How bad was this egg reaction in 7mo DD? What do i do next? (long post)

[HyperAngelic]

Hi there, dd is 7mo and today she had her first real taste of egg in an omelette (we are doing BLW). She only ate a tiny amount really, probably about the size of a 2p (although its hard to tell because of how much ends up on the floor). Pretty much straight away she had little red marks with white dots in the middle around her mouth and also on her arm where the egg had touched her. I didnt think much of it at this point as it looked very mild.

Anyway I then went off to have a quick shower as we were planning to go out, leaving DH and DD to finish off their food (plums and pears, no more egg), and was interrupted a few minutes later by DH outside the door holding a crying/screaming DD saying that she didnt seem right. I came out and saw that her face looked red and puffy and she was very very upset. I told DH to ring NHS direct straight away, neither of us have ever had any experience with food allergies at all and didnt know what to do..

I tried to comfort her, the only thing that made a difference was breastfeeding which calmed her a little. By this time her ears were very swollen and she had a pronounced bump on the side of her forehead (it was very raised and white in colour - she hadnt hit her head or anything according to DH). She also seemed to have a slightly swollen mouth and tongue, and was generally quite puffy looking all over her face. It was very scary, i thought she was going to stop breathing or something, but thankfully it didnt get any worse. Nhs direct were asking lots of questions and in the end she calmed down a bit. We stripped her down to her nappy as her skin was hot and i continued to feed her, then she became drowsy but i didnt let her fall asleep on the advice of nhsdirect.

Anyway, her puffiness slowly reduced and her red face was replaced with redness everywhere else, even legs. All in all i think it took about 2.5-3hours for her to look completely normal again. By then she was asleep in my arms. We probably should have taken her to get checked out but didnt in the end as she looked so much better and we were all a bit shaken and worn out.

Is this classed as a severe reaction? What should my next course of action be? We moved from london to wales last week and so havent registered with a doctor yet, but we will asap. I'll also buy some piriton just in case, but can it be used on such a young baby?

Thank you for reading and sorry for such a long post, i just felt i needed to get it all out, IYKWIM?

Charlotte x

Take her to the GP and ask to be refered for allergy testing (it may take months of begging but eventually you will get one), it is a quite strong reaction for a first one. I'm really quite surprised that they have not asked you to take her to A&E asap. We have been sent there for less than that.

Keep the piriton with you at all times but
if it happens again and she is having problems breathing forget about NHS direct, rush her to A&E and tell the person in reception she is having a severe reaction to egg. If they see the reaction you are more likely to be taken more seriously than if you tell them what had happened.

With regards to BLW, I think that it is a fantastic idea but there are some guidelines that are there for the reason that babies' guts are not yet ready to break down some proteins (however, these guidelines seem to reach us mums just after we have identified clear signs of allergy ). One is no glutten before they are 6m old, no cows milk or egg before they are 12m old, and now that she has reacted like this it would be wise to avoid any kind of nuts until she is 3-5 years old, etc.

Any question feel free to ask, there are a lot of us around in the same boat.

Dh gave dd some egg by accident (husbands!!!) when she was around 8 or 9 months and she ended up with a rash all over her. She was also on antibiotics at the time for an ear infection, so we're not entirely sure that it wasn't the antibiotics rather than the egg. Anyway, we were in the usa at the time and went to our paediatrician here who said, don't worry she'll probably grow out of it as their systems aren't fully developed at that age. In fact dd is now 4 and eats egg all the time and has had numerous courses of antibiotics since then and had no problem at all. So don't worry too much....it may just be outgrown.
However, as Chandra said, you really shouldn't give egg to a baby under 12 months and if there are food allergies in the family you should avoid a slew of other things as well like peanuts (until 2 or 3), strawberries, kiwis, seafood, etc. My rule of thumb on things like peanuts was to wait until my child was verbal enough to tell me....mummy my throat is itchy/swelling - before testing it on them.
Good luck.

This was a bad reaction. Don't give again as the next reaction will be worse.
As Chandra says carry Piriton as dd might be prone to allergies.
She will probably grow out of it.
Sorry about rushed reply, ds needs brekkie
All the best
xx

Just going off at a tangent here but it might also mean no MMR jab further down the line. Ds2 had his a couple of weeks ago and the nurse told me that if he was allergic to eggs he couldn't have it. Bizarrely, they didn't mention that to me when ds1 had his.

