Update on Milk Allergy

During spring break, we ventured on the airlines for a trip to visit grandparents.  Our daughter will be 4 in a couple months and has allergies to milk, egg, tree nuts and peanuts.

I was so nervous -- would they take away the Epi-Pen when going through security?  How will I make sure the airline seat is clean of allergens?  Don't even talk to me about all the public restrooms I knew we would have to use.

I can confidentially say that for the entire trip -- two airplanes down, two airplanes back, airport public areas, grandparent's house, multiple restaurants, and too many bathrooms to count-- there was not one (repeat not one) incidence of rash on her face.  Even during her normal days at preschool we occasionally see her all rashy with no direct reason.  It sure doesn't help that she still put everything in her mouth.

Well, our daughter was plagued with a cough after the vacation and ended up with an ear infection.  The antiboitics are finally out of her system and I could hardly wait to test her for milk at home.  NOTE: DO NOT DO ALLERGY CHALLENGE TESTING AT HOME UNLESS ADVISED BY A DOCTOR.

For morning snack I gave her some icing made from milk, powdered sugar and vanilla.  The same icing she has had for many of her at-home milk testing. I kept the Benadryl close at hand.  She ate it.  We waited.  Normally 10 minutes is the wait time before we see hives all over face.  Guess what?  Nothing!

For lunch I daringly gave her a third of a piece of string cheese.  She ate a couple bites, then we made her wait 10 minutes.  No rash.  We let her finish the rest of the string cheese (still just the third of a regular size).  Nothing.  No hives. No cough.

We didn't get too excited.  I think we have just had to deal with her milk allergy for so long that her possibly not having it any longer isn't as big of a deal as it would have been two years ago.  Don't get me wrong there is nothing that would make our lives easier.  But we really have adapted.

We waited to check her bowel movement before trying anything else -- just in case her tummy couldn't handle it. All was normal on that front.  After dinner we gave her Cool Whip that recently changed it's formula to more creamy and gave her a terrible reaction several months ago. She ate the creamy Cool Whip with some strawberries.  We set the timer for the third time today and waited 10 minutes. No reaction.  Hooray!  I think I'm numb.

Next on the menu is yogurt and then toast with butter.  Wow!  I never thought we would see the day.  We are going to continue to take it slow, and I'll get a call into the allergist next week.  I just wanted to share to give those you out there hope!!!

Read some of my other at-home testing posts showing our slow journey that led us to were we are today!

The results are in...

Minutes after my last post about our appointment, the doctor called with the blood test results.  He gets bonus points for calling himself -- normally I get a nurse whom I never met trying to explain what she sees on the results sheet.  And unable to answer any question.

Peanuts--she is off the charts and we are advised to stay away.
Other tree nuts -- still questionable, so we are going to avoid.
Milk -- questionable, but we know from our last at-home test she's still allergic
Egg -- questionable, so we are going to do a challenge test and give her egg at the allergist

So, no new information.   But it is good to know where we are at.  I really appreciate the doctor calling and encouraging a challenge test for egg.  So far, the allergists (our daughter's seen four) just close the door and say see you next year.

Allergist appointment

Yesterday was our yearly visit to the allergist.  He was new to the clinic and new to us.  He did a pretty good job overall.  He listened and documented what we've tried.  He gave solid advice and we agreed to do just a blood test this year.  Every allergist (6 of them since I was 14) I've seen has had a different philosophy on testing.  I truly believe that blood testing is going to be more accurate than skin testing for our daughter because if she's like me (which I think she is) her skin is going to react just by being pricked alone.  And that alters the real result.  We get those blood test results in about a week.  We tested for milk, egg, peanut and some tree nuts. I asked if we should continue to avoid shellfish and he advised to go ahead and try it.  She may or may not react just like anyone else.  We have a challenge test scheduled once we get the blood test results to determine if there is a true allergy after actually consuming egg (or peanut) in a controlled environment -- the doctor's office. I'm very optimistic that egg may be safer than we realize.  Milk on the other hand, I'm sure she's still allergic to.

