egg allergy, but only on skin?

[magicfairy]

Ds (15months) has for a while been developing hives and an angry red rash on his face after eating certain foods, after writing down what he had eaten evrey time it happens, it seems to be eggs that cause it, the runnier the worse it is, the other day he licked the spoon with cake maixture on it and it was really bad, almost blisters all over where the mixture had touched.
It doenst seem to bother him, but it looks so sore. I cant find any info on allegies that are digestion related, i do however suffer from eczema. He can however eat cake fine, but then things like ,mayo and even a sausage have made him break out?!
Does anyone know much about this or know where to go for advice, doctors or reputably crap on allergy subjects round here!

[magicfairy]

Also any advice on cutting egg from the diet, as they are quite a big part of our diet

[woodenchair]

Nothing to add to help by My nephew had a similar reaction recently with scrambled egg. His eye also became quite swollen. They were told to cut out egg for 1 year but there must be better solutions than that.

[Roseylea]

Hello! My dd is egg allergic, as we found out when she was about 10 months old and we gave her scrambled egg. It was exactly as you describe, except that she was violently sick, and within two minutes the angry red hives-type had disappeared.

She has bad eczema, and she was RAST tested (blood tested) last Sept for common allergies, which showed her to be allergic to egg, wheat, soya and peanuts.

So I guess my only advice is to keep a close eye on things and ask for allergy testing if you supect there may be more allergies. Also tink about asking for an Epi-pen. Apparantly it's most likely that dc are only allergic to one or two tings; my dd is just extreme!

[Tapster]

DD 13 months has had similar reactions to egg. Go the GP and get DS tested asap. You will need to cut out egg from his diet, I've had to cut it out of mine too as I am still BF. They won't give you an epi-pen as he has never had an anaphylactic reaction and is unlikely to have one now. DD also has eczema the two are linked. But she has no other aparent allergies. 50% chance of it disappearing by age 2 and 80% by age 6. It does make it a pain to eat out, birthdays etc... Egg changes its composition when its cooked and so some cake may be fine, however cutting it out completely is what I have been advised.

I was also told that those children that have egg allergy have a 50% increased likelihood of developing asthma in childhood. There is nothing you can do about it though!

[lojomamma]

My story is weird.
I have a slight reaction to egg, it makes the roof of my mouth tingle, the GP told me not to worry, and it was my choice whether to eat eggs or not. I will be honest, in that I hadn't realised eggs didn't taste of metal filings, it wasn't until i was 30 or so that the tingling started.

[lojomamma]

Sorry I mean eggs have always tasted of metal filings(to me), and it wasn't until DH and I were talking about this when I realised that eggs don't normally taste of metal filings.

[MegBusset]

My DS (9mo) has had this reaction to cow's milk -- he is fine with other dairy products, and doesn't get any apparent digestive problems if he eats something with milk in, but if it comes into contact with his skin (even when eating something with a small amount in) he comes out in hives. Have been wondering whether to cut dairy out of his diet altogether, but that would be a real pita, esp as we are vegetarian. He also has eczema although it does seem to be improving slightly. We are seeing a paed about the eczema but they haven't offered allergy testing so far.

[LucindaBG]

Magicfairy:

That's not at all uncommon: my DS 1 & 2 both suffered from this and DS1 still does at the age of 7.

The thing with egg allergies is that it can often be a reaction to a protein in the egg and the more that the egg is cooked, the more the protein "denatures" - most proteins break down above 60 deg C - this is basically what cooking is.

As a result, you can often be fine with cake - where the egg is baked at a high temperature for some time.

Egg is complex to substitute for, but it can definitely be done and done well - check out my profile for more on this.

It only becomes difficult if you have to cut both egg and wheat/gluten.

lojomamma: I can relate to that too: DS1 says exactly the same thing: he can tell if something is not right because it makes his tongue tingle. It's a huge bonus for us, because he knows immediately if something is going to cause a reaction as soon as it touches his lips and he can then avoid it. It's when it's been ingested that it causes a problem.

Megbusset: The reactions described here look like true allergic reactions, as opposed to digestive intolerances. Dairy is actually relatively simple to cut out: soya milk works well in many cases and olive oil is also good.

Again, have a look at my profile for more on this.

[LucindaBG]

Oh and Tapster - agreed.

Also worth noting that if your DS has allergies at this age, there is a very very good chance that he will grow out of it by the age of 5 or 6.

Even if he doesn't, it's not a huge deal - you will need to make some adjustments to your life - most particularly cooking your own from scratch if you don't already do this: you'd be amazed how much egg is used in ready meals etc - but it's completely do-able.

[santagitta]

Hi Lucinda - can I ask a question? My dd has same thing (hives and violent sickness with eggs, excema with dairy) but I've just srarted giving her cake and its fine. What other ways can I give her eggs - if I try really overcooked scrambled, would that break down the protein - and if I did, would there be any goodness left in it? I'm quite scared of experimenting...
And is it true that some cheeses are fine for dairly intolerance?

Thanks - sorry for slight thread hijack magicfairy

[LucindaBG]

Hi santagitta,

I'd ask: Is it worth it?

As long as her diet is good, varied and fresh, I'm not sure I'd be too worried about HAVING to give her egg.

By the time you've cooked scrambled egg to the degree you'd need to, I'm not sure you'd want to eat it...


As for dairy intolerance and cheese, I'd need to look into it: we have to cut it out entirely - cheese is the most concentrated form of the dairy protein so it's the worst possible thing for DS1 to have...

I read a useful article here on the topic (pause to see if I can get a link to work)
planetlactose.blogspot.com/2007/11/cheese-and-lactose.html

My instant thought is that if dd does react badly to dairy in general, cheese is not going to be your best bet. Eczema sounds more like an allergic reaction rather than a lactose intolerance - which I would expect to appear more as a digestive problem.

[santagitta]

Good points - thanks! I suppose I'm just tired of her meals having to be a bit different...and a bit sad for her. And she loves cheese, whenever she's canny enough to get her hands on it