Hives after scrambled egg

[KTD27]

Hi everyone
My 12 month old came up in hives the first time after eating scrambled egg at around 7 months old. I have avoided anything ‘raw egg’ like with her but she is absolutely fine with cooked products containing egg - biscuits, breads, cakes (I promise she has a healthy diet) and hasn’t reacted to anything at all. I know that egg allergies can be grown out of but does anyone have any advice for ‘testing’ that idea? Is there a common age? Am I best to ask for allergy testing with the docs first?

Yes, get an allergy testing referral from the GP and avoid eggs in the meantime. My son grew out of his egg allergy but it was good to check he didn't have any others. Good luck!

Thanks. I rang the gp and they asked me to bring her in. Don’t think they quite got it. The doctor I saw felt it was unlikely as she tolerates eggs in baked goods but after a bit of cajoling agreed to refer her which is what I wanted.

The doctor is wrong, some children can tolerate cooked eggs in cakes etc. but have allergic reactions to fried/boiled/scrambled. Hopefully you'll get to see a specialist soon and get it confirmed.

When my son was being tested, as well as the dots on his arm, I ended up sitting in the waiting room of the children's hospital giving him small pieces of egg, seafood, oily fish etc. to see if he reacted!

Luckily he got the all clear, and he grew out of the egg sensitivity too. Fingers crossed for yours x

@RoLaren thank you! I thought as much! Glad I pushed now. Thanks for the advice

If you google the egg allergy ladder, you will see that often people with less ' severe ' allergies can tolerate the food when it is more cooked (eg cake or hard boiled egg but not soft scrambled egg.

While you are waiting for an assessment, PLEASE do not follow the recommendation of avoiding egg. What you want to do is continue to feed well cooked egg (cake etc), regularly. It's now known that avoiding it entirely can increase the chance of an anaphylactic reaction when finally exposed. Anyone telling you to avoid it is still working on outdated advice. Sadly, a lot of gps may still be advising this (you can't really expect every gp to be on top of current advice in all fields).

Dear rolaren,can you please let me know at what age your son outgrew egg sensitivity.My daughter has it too .She is 3 and is waiting for her baked egg challenge..

@seanceinterrupted thank you that’s really helpful. Fortunately the summer holidays and big brother around seems to mean an abundance of cake making so that will not be an issue.

Egg allergies on their own are usually outgrown by 5. They can often take longer when there are also other allergies, but a rule of thumb is that they are usually permanent allergies if not outgrown by teenage years.

Though of course, everyone is different.

DS1 is 9, almost 10, and we are reaching the top of the egg ladder now - he had mayo for the first time yesterday! But he was also allergic to milk which he didn’t outgrow until 6/7, and is still allergic to nuts.

And yes to looking up the egg ladder and identifying what your child has previously eaten without issue and therefore what else can be eaten and what should be avoided for now.

Yes, we were advised by the GP to avoid all egg and egg-containing products whilst waiting for the allergy testing appointment. He outgrew the egg allergy by two.

update in case anyone searches and finds this thread.
So we finally went to our appointment today at the allergy clinic. She reacted slightly to baked egg and lots more to raw egg. I’ve attached a picture just FYI. The allergy nurse said she felt DD was already outgrowing it. Dr somewhat echoed this. Said to continue to expose her to the things she could tolerate without hives and slowly introduce the ‘raw-er’ egg in small quantities over the next few months. He felt she will probably have outgrown it by 2.

Fab news OP. Hope she outgrows it soon.

FWIW for others searching the topic, I outgrew a mild egg allergy by my teens. Eggs made my ears and throat itchy. I still have other food allergies as an adult, including anaphylaxis to shellfish. But runny eggs are no longer an issue, so more poached eggs for me.

Dd is not outgrowing egg allergy. Not anaphylactic though. It was her only known allergy for a while.

She developed sensitivity to milk but we are working up the ladder.

Hopefully you will grow out of it. Sounds promising.