To be continued...

Positive test -- chocolate pudding

Last week I was optimistic about our daughter slowly outgrowing her milk allergy.  She's been tolerating more and more cooked meals with milk.  So, I decided to make milk-based Jell-O pudding.  I was hopeful that the milk was boiled long enough and it would changed the milk protein enough for her to enjoy it without a reaction.  I was wrong.  I gave her less than 1/4 cup of pudding.  She started coughing, but that's kinda normal when she eats.  Drives me crazy because I never know if it's a food allergy or just her swallowing wrong or just plain coughing.  Anyway, it got really bad.  She was gasping along with breaking out in hives.  I quickly grabbed the Benadryl (not the kind that was recalled), and she sucked it down.  She was fine within a few minutes.  It was too bad that she couldn't tolerate it.  I think that was the worst reaction I've seen.  Normally, it's just hives.  But she did consume more than in a normal test.

Reminder:  Do not do food challenges at home unless advised by a doctor.

Milk test -- positive

Reminder: do not do food challenges at home unless advised by a doctor.

We tested our daughter with milk-based ice cream this weekend.  The results -- hives on her face.  So we concluded she can eat just about any meal with milk "cooked" or "baked" inside it, but no cold or uncooked milk is safe.

What... She ate cheese enchiladas

I made beef and bean enchiladas earlier this week loaded with milk-based cheese.  We feed them to our daughter.  She really enjoyed eating them -- I know because she makes happy sounds as she eats.  The good news -- no allergic reaction.  None at all!!

We are hopeful that this allergy is disappearing.  Next on our testing list is milk-based ice cream.

**Reminder do not do any allergy testing at home unless advised by a doctor.**

Just in time for Berry Season

I probably haven't mentioned that our daughter was allergic to blueberries when she was just a year old.  Oh, I was so excited that she liked them -- another fruit to add to the list.   Her face was a little red after eating them, but she was always a little red in those days.  I gave her blueberry pancakes soon after and she broke out in hives.  Noooooo, I thought, but she liked them.

I held off testing her for blueberries until the other day.  She devoured them.  I told her we had to watch for food allergies (she understands what that means, now).  We waited and waited and no hives or even redness.  "Hooray," we shouted!  So happy to have another fruit to add to her diet.  We recently discovered that she likes blackberries, too.  Good timing, too.

Negative, Again and Again

Even thought our 2 1/2-year-old daughter had a positive reactions to cold milk recently, we have been testing some more cooked meals with milk with her.  I thought I would share our progress. Here are some of the foods (with recipe links) that our daughter has eaten with absolutely no reaction!!  Note that some meals have more than one milk ingredient.

• Chicken pot pie (2% milk, used Pillsbury crust with no milk)
• Fried potatoes (unsalted butter)
• Tuna Noodle casserole (2% milk)
• Scalloped potatoes and ham (2% milk and unsalted butter)
• Sloppy Joe and Mashed Potato Cups (Sour cream and unsalted butter)

I don't have a rigid plan.  As I make certain foods, I'm giving her the opportunity to try them.  I'm going to continue with two ingredient meals before trying another "cold" uncooked product.  Also interesting to note is that she is healthy right now with no tummy problems.  I figure that starting with a healthy kid is the only way to know if she is reacting or not.

REMINDER: Do not do any allergy testing at home unless advised by a doctor.  

Allergy testing at home

Do not test for allergies at home unless advised by a doctor.

We tested our daughter with milk this weekend. I made an icing and put in on cookie.  She reacted to it with hives.  But it was a milder case than in the past.  We didn't even give her Benadryl.

I have been feeding her more and more dishes with milk cooked in them and she is tolerated them just fine. Ah, no more making two of everything.  Although I still will if I think something might have too much "milk" in it.

It's a really good feeling to see her slowly being able to eat more.

Good results

Do not do allergy testing at home unless advised by a doctor.

