egg allergies are often outgrown.

Now, of course, my son won't eat eggs since we weren't able to intro them until he was almost 3...but that's a whole different problem....

Good luck!

Media seems to be very interested in the "little bit at a time" theory for overcoming allergies to certain foods.
It makes sense, thats for sure but I do not think I would attempt it without a doc's supervision as some food allergies can have such radical effects on a person.
Eggs are not hard to separate and if you find them so, there is a little do-hingy that you can buy, perch it on the edge of a cup and break the egg into it. The white pours down into the cup and the yolk is retained in the do-hingy.
Tupperware used to give them for their little prizes.I feel you could probably find them in any cookware store.
Best wishes and God bless
Grandmother Lowell