Can you be allergic to some kinds of dairy but not all?

[MightyMunki]

My DD2 is nearly 2 and her allergy has become quite confusing, can anyone out there help me figure it out?

She was diagnosed as having allergies to chickpeas, dairy, and egg at around 9 months old. As a baby exposure to dairy would cause hives all over the face, swelling of the lips and gasping for air. As she has gotten older, accidental exposure to dairy has resulted in hives just around the chin area but other than that she doesn't seem too bothered by it.

At around 16 months I noticed she was tolerating baked dairy - biscuits- with no reactions at all. We recently went to a pretzel stand and she ate those fine with no reaction- (we later noticed the server dip freshly baked pretzels into melted butter before the sugar was added. I emailed Head Office and it was definitely melted butter they used).

A family member recently gave her a crisp which she reacted to - a few hives around the neck and chin- when I checked they contained skimmed milk powder in the flavouring.

I am so confused as to what to do right now, and her last allergy appointment was in may last year, the next one is at the end of June.

I've been trying to include baked goods to help build up her tolerance and avoiding anything unbaked but the recent butter/pretzel thing has totally thrown me...

Have you been using the milk ladder? That's how you should introduce. Butter is supposedly very low in proteins which is why she might have reacted to the crisp but not the butter.

I've never heard of the milk ladder

I will do some more research, it's hard to know what to do when the appointments are so far apart.

Skimmed milk powder is dairy in a very concentrated form. Similarly whey or casein powder, depending on the specific allergy. Dairy derived additives can be more problematic for people with allergies and intolerances than pure, unadulterated dairy products.

so, seemingly ass backwards, a dollop of cream might not trigger a reaction because it's largely fat and water.

There's a Facebook group called 'cmpa reintroduction' or something similar, there's lots of advice on there and people share what they were told by their dieticians. Most people follow the official MAP guidelines ladder to reintroduce but there are variations on that which seem to depend on your dietician.

Generally you need to start by giving one malted milk biscuit per day for about 3-5 days, then you go up a step if no symptoms are seen. Next step is digestive. My dd has failed step one repeatedly though.

Thank you so much for all of the replies. I've found a copy of the milk ladder online, although I might try and wait until her appointment before I try anything new. I will carry on giving her only the biscuits until then as she seems fine with them. How do they class a failure of a step?

My dc reacts to cheese and milk but not milk in baked products or butter.
So yes definitely possible.

Well we had her allergy appointment yesterday, no mention of the milk ladder, we were advised to just carry on with the baked goods for now and book an appointment in another year if we want.