Is this an egg allergy?

[Redstar2015]

Last night my seven month lo (who has never been a sicky baby) threw up a lot about 4 hours after eating a hard boiled egg. He was very upset before this and crying a lot though did manage to nap normally. He vomited two times within 5 minutes of each other and another big vomit about 45 minutes later. Managed to sleep at night and keep shorter feeds down after a few hours rest and being off milk.

I took him to A&E as was afraid the vomiting would continue. They seem to think it’s a stomach bug but my gut says egg allergy (my older child is cmpa and has epipens etc due to severity). Little one has bad eczema so I’ve been on look out for allergies since weaning and noticed fussier behavior when introducing egg and soya. We’ve also had quite watery poos for awhile that are more than just ebf poo.

So would you agree possible allergy or am I imagining things here?

[Redstar2015]

I should add that because I only have experience with ige type allergies I feel less confident to identify non-ige reactions even though I know what some of the normal symptoms would be.

[Redstar2015]

Anyone?

[Superscientist]

It could be. This was how my nieces egg allergy present. She was only affected by whole egg and was fine with step 1 of the egg ladder and outgrew it quite quickly.

My daughters food allergies present as diarrhoea 24-36h after ingestion but when breastfeeding and she reacted through me we had symptoms from 30 minutes to 3 days from me eating a food.

I would test egg again but something that would count as step 1 from the egg ladder - egg in a flour matrix from recollection.

It might be worth keeping a food diary for the next few weeks. Including your own diet if breastfeeding. Unfortunately these are the main way that nonIGE allergies are diagnosed which is a bit of a pain!

[Redstar2015]

@Superscientist , thank you for replying! I’m definitely going to follow that advice. I have kept a food diary for some time just as I’ve already been on the lookout for allergies since we already have allergies in the family. It’s the only reason I’m questioning if the vomiting was really a tummy bug as I can look back on symptoms from when he had egg before.

I’ll try something lower on the egg ladder next time. Just waiting for him to get over a cold first. But glad I’m not going crazy and that it could be a non-ige reaction.

[TheSnowyOwl]

It’s not how my son’s egg allergy showed and a bug was what I was thinking before I read down that it’s what A&E said. However, that doesn’t mean it’s not and a food diary is a good idea. Hope you get to the bottom of it.

[Superscientist]

@Redstar2015

@Superscientist , thank you for replying! I’m definitely going to follow that advice. I have kept a food diary for some time just as I’ve already been on the lookout for allergies since we already have allergies in the family. It’s the only reason I’m questioning if the vomiting was really a tummy bug as I can look back on symptoms from when he had egg before.

I’ll try something lower on the egg ladder next time. Just waiting for him to get over a cold first. But glad I’m not going crazy and that it could be a non-ige reaction.

Some times it can take multiple exposures before there is the build up of the proteins to trigger a response. Probably more of a nonige thing.
My daughter was ok with my eating fish as long as I didn't eat it more than once a week when she reacted.
We have recently had a second attempt at the milk ladder and we started with a piece of biscuit the size of a grain of rice once in 2 weeks and increased the frequency to once, then twice a week. As soon as we hit every other day she reacted.

If you find that they are ok with egg from step 1 I would then test if they are ok with the same level of egg several days in a row. These are all "good day" activities when there's no colds or teething just as lots of things give ambiguous symptoms when you are dealing with the difficult beast that is nonIGE allergies. Very grateful that my daughter isn't IGE but the early days in nonIGE can be very much of not being able to see the wood for the trees category!

[Redstar2015]

@Superscientist , thank you again! That’s very helpful. It does in some ways seem so much harder to navigate non-ige allergies, even though I’d definitely prefer that to the big and scary immediate reactions. I’ll definitely keep in mind trying something lower on the egg ladder a few days in a row to check how he copes with a build up from multiple exposures.

And good luck with the milk ladder! It sounds like you are making good progress even if it is very, very slow going. I totally empathise as my daughter is cmpa and we still are nowhere near having dairy after six years.

[Superscientist]

Attempt 1 we failed with a single piece the size of a grain of rice at 15 months
Attempt 2 she managed about 8 pieces the size of a grain of rice over about 6 weeks at 3 and 3 months before failing. Very slow progress but progress nevertheless the less.
This is the most success we have had with her food allergies she has 20 in total and still fails soya with soya fed chicken which is step -1!

I have had 2 anaphylaxis myself so understand the scary nature of IgE reactions although mine are of a weird non immune variety due to a histamine intolerance

[Redstar2015]

@Superscientist , I was finally brave enough to trial egg again using a fairy cake recipe for a baked egg challenge. LO failed miserably with the first day (1/16th of one fairy cake). Same symptoms with lots of vomiting about three hours after ingestion. We’re obviously excluding egg now but hoping for more direction from the allergy consultant as they queried if it could be FPIES.

Also, wondering how long you waited between reactions to trial a new food? I still need to test milk as I’ve been putting it off given the severity of my other DC’s milk allergy.

[Superscientist]

@Redstar2015
My daughter is very sensitive and fails on grain of rice sizes portions so we are doing at least 12 months between trialling the same food. We did the milk ladder at 1y5m and then 3y3m. We have done the egg ladder once at 2y1m and it's on our list of things to try soon she's currently 3y7m.

Trialling different foods we go through periods of testing more than others. It can be a few weeks if she recovers well and is back at baseline but at the same it could be months depending on life. Last summer we decided to focus on potty training rather than reintroductions so had a 6 months break.

I go super super slow. We do a piece the size of a grain of rice once a week for 1-2 weeks then twice a week for 1-2 weeks then aim to do every other day but this is the furthest we have managed!

It's hard to find a day when you are brave enough to try. We are doing coconut at the minute. She's had it twice but she's been a bit off with a cold so we haven't got into a pattern of doing it yet. Hopefully at the weekend.