Egg allergy & breastfeeding

[vvviola]

DD's skin prick test came back borderline for a reaction to egg & GP said to assume an allergy for the time being. (She has only had egg once and reacted to dairy the same day, so we don't know what her reaction to egg would be)

I'm still breastfeeding so have excluded dairy. Do I need to exclude egg also?

What did the GP say? Have you been referred to an allergy specialist?

GP wasn't hugely useful. (not in UK, by the way). He didn't seem to know I should avoid dairy, called breastfeeding 'lactating', and was more interested in talking about the rugby results

To be fair, he was v good initially and about referring her for tests, but he kind of said "well she's allergic to those, don't give them to her, keep lactating & come back in if you hit a wall with feeding and we'll discuss formula and any nutrients she might miss"

I was so grateful that we actually had a clear result on the dairy issue & that I wasn't imagining her symptoms that I kind of was in a daze.

Oh, and no referral to a specialist. Would that be standard?

I found i did have to cut out egg when breastfeeding DS2, as he was showing clear symptoms - eczema, tummy pain, very short periods of sleep etc. I would only exclude a food if she's having problems such as these.

Do you think your DD is being affected by your BM? i.e. eczema, stomach problems? If no, then you might not need to exclude it.

DD1 was (is) very allergic to egg and dairy. My GP told me that it couldn't possibly go through BM , so I didn't cut it out. When she was moved onto Nutramigen at 1+ year old, her eczema suddenly all but disappeared.

Re a referral to a specialist - yes, you might get that in the UK. But tbh there isn't anything you can 'do' about it. If your GP is offering support with hypo formula and dietary advice when needed, that is probably all you need for now.

Once you've established solids and everything has settled down, maybe at around age 1.5 or so, you could ask about introducing baked egg/milk (eg in biscuits/cakes) - tested in the UK by way of food challenge in hospital. This is tolerated by a lot of children who are allergic to the uncooked/lightly cooked versions, and eating the baked versions can help speed up the 'growing out of it', although not guaranteed (plus it makes life a lot easier). But that is a way down the line for you...

Likeaninjanow - those are the exact symptoms that DD has (plus chronic congestion/runny nose and a blotchy face after eating cheese).

I can probably survive without egg for the moment myself (I don't use egg much at home & when I'm out, the cakes etc are already ruled out because of dairy ).

I guess it might make sense to give it a try.... I'll try anything to stop her poor little tummy hurting

RationalBrain - thanks. Good to know how things work in UK. I see what you mean about not really being able to 'do' anything else.

The NICE guidleines say that mums who are breastfeeding children with allergies are supposed to be given information about exclusion diets.

Some babies can tolerate the small amount of proteins that pass into breastmilk. However, if your DD is experiencing the symptoms described by Likeaninja then, yes, it is definitely worth excluding egg as well. Also might be worth keeping a food diary to see if there is anything else she is reacting to.

I would not start any exclusion diet without the advice of a dietician. You have to be very strict and follow it for several weeks to be sure of results.

I would definitely get referred to a specialist, they are much more knowledgable than most GPs.

In an ideal world, you should of course consult a dietician before starting any exclusion diet. However, in reality, an appointment may take weeks or months to come through.

Here is a link to the NICE guidelines. As your daughter already has a diagnosis of food allergy, you are within your rights to ask your GP for a referral to a dietician.

My experience of seeing a dietician was that they gave me lists of foods which contained calcium etc. but no recipe ideas or anything else particularly useful. Most of what I learned from the dietician, I had already learned for myself using the internet (but obviously it is important to be careful about which sources of information you use if you do decide to consult Dr Google).

It can take a number of weeks for allergens to clear out of your system completely, but you should see some improvement before that.

(I am biased about food exclusion diets because my DS reacted quite severely to egg, dairy and other things in my diet when I was breastfeeding. His eczema, rashes, 'colic', blue episodes, mucous and general wheeziness cleared up completely when I cut all the offending foods out of my diet. Clearly I should have had the support of a medical professional when I started my exclusion diet, but sadly I didn't - I learned a lot on these allergy boards!)

Yes, we didn't find the dietician support to be very useful either! Just follow your common sense, replace dairy with calcium fortified soya/oat milk (although lots of dairy allergic children also react to soya, so care with that...), calcium fortified non dairy puddings etc. So long as you have a balanced diet otherwise, missing dairy and egg out really isn't a problem.

Our allergy consultant to me not to cut out egg and dairy while I was BFing. I stopped BFing DD while she was still allergic and it made no difference to her eczema. I do know of others who have found it did, though. Like others have said, you need specialist advice about this.

I did have to cut out egg when bfing my DC. DDs face would go bright red if I ate any egg.

And I also thought the dietician I saw wasn't all that clued up. I told her that rice milk was no longer suitable for under 4s due to the arsenic. I would have thought it should have been the other way round!!!!