No reaction on skin contact, what now? (supressing the urge to dance a jig)

[lukewarmcupofmulledwine]

DD1 is 3.3 and has always been extremely allergic to dairy and egg (potentially anaphylactic given one of her first reactions at weaning, although never actually had to use our epipen, mainly because we can still control her environment so much).

I noticed the other day that I hadn't seen any red patches on her skin for a while - usually something comes up as its impossible to avoid all the traces of milk that are left on toys at toddler groups/tables at coffee shops etc etc. Not that the welts bother her too much, but they are quite noticeable.

So... I dabbed a bit of skimmed cows milk on her arm, no reaction. Also a tiny bit of cheddar, no reaction. Am trying very hard not to get too excited, but I'm wondering what now? Is it the kind of thing that is likely to come and go, so I should keep trying on and off for a few months to see if the reaction really has lessened? Or does that mean that she won't react on contact at least any more from now? (and therefore I should go and see the consultant about skin prick tests, or maybe food challenges?)

Presumably I also need to check the egg reaction. What would I use for that - a dab of raw egg on her skin, or scrambled egg?

I would be really grateful to hear anyone else's experiences so I have some idea of where we could be heading next. To be honest, her reaction was always so strong that I never even contemplated she might grow out of it... I'm not even daring to hope that now.

I have a friend whose youngest son is allergic to egg, and always has been, his allergy hasn't improved as he got older and they still have to be incredibly careful with what he eats etc, especially as he is in school now.

I would probably go to the GP rather than trying more bits of food with her, as if she did have a bad reaction you would feel v guilty. They will be able to arrange more controlled, safe tests for her.

Hopefully you are right and she is becoming more immune to these things, but better safe than sorry :)

Thanks - but just to be clear, I'm definitely not going to give her anything to eat! I'm just testing reaction on her skin (which doesn't cause anything more than redness or hives for her), and wondering how anyone else has found the progression of lessening skin reaction and then maybe reduced ingested reaction?

Yes, you're right, I know. I'll give the hospital a call and get something booked in (for 2013 probably...!).

Still very interested in anyone else's experience of this though....

Am in similar situation with son same age, but it seems to come and go and I think he still can't eat any. We know another boy who has now outgrown his allergies and what happened was that the reaction (when he accidentally ate the foods) became more delayed (and less severe) before he started being able to eat the foods without any problem. So hopefully when nothing happens straight away it is a good sign, but be careful for any delayed reactions too (although like you say you're not about to feed her the actual food anyway).

Thanks heliotrope and nottirednow, that's really helpful, especially knowing that it might be a variable thing and may, or may not, actually mean anything re actual ingestion. i.e. I really shouldn't get my hopes up about this.

I dabbed a bit of egg white on her skin this morning and got very excited when there was nothing.... but 20 mins later there was a big weal on her arm, so I guess we're not there yet for eggs anyway . At least it took so long to come up, a year ago it would have been an instantaneous arm explosion. So maybe we're at least heading out of anaphylactic territory. Who knows? The only thing anyone seems to know about allergies is that no-one really knows anything for sure!

I'll try to calm down about it now... but yes, will try to arrange some more skin prick tests (next thread... how do you persuade an extremely strong willed 3 year old to let you jab needles into her arm, full of stuff that she knows is not 'friendly'?.... )

We're going for a dairy challenge on the 30th. DS who always reacted on skin contact now doesn't. I got very excited, bit he then had a reaction to something which I suspect was dairy do think he will fail the challenge.

It's definitely a step forward though!!

Not to rain on your parade but...my DD on her first milk challenge was ok with it on her back, they then rubbbed small amount on the inside of her lower lip, within minutes it swelled up like a balloon.

So the challenge was abandoned.

On the bright side she has gown out of it now, and did "pass" her final challenge at aged 5!

I hope that this is a good outcome for you, just didn't want you to get your hopes up too much

No no, thank you both - that's exactly the kind of info I was after, if nothing more than to stop me getting my hopes up too much! As you say, it's a step on the right direction but I've lowered my expectations to it being another couple of years thing (if ever), rather than a miraculous cure. Thanks, and good luck for your challenge trixymalixy.

Just to update, DS failed the milk challenge. He was fine with the milk rubbed on the back of his neck and then on his lips and then to my amazement was fine with increasing amounts of milk up to about 20ml when he went purple and came out in the most hives I have ever seen.

They thought he might pass eventually given how far he got, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!!!

Oh trixy - that's a shame, so sorry it didn't go better. Hope he wasn't too ill afterwards (sounds quite spectacular!). But, as you say, he got pretty far so hopefully one day...

How old is your DS? Hope he wasn't too disappointed himself? Was he OK with doing the challenge itself? I found that I had to try the milk on DD's skin by subterfuge, as I asked her to try and she just refused point blank - can't blame her since she's all she's ever known is that cow's milk will make her ill!

Dont try the egg on her - and as a food test, they never do raw eggs as they shouldn't be eating them anyway!

Never do the two together. It's rare she'll outgrow them both at the same time anyway. Focus on the milk and leave the egg for now, especially if egg was her worst reaction.

Dd outgrew milk - the egg we don't know as it was never retested but she's 10 now and can eat it cooked in biscuits/cakes anyway so she must be ok.