Dairy Allergy - Not Trusting The Nutritionalist Advice - Goat Cheeses ??...

[RockinHippy]

We are still waiting for the full blood tests back, but after a couple of weeks stay in hospital with a very ill DD - diagnosed with an EDS related intestinal blockage & what they say is "Allergic Collitis"

DDs blood showed Ig of 3,500 & they say it should be 10, so she's very allergic to something - so I've been told to keep her off dairy & soy pending the full results

The nutritionalist came to see us for dietary advice, but I was quite shocked that some of her advice was just plain wrong - we are very healthy eaters & I'm pretty knowledgable on food etc & generally cook everything from scratch - she insisted that Mayonnaise contains diary - even when I argued that it's basically oil & egg, she tried to convince me that bottled Mayo contains diary - I've since checked & I've so far not found one that does.

SOOooo - I'm not trusting her take in goat/sheep milk products either - she insisted that ALL milk products of any kind are dairy - I know from times I've eaten a cleaner diet - cows milk products were considered to be diary - goat sheep etc where not & where okay.

But obviously as this is an allergy & not just a detox/healthier diet, I want to be sure

So I'm asking all of you who are more experienced in this - If you have a diary allergy, can you eat goats or sheep cheese ???

TIA

Ingredients change all the time. DH is lactose intolerant so it won't kill him, but makes him vomit. For a while the only mayo he could eat was Hellmanns, ditto Heinz ketchup. At the moment most brands are dairy free, but this changes. When he first found out he was LI he could eat Walkers salt and vinegar crisps, then they changed the ingredients and they contained dairy. A few months back they stopped putting dairy in. Ditto Green and Blacks dark choc. These are just a few examples.

The dietician isn't totally wrong. Things change all the time. Read the ingredients of everything you buy every time you buy it. That's our experience anyway.

Rockin the blood tests for allergies don't require that you have the food still in your system (the coeliac tests do though).

DD2 for example had another set of blood tests last year to check how the numbers were going on her dairy and egg allergies (after one or two potential exposures without reaction, we were hoping she'd grown out of them - no such luck!). Other than accidental exposures and reactions, she had been dairy and egg free for over a year at that stage.

It also can take a good while for dairy to leave the system entirely, although we did notice instant improvement when we took DD off dairy (as well as rash/hives she also gets stomach issues, allergic rhinitis, and as a baby would wake every 45 minutes screaming all night), I think the advice is that it can take up to four weeks for the system to be completely free of dairy.

Yes, but again I can't see how it will be accurate, as she had only eaten one half a sandwich - there is celiac in the family, so I know it has to be gluten load - which ironically was confirmed by another mum at the hospital who is celiac herself - before she butted in, the doctor insisted one half a sandwich in a few weeks was enough as it was eaten the day before, thankfully the doctor backed down when the other mum butted in.

It was left as they will get those results back & will retest if negative - though the celiac lady on the ward with her son, did also say that the tests aren't that reliable & it takes the camera test to be sure

Sorry, xpost

Thankfully I'm used to reading labels as DD is very intolerant to artificial sweeteners, some preservatives, colours, MSG etc, so sadly I've learnt the hard way that companies can be sneaky with recipe changes - DD gets very ill with her stomach within about 20 minutes if she accidentally takes in say aspartame - she will be doubled up in pain with raging diarrhoea for 48 after even a small amount, similar with other things, So like I say, I don't take chances

Thanks vviola

It's weird though, bar being aware that she was lactose intolerant for a time, this was after a change in her brown asthma inhaler made her stomach trouble go crazy, which once we realised the cause, she came of it altogether & improved massively - her pneumonia induced asthma has gone a few years ago now, she has a blue inhaler & hasn't needed it I years - she does get stomach flare ups if anxious, but she has autonomic nervous system problems due to EDS & that causes anxiety, so though we can minimise it, we can't stop her stressing all together -

but That said, I don't think there's ever been any obvious reaction to diary or soy when she's well, so still a puzzle

Be great if it does make a huge difference to her aches & pains though, but I'm not sure it will as she does have EDSH & aches & pains are symptoms of that

As far as I know for the IgE blood test they are testing for the presence of ?antibodies to the allergen, so no need to have the allergen in the system. I'm not sure exactly how the test works, but they may use small amounts of the allergen after the blood is drawn.

But DD definitely came up with high IgE results on (in particular) egg, despite only minimal exposure (although that exposure did cause quite a strong reaction)

Thanks - that makes sense

I've also just googled EDSH & Allergies & seems theres a strong link & cutting out the allergens doesn't actually help symptoms :( - though seems its important regardless to avoid going through the awful problems that put her in hospital again :(

just hoping after reading THIS that theres not more allergies or as good as she is with food, we are going to struggle :(

I would highly recommend the book The complete guide to food allergy and intolerance by prof brostoff, it is very thorough

Helmanns light has cream in it - not sure about the full fat. Sainsburys own mayo (light and full fat) are dairy free though (and, IMO, nicer).

And goat's milk, aside from being rather goaty, does have some similar proteins to cows milk, so it wouldn't make sense to use it as a substitute (and all animal milk contains lactose, so where lactose is a problem, no animal provides a suitable substitute)

Thanks for the book recommendation 8shine*

The full fat Helmanns is dairy free ouryve as is the Aldi copy, which we prefer, I never buy light or low fat stuff as generally found it to be too synthetic, plus the often sneak meat derivatives into it - low fat creme frais for example often has pork in it & we don't eat meat.

I'm lactose intolerant myself, but I'm fine with goats, sheep, camel cheese etc along with the very mature or cooked stuff as it changes the structure of the lactose apparently (Dietician advice) -

agree with you for goats milk - its vile stuff, but unlike DD, I don't like milk anyway

I'm lactose intolerant, too tend to stick with mature cheeses, unless I feel like playing russian roulette. I'm rather pleased with lactofree cream. I've never been able to reliably tolerate cream before. If I'm cooking for the family, I'll use lactofree milk. It's all complicated by the fact that DS1 has migraines triggered by cheese and they're the messy sort. He's inherited my lactose intolerance and too many bad experiences with milky foods have left him with an aversion to all but a drop of the cream.

Cooking is complicated!

You can make your own lactose-free milk and cream by adding a few drops of Colief. I used always to have a bottle in my pocket so that if I fancied a hot chocolate I could just squeeze a few drops into my mouth first. Otherwise I knew my bottom would pay the price later that evening. Colief transformed my ability to enjoy hot chocolate, ice-cream, and luscious puddings. (Not that I've needed it since I've gone low-carb!)

I'm allergic to the chocolate too - so that wouldn't work for me!!!

That's very interesting Six - think I will give that one a try for myself - thanks :)