Egg allergy advice

[waybuloony]

My ds2 is 7 months and after a few episodes of hives and vomiting my Gp referred him to an allergy consultant, whom we saw yesterday.
The skin prick tests revealed he's allergic to egg (both raw and cooked) and he had blood taken to test.
I realised that I've come away from the appointment with a few unanswered questions that I hope MNetters can help with:
Firstly - is he allergic because of the way I've weaned him? We've been doing BLW much to the horror of grandparents and now they're posing all sorts of questions about whether this has caused the allergy, which is making me rather defensive! He ate some bread at 4 months that he picked up but other than that we waited until 5 1/2 months.
Secondly - he's still breastfed. Should I be avoiding eggs in my diet?
Thirdly - why is he having blood tests? Is this to understand the severity of his allergy?
I feel like a bit of a wally that I had the opportunity to ask all this yesterday but just seemed to clam up once it was confirmed he actually had an allergy!

my ds3 is allergic to egg. We've just had the 'egg challenge' which he 'failed' miserably!

I have been told that his allergy is most likely to be because of family histories of allergies (dp had casein intolerance and excema, I have hay fever) than any way he was weaned or introduced to foods. (so the grandparents have to admit part responsibilty for your ds's allergies, tell them that!)

Not entirely sure if you avoiding eggs if you;re bfing will make a difference, I bfed and different doctors we've seen have had different opinions on the matter

Don't beat yourself up about it anyway, most children grow out of it by the age of 5, not sure why he should have a blood test though as, unless he has had egg recently, histamines won't show up in his blood because they've no reason to have been activated.

What's the 'egg challenge'?

Hi Waybuloony, my ds is also allergic to egg. He has never eaten it, but developed hives on skin contact with raw egg at around three months. No way you can blame weaning for that, and I'm certain that whether you give mushed up or whole pieces of food, it won't make any difference at all to whether your child is allergic or not! There are acutally studies going on at the moment to determine whether the early introduction of small amounts of allergenic foods can help to reduce the occurrence of allergies rather than encourage them - as Siddhartha says, you can tell the gp's that they are more likely to blame than your weaning technique!

I am breastfeeding, and have cut out egg from my diet. You will get mixed views on whether this is necessary or not, but I found that my ds had a couple of small patches of eczema which did clear up when i stopped eating egg, so it might have been making a difference, I don't know for certain. Besides, I know that if I avoid egg, there is no chance that ds will come into contact with it by accident.

When you saw the consultant, did they spt for just egg, or for other foods too? If only egg, the bloods may be to determine whether there are other allergies present. If they skin pricked for more than egg, the RAST tests will merely back up what you already know. Neither test can tell you the severity of an allergy, but they do give an indication of how likely it is that you are allergic, iyswim? So a larger weal/higher rast score just means that you are more likely to be allergic. The only true test of an allergy is an actual reaction, so if your dc has hives and vomiting on eating egg, then really you already know without tests that this is what it is...

The good news is that egg is one of the allergies most likely to be outgrown. While it's really common in babies and children, it is far less so in adults. It is likely that your dc will be able to tolerate baked egg before less well cooked egg if he starts to outgrow, as the cooking process changes the protein in the egg (which is what causes the allergy) and makes it less allergenic. This is why they test for both raw and cooked.

You will find these boards really useful for help and advice, so do keep posting - there are lots of mums on here who are far more knowledgable than me who have helped me a lot. Good luck!

Egg Challenge at our hospitals Allergy clinic this morning. Its a way of testing for allergy in a controlled environment where he could be treated immediately if there was a reaction.

The Consultant wiped a bit of scrambled egg on his lip and he was monitored for 15 minutes. Then when that was okay, ds had to take a taste and spit out, he reacted with hives and red itchy rash after about 10 minutes so the challenge was halted and he was given anti-histamine meds. If he'd been fine, the next challenge would be eating and swallowing egg and further monitoring. But he proved to be having a semi severe reaction. We're told to avoid egg until the next challenge in a years time (!)

