can repeated exposure make intolerance worse?

[CarolineLaLune]

16mo ds has a dairy intolerance - it brings him out in a contact rash.

Is it possible that exposing him to dairy products will make the intolerance worse/make it last longer (I mean, until he's older than he would have been if he hadn't been exposed)?

I am not sure about intolerances, but my ds has a dairy allergy and he has definately got worse with each exposure. His used to get just a little redness, then a slight rash, then a few hives and now gets covered in big hives and has a bit of bottom lip swelling.

I think it would be well advised to avoid dairy. Our paed seems to think that strict avoidance will help ds to grow out of his allergies sooner, but haven't seen any evidence to support that yet.

My ds has a tree nut allergy and I agree with heartmum,we've been told to avoid exposure to it.Not true if this applies to intolerances though.

it depends I think on the allergy/intolerance I think. DS has peanut allergy his consultant tells me that this allergy does not get worse with repeated exposure whereas my allergy to wasp venom will.

my 14 month dd has a milk intolerance that brings her up in bleeding blistering nappy rash if she has any cows milk but it doesn't seem to get worse with each contact.

we're careful for the most part but the odd thing slips through and to be honest every now and again i let her taste something from my plate before remembering that it has milk or cheese in it as far as i can tell the reaction seems to be about the same, certainly not worse, than when she first had cows milk at 6 months.

it's hard to tell as it got very bad at the beginning before we linked it to the milk and she only has the smallest amounts every now and again now, but it's possible it's a bit better, i don't know if it's wishful thinking but even though more milk slips through recently than did at 8 or 9 months she hasn't had the rash at all for a couple of months (except for last week when my mother decided to give her a scone with tonnes butter on it without telling me)

i would imagine every case is differant though so check with your gp and see what he says.

Thanks for all the messages.

Ds has actually been seen by a junior doctor at the local hospital, who advised me to either avoid dairy altogether until the review appt in 6mth's time, or to test different dairy products (e.g. butter, cooked milk) on ds one at a time to see if any of them are ok, to work out where the boundaries of the problem are.

Heartmum, that's the kind of thing I'm worried about - ds has only been exposed to dairy a handful of times, and has come out in a nasty red rash and small white bumps on his skin (is that hives??). This doctor didn't think you could actually make it worse through repeated exposure, but I'm sure I've read of other people having the same experience as your ds - hence my question really.

My daughter suffered really bad eczema after starting formula milk, she also was colicky in the evenings and had bad nappy rash. I was advised to try goats milk (formula is available), since then she is a changed child. She has since had cows milk accidently at nursery and had a severe vomiting reaction and the eczema came back quite badly. We were referred for allergy tests at the hospital (where I work - so saw the consultant, not a junior doctor). He said she is intolerant to cows milk and yogurt and to not give her it in any form for a year, after that introduce it in a changed format ie cooked and then gradually add yogurt and eventually milk - she should grow out of it by 5 years. I have followed his advice and now at 3 years old she can hove cows milk in products (including things like custard) without any reaction.

hello, am a bit concerned.........you NEED to find out what sort of allergy your child has.
Hives/nettle rash and irritation on contact sound more like classic food allergy, rather than intolerance.

Intolerance is often called leaky gut syndrome, where particles of undigested food leaks through the gut linning.
It can cause a wide varity of symptoms,

headache
migraine
fatugue
depression/anxiety
hyperactivity ( in children)
recurrent mouth ulcers
aching muscles
vomiting
nausea
stomach ulcers
duodenal ulcers
diarrhoea
irrtiable bowel syndrome
constipation
wind , bloating
crohn's disease
joint pain
Rheumatiod arthritis
water retention.

Classic food allergy has different symtoms and is a different body system reaction than intolerance.
Put simply a protein ( e.g peanut) gets in to the blood stream ( normally injested or rubbed in to eye) and 'links' to mast cells . The cells mistake this for a virus or illness and then they release histamine.
Large levels of histamine cause two main reactions in the body, smooth muscles ( in throat and lungs) contract and narrow, and small blood vessels leak blood ( diverting away from major organs)
This results in the symtoms below.

symtpoms.

Hives ( nettle rash)
flushing of the skin
swelling of throat and mouth
difficulty in swallowing and speaking
severe asthma
abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting
alterations in heart rate
feeling of weakness ( drop in blood presure)
sense of impending doom
collapse and unconsciousness

( someone suffering from an anaphylactic reaction would not necessarily experience all of these symptoms)

I hope this makes your childs symtoms clear, and in an ideal world you need to see a pead immunologist ( for both conditions) but this is easier said than done.
Ask your Gp for more support or refferal.
If you suspect that your child is classic allergic do NOT food test at home.

hope this helps

Williamsmummy, thank you for posting that (this is the OP with my non-French name).

Ds has been referred by our GP to the paed allergy clinic at our local hospital - this is where our current advice comes from. We've seen two different registrars but not the consultant. Obviously, I'm not that happy about the advice we've had, or I wouldn't be posting about it on MN.

This hospital doesn't currently have the resources to do any allergy testing themselves .

Tbh I am kicking myself for not going to the other nearby hospital (big, teaching hospital) - the GP told me the waiting list would be longer there so I chose the smaller hospital, not realising they weren't actually equipped to deal with this properly. Anyone know if it's possible to get re-referred to the bigger hospital?