allergic to milk but not yogurt or cheese?!

[OhWhatAPalaver]

DD has had a suspected allergy / sensitivity to cows milk since we started weaning and she had a bad reaction to Aptamil creamy porridge. however we had skin prick tests and it looked unlikely that she is allergic to it. since then i've tried her with several milk products such as yogurts, cheese etc and she has been fine with everything apart from raw milk itself. she doesn't have a massive reaction to raw cows milk but it does make her face itch and she comes up in hives where it's touched her skin. piriton sorts it out in no time so fortunately it doesn't appear to be serious, i just find it odd. has anyone else experienced this?

the other thing was that when she had the skin prick tests the egg one came up worse than the milk one, so i'm now worried about giving her egg! she has had things that contain egg and been ok but now i'm concerned that if i give her actual egg then she will react... :/

DS1 wasn't allergic to dairy, but he had an intolerance. At various different stages, he could handle dairy products, but not actual milk.

The proteins change as the milk is processed, so it is possible to have no reaction from one of the more processed dairy products (eg cheese) but to react to something less processed, eg yogurt or raw milk.

Re the egg, were you advised to keep her off it? DS1 was allergic to egg and when we reintroduced, it was egg as a minor ingredient in cooked foods (they used cake in the allergy testing), then we did cooked egg and finally raw egg on the skin.

It's quite common to be allergic to raw egg or milk, but not products that are cooked with milk or egg in. The proteins are altered I believe, so less allergenic. Same with yoghurt and cheese, the proteins are altered.

Or something like that, don't know the exact technicalities .

ah i see, that still doesn't explain the aptamil incident but maybe the proteins in that were the same as raw milk?! bizarre. she has a similar problem with banana when it touches her skin. oddly they are the two first foods i ever gave her when i started weaning and she end up having reactions to them!

thanks for the advice re: the egg as well. will try her with cake (can't remember if she's had it yet or not) and then cooked egg and see what happens.

skin prick tests can bring up false negatives and false positives. History trumps that every time.
so i would check with your medical person if its ok to carry on giving milk/ or trying any pure milk.

As for egg, high evenly heat treated egg changes its protein structure, and some are able to eat that ok. however others are totally allergic to egg in any form. so,again medical advice is needed.

DD used to react to banana, but thankfully outgrew it.

The Joneja Allergen Scale here scroll down to page 4 lists allergens in order of most likely to least likely reactions. As you'll see from the dairy column, ice-cream and milk are the most allergenic dairy products (which could explain why your dc cannot tolerate milk but can tolerate other dairy).

My dd2 reacted to cows' milk when she had it with mashed potato around 6 months (eczema round mouth). When I stopped bf, she refused cows' milk - warm, cold, mixed with ebm, in milkshakes or hot chocolate. Looking back, I suspect she had a slight intolerance - though she was fine with cheese, yoghurt, etc. She can drinking now (3.5) but isn't really fussed by it.

Skin prick tests do not give a 100% reliable result, they are just used as a guide to determining possible allergies. Your consultant should be relying more on the actual history of what has happened.

Yes both my DD's get itchy rash on cows milk, but can tolerate cheese & yoghurt (though I suspect DD2 doesn't tolerate it as well as DD1).

They are both fine on goats milk which is what they drink (and is widely available these days) & I try to buy other animal sourced dairy products too. Waitrose have BOGOF on BUFFALO ricotta at the moment - yummy for fritters.

Seconding what everyone else is saying really. Ds2 vomits and swells with yoghurt but can eat cheese no problem. He was negative to cows milk on his most recent skin prick test, but when I inadvertently gave him chicken soup (Heinz, with milk an whey in it) he started sneezing.

He also tolerate egg in cakes and things that have been highly
Cooked, but we discovered his egg allergy at 8 months when I gave him some scrambled egg and he vomited and swelled. Advice from docs was to continue giving the well cooked egg and cheese.

(although have recently discovered that if he haves these things and then does exercise, that can induce a reaction)

thanks for the replies. we are going to try her with egg this wkend and see what happens!! with a bottle of piriton on hand obviously!

I take it you don't mean real RAW milk OP - as in unpasteurised & unhomogonised, but fresh milk?

It sounds funny doesn't it? No, allergist talk about raw milk to mean the pasteurised etc stuff you get from supermarkets / milkman etc as opposed to cooked, boiled or baked milk which as people have said has different allergy impact depending on changes that happen to the proteins through cooking.

Yes DS1 had this when he was a baby. Skin reaction (hives) to cows' milk (or anything cooked with it in, like cheese sauce) but fine with cheese and yoghurt. He was allergy tested to lots of things (he had severe eczema) and came up positive for egg but negative for milk allergy.

Lo and behold he outgrew the cows' milk intolerance by about 2yo and has been fine with it ever since. But is well and truly allergic to eggs (amongst other things!).

I kept breastfeeding until he was 20 months to make up for the lack of cows' milk although you can get special formula on prescription if you aren't BFing any more.

re: egg, DS1 used to be able to tolerate a small amount of cooked egg in things (eg cake) but not any more - the more often you get exposed to an allergen, the worse the reaction tends to get. Although according to his paed, there is now some evidence that some egg allergy sufferers might benefit from reintroduction of tiny amounts of egg that has been baked for at least 30 mins.

Sorry last post!

If you are trying her on egg when she has tested positive for egg allergy then don't give it to her to eat straight away. First put a bit on her skin, then wait 20 mins. If no reaction, put a tiny bit on her lip and again wait 20 mins. If still no reaction then give her a little bit to eat.

no only give egg if advised by allergy doc who agrees that home tests are safe for your child.

Yes sorry I was assuming that after the allergy testing you had been told it was ok to try egg.

Don't worry, the allergy doc said to try her at home as mentioned above, bit on her skin first near wrist or something, then on face 40 mins later, then to let her eat a tiny amount another 40 mins after than - providing nothing happens of course! i'm a bit nervous. god help me when i give her nuts... which allergy doc also said to give her asap! :/