I'm surprised that we werent told to take her to A&E too actually, since reading more about allergies and also on here. At the time we didnt really know what you are supposed to do with a reaction like that - do you wait for it to settle (which it did thank god) or rush to hospital? (our nearest is about 20/30mins away i think). Now I would definately go to A&E if it ever happened again. No allergies in the family really so no experience/knowledge of allergic reactions.

As we're not really an allergicky family (is that even a word? ) I havent been following the allergy sequence for introducing new foods (but will be from now on!) and as most guidelines I've seen only say avoid egg until 12months if there is a history of allergies etc i assumed we should be ok. But at least now i know shes allergic so i can avoid egg at all costs. I dread to think what might have happened if she'd been older and eaten even more of it, as she only eats tiny amounts of each food offered at the moment IYSWIM.

I'll push for allergy testing when we register with our new doctors, would they test a baby of her age yet? And does it sound like the sort of reaction that would need an epi pen possibly?

Charlotte x

My niece had an egg allergy, and my sis took her to see a homeopath who treated her, and she can now eat eggs.

I believe this is a better course of action then the GP who will tell you to remove egg from the diet (egg is in so much!) and advise that you can get an egg substitute for baking.

My niece didn't have the MMR either as the vaccine is grown (or something like that) using egg cultures.

My ds2 had this kind of reaction when I gave him scrambled egg - it usually happens the second time they are exposed to egg - so she must have had egg in something else for her body to know she doesn;t like it iyswim! I rang the doctor straight away and he came out and gave him some antihistamine - then referred us for allergy testing at the hospital - they waited until he was about 12 months as they said most babies grow out of it - which he had - and they gave him his mmr at the hosptial in case he reacted - which he didn;t.

It was down to me really to check all ingredients on food etc and make sure other people knew he was allergic - he loves eggs now which is good - don;t know where we would be without cake LOL!

we have no allergies in our family either except dh gets hayfever...

however at 8m DD2 had a taste of scrambled egg and was sick
at 10m she had a few spoonfuls of scrambled egg and broke out in hives on her face - swellings like you describe.

we are having allergy tests done this thursday (she is now 18m) but she hasn't had lightly cooked egg since.

cont below... won't let me do long posts!

apparently it is very common for children to be allergic to lightly cooked egg. The nursery don't give children any scrambled egg/quiche/omelette etc for this reason as so many would be allergic but wouldn't even know

my DD is fine with egg in cakes etc. The baking/cooking process changes the composition of the egg white protein. It is that which causes the allergy in most children.

In the meantime keep her away from any lightly cooked egg. I would use piriton (i think it is for over age 1 but if you need it, use it!)

We are having her MMR done in hospital under supervision just in case. The hospital said this isn't necessary as the MMR is no longer grown in egg culture. However, my GP has said he doesn't want to do it on her and the hospital have said "he is being ridiculous, but ok". In my area (w london) i think they are just grateful if you do the MMR at all!

Hope this helps.

btw i gave her a big spoon of piriton when she broke out in hives - the swellings went down pretty immediately.

all my ds's had a n egg allergy. ds1 erupted like the elephant man when he was about 18 months. his first taste of egg was a few months before when his lip swelled up - we thought the freind who was looking after him had given him too hot food.

We were told to try a dab of egg white on him every few months - each time it would blister as it would witht eh other boys. Eventually he stopped reacting. He will not eat eggs (he is 13 now) in any form aprt form cakes etc which he never seemed to react to anyway.

hope all is well.

Now i think about it, she has had egg once before, as a coating on a deep fried Mauritian chickeny thing (my husband's family is from mauritius). We were given them to take home and cook, so added the egg coating ourselves before frying. She did have a slight red rash on her face afterwards but unfortunately we didnt connect it to the egg and put it down to the spices in the mixture irritating her skin.

Coleyboy thats interesting about the homeopath, its not something i know anything about at the moment so would have to do some research before considering it, but I'm glad your neice had such good results.

From what iv read it seems the MMR is safe to give to egg allergic kids, as it doesnt actually contain the proteins, but the flu jab and yellow fever do contain the offending proteins. Also from what iv read on here I think a lot of gps would suggest doing it at the hospital to be on the safe side, as yours did octo.

A similar thing happened to my dd when she was 11 months, she grew out of it by the time she was 18 months and now happily eats eggs (she's 5).

MMR is no longer grown in egg, dd had her jab 2 months after her reaction at the GPs surgery with no problems.

Didn't give ds egg until he was well over 1 and he's been fine too.

HTH.