We know our daughter's dairy reaction, so we test for milk at home. I recently mention our testing plan for milk at home. We haven't tested anything since August, when she turned 2 years old.  No sense in testing often if the child is going to react.  We tend to test every 6 months or so right now.  We are optomistic that she will outgrow the milk allergy because she tolerates it so well in baked goods.  

Yesterday, I made a chicken pot pie.  I used Earth's Balance margarine and 2 percent milk. I used Pillsbury pie crust because it also had no milk and she has had it before.  She had eaten every other item in the chicken pot pie before, so I knew we were just testing to see if she can tolerate a casserole with milk.  

Well, as toddlers go, she didn't eat a lot, but she took several bites.  She licked her finger after placing them in the creamy sauce.  In the past, a reaction occurred shortly after giving her about a teasponn of milk-based icing (not cooked).  She at least had that much last night.  

The results:  No reaction!!  Hooray.  No more making two chicken pot pies.  

**In case you were wondering how I made dairy-free chicken pot pie, I use this recipe and adjust. I replaced rice milk for cow's milk and used dairy-free margarine for butter**

Testing Plan

Do you do challenge tests at home?  We do for dairy.  Not for peanut.  We've been holding off for some time because we have moved and it's just nerve racking to give her something and wait for a reaction.  Since her reaction is typically hives from dairy, we feel comfortable doing it at home.  Normally we just give her some icing that I make with milk and powdered sugar.  It's the only way I can think to give it to her so she'll actually eat it.

Here's our plan for our next round of control test for our daughter is just about 2 1/2.

What we know she's okay with:

• Most baked goods such as cookies, bread, muffins, pancakes, waffles, cake
• Cool Whip (crazy but true)

What we plan to test.

• Chicken pot pie that I make from scratch with milk.  It will only have one milk product and will let us know if she can have milk in casseroles.  Boy wouldn't that be nice!
• We'll do the icing test again a week or so after the chicken pot pie test. Dairy can stay in the system for up to 14 days.  I'll probably cut back on baked goods just before the tests. 
• Depending on the results chicken pot pie, we'll have her try a casserole with a cream soup.

If we see negative results on any of these we will then decide what to do next.  Last time we tested her with icing at 2, she didn't react until after 10 minutes.  Normally, the reaction had occurred at 5 minutes.  I've also notice that he dirty diapers have been much more solid lately.  That's got to be a good sign, I hope...

Another positive test result

We test milk with our daughter ever couple months or so to see if her reaction to it is gone. Today we hoped that maybe since she is almost 2 that it will have subsided.

We gave her some graham crackers with milk-based icing (1/2 cup powdered sugar to 1 Tbsp milk). Of course, she didn't want to eat them at first, so I had to jazz them up with some sprinkles. We were so optimistic when after the normal five minutes it takes for her to react, there was no reaction. It took about 10 minutes for her lips to get puffy and those little hives to appear. I say that's progress. We gave her 1 tsp of Benadryl and within about 10 minutes the puffiness was about gone. So no milk yet, but maybe soon!

Please follow the advice of your doctor before you do any allergy testing at home. Our daughter's reaction is just hives around the mouth and we know what to expect. Some allergic reactions can cause a child to stop breathing. You don't want to be that situation if you can avoid it.

Sticking with Soy Milk

We were really hopeful with our test last week with our daughter that she might have outgrown her milk allergy.  We gave her Cool Whip and she had no reaction.  Yesterday, I mixed up an icing with milk in -- much more concentrated with milk than the Cool Whip.  We drizzled it on graham cracker and raisins.  Just as we were discussing what it would mean if she had no reaction, my husband said "look at her chin."  We looked and sure enough hives.  She normally reacts almost exactly five minutes after the first bite.  She was right on cue again.  I had a small dose of Benadryl on hand to give her and then we went on with our day.  So, we stick with the milk-free diet for now.

Cool Whip Test

We tested our daughter this morning with Cool Whip, which has casein in it.  She DID NOT break out into hives.  We were really happy about that.  Next weekend we're going to try ice cream again and see what happens!