Can someone please explain the mechanism of non IgE allergies to me?

[Maz007]

Hoping that once again you can help me get my head around something. I am used to managing IgE food allergies but my daughter who is now 13 months also has a suspected non-IgE mediated allergy to milk which we thought she was outgrowing.

I understand how the reaction in IgE allergies work, but I'm confused by how non IgE ones work. In particular, is it possible for someone to have a threshold in terms of the amount of the food they can cope with then react if they have any more than that but be fine with smaller amounts? If so, can anyone explain why that is?

[chocoluvva]

I suffer from this too, but I don't properly understand it either.
I have several food sensitivities - some of them are okay provided I don't eat the troublesome food more often than every four days.
When I first tested positive for IgG reactions I didn't eat any of the offenders for nearly a year. The first time I had dairy - half a pot of yogurt - I had stomach pains after half an hour and spent the evening lying still on the sofa to avoid being sick.
However a few years later, I decided to have some goats milk cheese - I didn't have such a strong reaction, but was very queasy. White fish was fine on one ocassion, but the following week I ate it again and woke up in the middle of the night feeling sick. T he next week I had fish again, but this time I got stomach pains and felt sick after about an hour.
Small amounts of the things I can't tolerate give me IBS type symptoms but don't usually make me nauseous.
Last week I had some of the new A1 milk - which comes from cows selected for their unusual genetic profile which causes them to not have one of the proteins, usually found in dairy. It was fine _ yessss - but I'll wait a week before trying it again.
But I was fine as a child!!!!!!
I think the tests are reliable - I did a few and they usually showed the same things, but I would check your DD again in 6 months.
Apparently the offending food causes you to produce antibodies which remain active in your body for six weeks, but becoming weaker (less) as months go by. Hopefully after 6months/a year your DD won't make antibodies to dairy if you don't give her any until then.

[Maz007]

Thanks chocoluvva. I'm surprised to hear you've found reliable tests as my understanding was that non-IgE allergies cannot be diagnosed with clinical tests - but only by exclusion diet...

Does anyone else have any experience of delayed onset reactions which are related to the dose of allergen? If so, how do you manage it? Do you avoid altogether or stick to an amount that you've found you cam tolerate?

[chocoluvva]

York test.
Cambridge test.
Both are blood tests.

[eragon]

They test for IgG which again arent that reliable.
I wouldnt bother personally.

good book, complete guide to food allergy and intolerence by prof brostoff, published by gamlin.

[Maz007]

Thanks eragon I will look it up (was hoping you'd have some thoughts)

[eragon]

I personally would remove all forms of milk to allow the gut time to heal, then intoduce very small amounts of milk and see how things go. ( gp given suitable allergy formula or ok on breastmilk?)

the protein irritates the valve at top of stomach,it swells, doesnt fit properly and realease food back up, and acid. This causes an inbalance of stomach acid to digest food correctly so it passes through rest of gut only partially digested.
This irritates all our inner tubing and passes the nasty stools at the other end.
over time other symptoms show, and other foods due to inflamed gut are not digested well.

some kids cant take milk because it irriates linnng of anas. causing extreme pain passing normal stools.

my daughter is a teen who has developed intolerence to milk and soya, a common combination i have been told. cant have anything from any udders, and symptoms was feeling sick, sore throat, stomach pains and eczema and puffy/ odd lips ( NOT IgE in her case, cleared that up with pead immunologist!)
also IgE environmental allergies that cause some symptoms , ezcema , sore throat etc.

Ibs well sadly know quite a bit about that as well.....

[Maz007]

Thank you that makes sense and is most helpful. Appreciate your knowledge which I realise must have been accumulated through hard experience...

Was wondering whether to try one last time to confirm that's what's happening by giving her increasing amounts of spoonfuls of milk to try to prove to myself that that's what it is... There always seem to be confounding variables, like teething or the fact that her nappies go from normal to horrible and back to normal while she is having milk which made me wonder whether it could be the milk. I suspect that it's possibly a question of amounts - and that we have reintroduced it carefully with no I'll effects, then got excited and ramped it up and she's got poorly again. Perhaps I need to give up on conclusive proof and just accept that's the most likely explanation. There's always so many variables it might be impossible to be scientific about it.

Once her gut has recovered a bit, would you give her things like baked milk in biscuit form that we know she's been ok with or
is that likely to irritate her despite us not seeing evidence of it in her poo?

I'm still breastfeeding - although not much as she's a big fab of food now. Thankfully managed to bypass the
nutramigen which my son had for his much more straightforward CMPA :)

Prof B book on order from
Amazon - thanks again :)

[Maz007]

What a great book!!! I'd seen it online and resisted it because there is so much rubbish about allergies out there that i was reluctant to get it blind... but it really is very helpful. Thanks again :)