Ds is severly allergic to eggs resulting in anaphlyatic reactions. His first was at nine months to egg in a potato crouget(sp)
he was prescribed 2.5ml piriton and we have epipens he can't even tolerate cooked egg or if we've eaten egg products and kiss him he reacts

You should mention this to gp asap and avoid all egg until you get some answers.

Next time go to a&e its just not worth the risk and to me this seems like quite a bad reaction.

gave dd2 (7m) egg for the first time this morning. she didn't like it but didn't react in any other way. maybe i will leave it until she is older to try again. all of this is very scary

she liked it when it was all over her bread, just not on its own

Although many of us were weaned early and with egg as a first food, there are enough studies today to suggest a firm connection between the early introduction of egg and the development of allergies (not necessarily egg, but hayfever, rhinitis, etc.)

The guideline to avoid egg until after they are 1 year old applies for ALL babies, not just those from allergic families.

FWIW, DH and I don't have allergies, there is no history of severe allergies whatsoever in any of our families, and they are even unheard of in our respective countries, and... DS is allergic to all the most known allergens.

Hi Chandra, please dont take this the wrong way but where did you see the guidelines to avoid egg for ALL babies until a year? I cant seem to find any saying that.. If i had i would have waited but even the food standards agency says only to avoid until six months -

"Other foods to avoid up to six months
There are also certain foods that can cause an allergic reaction in some babies. So it's a good idea not to give your baby any of these foods before he or she is six months old:

• Wheat-based foods and other foods containing gluten ? including bread, wheat flour, breakfast cereals and rusks. If someone in your family can't eat foods containing gluten (because they have Coeliac disease), talk to your GP before giving any wheat, rye or barley-based foods to your baby.
• Nuts and seeds ? including peanuts, peanut butter and other nut spreads. Peanuts can be given from six months old, if you always crush or flake them. Don't give whole peanuts or any type of whole nuts to children under five years old because they could cause choking.
• Eggs
• Fish and shellfish"

If you could put a link to the guidelines you've read I'd be very grateful

Charlotte

I'm not taking it wrong at all I have been there, I was told about the egg one by a GP before DS was born (although being fair, many GPs are not particularly knowledgeable at providing weaning advice), and digged myself in the internet looking for more when DS developed severe eczema being 3m old. I think it's disgraceful that this information is not provided to mothers by the HV in a regular basis.

FWIW I introduced cows milk at 18m, egg just before he was 2 yrs old and he put a peanut in his mouth when he was 2 and some months. So well after the guidelines and still... he developed severe allergies to them

Anyways, Amidaiwish just posted the following link in another thread, I think it is one of the best lists I have seen (although specific to allergy prone children)

www.hallpublications.com/title2_sample2.html

here

yes i wished i had seen this when i was weaning too... bit late for me, but hopefully will help others!

Thanks Chandra, I've actually seen that list before and will be following it from now on i think. I just didnt apply it to DD before because i didnt think we were really at risk of allergies. Although as i said before all the guidelines I've read for non allergic families have no mention of the 12months rule for eggs, just 6-8months (but obviously 6 months is too early for anything but milk!). It would be better if they mentioned it, maybe with a warning that egg allergies are very common even in non allergic families, so everyone giving eggs should proceed with caution until a year old, instead of just saying wait until 6months.

Charlotte x

In itself egg is not bad, well cooked yolks are fantastic for weaning after 8-10m old. Is the white of the egg that is the problem.

Agree about the guidelines, I was so sure we didn't have to worry about allergies etc because we didn't have any... and then we ended up with a child with the full catalogue.

But now that she has reacted to egg, it maybe safer to avoid the yolks as well.

Be aware that homoeopathy does not and cannot treat allergies.
You should under no circumstances let your child haver any vaccine that might have been cultured in eggs until you've had a doctor specifically test for an egg allergy, and you should inform your doctor of this when anything is going to be injected.

Believing that homoeopathy can treat a real biological condition may lead you to suspect that vaccination might be safe for your child it is not.
Quite the contrary, I am allergic to eggs and have been told that vaccinations might kill me as a healthy adult, a child is clearly at more risk.
Be aware that people confuse coincidence with "cures" by homeopathy. Allergies are complex effects of the immune system, not treatable by charlatans.
To eliminate an allergy isn't flicking some switch, any "cure" would involve altering your biological chemistry on a structural level. The changes would be comparable in scale to the chemical differences between men and women, actually I suspect we will have a drug to change sex long before we can do anything other than treat symptoms of allergies.