milk and egg allergy

[cherrysodalover]

Hi

So we have just found out our 12 month son is severely allergic to milk and egg white( he had a bad reaction to cheese at 7 months and now it has been confirmed via blood tests).Apparently he was off the scale that they use.

I am being referred to an allergist and a nutritionist but in the mean time is anyone out here in this boat- I know it is a reasonably common allergy.

Any tips and advice will be welcomed

Yes, loads of us in the same boat - it is horrible to be given this news but you soon get into a rhythm of cooking safe food and making sure that your DS is okay on a day-to-day basis.

I felt so isolated when I first realised that DS had food allergies but have found a lot of support on these pages.

I think the most helpful realisation I had was that there is still a lot of food my DS can eat. You mght have to change the way you think about cooking because dairy in particular is in loads of stuff. However, it is manageable

It's easier than I thought to feed him. I too panicked initially.

I agree with those who've already posted. It's really not so bad at all I promise. 'Bakin' without eggs' is a good book to get (very american and some of the recipes use dairy but you can supplement with alternatives) and has been a lifesaver for enabling my DS (also 1) to be able to have cake etc at birthdays. Honestly, right now I really don't find it at all a big deal (but we found out about allergies before weaning so have never known anything different). DS's nursery are brilliant about it. I realise it will get more tricky as he is older and going to parties etc, but I'm sure it will be fine.

Read labels and check ingredients; you'll soon get the hang of it. A few trips to the shops without LO will really help to start with to work out what you can and can't do from their current food types.
(I ended up sitting on the floor in the baby aisle at tesco surrounded by jars, tins and boxes, they must have thought I was balmy!)

A lot of allergy sites have recipe pages, but not that many have multiple allergies (that I've found). One that does and I love her cooking is PigInTheKitchen (hey, if I can cook some of them, they can't be that hard to do!).

It will get easier and you are not alone, please remember that.

Also in same position.
It gets easier.
Make sure you check every label at first though Eg sausages - some contain milk and/or egg some dont so you can't assume sausages are a 'safe' food..

Another thing to ask about is an epipen dd2 has had hers since she was about 18 months ish but I had to put up a bit of a fight for it as they wanted her to reach 13 kg first.
She was 2 in September and is still only 10 kg so we would have been waiting a long time !

Thanks for that advice everyone- okay so I didn't really have any reaction when I was told the news- It did not occur to me that they must add milk to a lot of foods and egg too I guess. So i need to educate myself.

hwhite6I will check out the piginthekitchen and the book readingtealeaves.
It is so odd that all these allergies are more common now- when I was a kid I do not remember it so much. I wonder what is causing the rise?

cherrysodalover, you will soon be very good at deciphering the lists of ingredients on packaging. Loads of seemingly random foods contain milk and egg proteins (don't forget to check for milk and egg under other names, e.g. whey powder, albumen etc.) For example, lots of pre-cooked meat contains milk and many flavours of crisps.

I've found it easier to cook most things from scratch in large batches and freeze meals for days when I can't be bothered...

Also you will fuck up at some point, 'you're not a bad mum' in advance!

I've been amazed by the number of things that have milk in them, like sausages as someone mentioned, and some hams, chorizo etc. It really does make shopping last a lot longer.

Not to hijack the thread but for those with dc with egg and milk, are any of them also allergic to soya?

I was told that apparently 80% of diary allergies go on to develop soya allergy too. Mine did, followed by gluten (& the grains themselves annoyingly!).

Again, home cooking and investing in the biggest freezer you can fit in works wonders! We just bought a 6ft upright that lives in the garage, LO has 1/2 the drawers full of his different meals, breads, snacks, cakes & puddings!
Standard answer to OH when he comes in from work to a wonderful smelling house of baking: "it's not for you!" !!

Yes greedy my dd2 is also allergic to soya as it's the cows milk protein
However her results have gone down lots as forecast once she turned 2 so we are having bits of grated cheese and soya containing products like dairy free chocolate

CherrySoda, just found your original post in Weaning and you mentioned your LO not having ice cream - he can! There's a company called worthenshaw (sp?) that do Freedom ice cream in the normal supermarkets; vanilla, strawberry or chocolate flavour. It's not cheap, but you might find it on special.
I think there are others around too, but I haven't seen them in supermarkets before, just specialist health food shops/online etc.
It doesn't taste that bad either !

Thanks everyone for all those helpful suggestions. We are in the States at the moment so I have researched and found some possible products here. I am also still nursing so am trying to cut out dairy from my diet as I think this is what has had him be so dribbly and mucousy the last 12 months.I feel so bad that i practically forced yogurt( v small amount) on him at the doctors suggestion, even after I told her the reaction he had when I first tried him on cheese-crying for 6 hours, unable to nurse and wheezing.

Anyway we all make mistakes. I am going to follow his cues a bit more and if he refuses a food not firmly encourage more as I have been doing just because he has been so unkeen on most foods since weaning started.
I guess somehow his body knows- he even spat chocolate when he had his first taste before I was aware of the allergy he has.

Does anyone know if their child is allergic to egg white whether they can have it cooked, as in cake? I am awaiting visit to allergist to get this answered but just wondering?
piginthekitchen is a great website- thanks a lot.