Its not so much of a hardship, we can make sure egg isn't used in our cooking and there a plenty of alternatives (you can even buy egg-substitute in Holland and Barratt) but we have to be really careful when we eat out or at friends - we always take his anti-allergy medicine out with us just in case. 'What bothers me slightly is that we get labelled as 'precious' parents among friends who have kids with no allergies cos we're fussy with his food but its horrible to see your baby in discomfort with even a moderate reaction.

I hope it all goes okay with your DS, its just one of those things. I have 2 older dc's who have never had an allergy to anything - its just the luck of the draw

Siddhartha Sorry to hear your ds failed the challenge. Fingers crossed for next time!

Weaning is highly unlikely to be the cause, it seems to be widely accepted that it is down to family history. Once you start mentioning it probably you'll find other family members who have food allergies, eczema, hay fever etc.

As for exclusion for you, my son has multiple food allergies but I only excluded dairy ( which is not his worst allergy even) and that was sufficient to clear up his eczema. I think it tends to depend on the baby, you can always try and see if it makes a difference to any symptoms he may have. It took about 2 weeks to see a complete change.

Finally, blood tests will give you a number that gives you the level of 'allergicness' not necessarily the severity I think it's called the IgE level if I remember correctly (have a look at one of the allergy charity sites or nhs choices they should have detailed info) . They may also be testing for other common allergens I.e. fish, peanut.

Hi Way my DS had egg allergy and also baby led weaned.

We actually found out about the egg allergy after giving him some scrambled eggs at 6 months old.... woops! he had a very severe reaction including hives, tongue swelling and passing out scary! We then went and enrolled on the LEAP study to do with peanunt allergy as after looking on net found it as they were interested in children with egg allergy. Just to reassure you we were told - from the top guy on the study, the leading consultant in the country - that egg is the most common childhood food allergy caused by nothing that we had done and infact baby led weaning was the best option for weaning as it was up to him whether he ate any food and often children who have food allergies have a tingle and know whether they want the food or not. We have had some heart stopping moments when he was trying egg but reassured from leap that the more times he tried very well cooked egg the better as this helped build up his tolerance.

Due to this reason I carried on eating egg whilst bfing and he didn't seem to show any reaction.

He is now 3 and has had boiled egg and toast for his tea at nursery! Its really difficult not to worry so much I wouldn't leave the house without his piriton and checked and rechecked ingredients but it does get easier!

Also dont let anyone sway you with baby led weaning - it would appear the world and his wife has an opinion on that 1! You have to do the right thing and I alsways felt justified after knowing ds would'nt eat anything that he didn't want 2!

Yikes didn't make it clear that the very well cooked egg meant stuff like cake and biscuits - stuff that had egg in as an ingredient not just cooked egg! sorry

Hi Waybulooney, my DS is also allergic to egg and milk; I'm bf and I'm steering clear of both too since I spoke to a pharmacist Breastfeeding helpline and she said it was possible that the egg protein could get to him through the breastmilk.

If you need any recipes for egg-free cakes let me know

Mine is allergic to egg (amongst other things) and I personally fully, and totally blame his third lot of baby injections. He was fine until then.

DS and DD are both allergic to eggs. DS is the eldest and has multiple food allergies, so I was on the lookout for signs in DD. The only time I ate eggs when bfing DD, her face went bright red. There was no surprise then that when she was tested at 6 months old BEFORE starting weaning that she tested positive to egg allergy.

So in answer to your questions:

a ) weaning method is unlikely to have caused the allergy, it is probably genetic.
b) both my two reacted to allergens in my breast milk before weaning, so it may be best for you to avoid eggs.
c)probably, but my two have only ever had son prick tests so not sure.

To add to earlier, one of DS allergies is to egg and I have found it's the baked goods that you really need to watch out for with the egg - bread, cakes, etc. As a substitute I use tofu instead (recommended by a lovely MNetter) 1oz per egg. Check out the mori-nu website it says on there how to prepare it and also that you can freeze it in portions. I have used egg replacer as well, as DS was allergic to soya for a while but now tolerates it so long as it is baked , the egg replacer works but not as well as tofu.