Egg and dairy allergies - is there ever an end to it?

[SparkleHorse82]

My dd is 15 months old. She's been dairy and egg free since 7.5 months (she never had dairy) due to eczema and a positive skin prick test.
We had the follow up appointment with the allergy team today. I was hoping for some progress, but instead her egg allergy appears to have worsened and dairy is just the same. She had blood tests too, to see if she now needs to carry an epipen instead of just Piriton.
I'm feeling quite depressed about it. I'm finding her diet quite tricky to manage due to eliminating egg and dairy. She's not into food but my husband is veggie and so rightly doesn't want to eliminate egg and dairy from his own diet (I am still bf so have eliminated egg and reduced dairy massively) so we can't all eat the same thing together.
I guess I'm just looking for reassurance as I'm gutted the situation is worsening.
Has anyone been in this position and then their child later grew out of allergies?
And does anyone have any brilliant dairy and egg free recipes that might encourage my food refuser that eating is actually brilliant?
TIA x

Not all childhood food allergies get better but most do. Certainly you will find them easier to deal with as she gets older (although each stage has its difficulties).

Ds1 was diagnosed with cmpa and peanut allergy at 10 months. He list the dairy allergy at 3 but gained a celery and kiwi allergy instead. Lost celery by 6 and peanut by 8. Just kiwi now (although I developed coeliac disease to ensure it didnt get too easy).

As for recipes, try and find a good handful that you can all enjoy. Given your dd's allergies vegan ones would seem the place to look. Vegan restaurants would also provide safe places to go out and eat. And dont discount places like McDonalds- at least they can tell you exactly what's safe.

My DS was covered in eczema as a baby, it was egg and dairy allergy. We later found out his eczema (and asthma) was triggered by various pollens, several animals and dust mites. He had bronchiolitis several times, hospitalised twice. Wheezy every time he caught a cold.

His allergies were never severe enough to need an epipen, we were very lucky in that sense.

By age 6 he could eat small quantities of egg and dairy with no ill effects. Now at age 8 he is totally fine, can eat anything, and very very rarely needs his inhaler.

I realise not everyone is as lucky but I wanted to share our story of a child outgrowing their allergies. Good luck. I know how difficult the dietary limitations can be.

No advice, just sympathy. DS has CMP and soya allergy diagnosed at six and 12 weeks. I'm coeliac and breastfeeding so now gluten, dairy and soya free 🙄

We're supposed try the milk ladder for the first the in two weeks but DS has had a few bouts of diaorhea the past week and I'm worried there's another allergy at play...fingers crossed for all of us eh?

Yes try Vegan and you could add a bit of meat if you wanted. I've got books by Aine Carlin, Deliciously Ella, and Lucy Watson that are good, and Stacey Forsey has just done a dairy and egg free deserts/treats book that I'm going to try. I think Livia's Kitchen is also dairy and egg free sweet stuff.

Anecdotal I know, but I grew out of mine and most people I know did, or had very mild reactions which eventually became unnoticeable. My nut allergy never went though, apparently some allergies tend to go, some tend to stay.

Some advice actually. I'm very into cooking/eating and love BBC good food, they have a large selection of vegan recipes you could peruse (link 1). Curries are also a good option, recipe for the easiest dhal below (link 2). I just increase the amount of lentils to turn it from soup to curry. DS loves it.
www.bbcgoodfood.com/search/recipes?query=Vegan
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/nov/25/lentil-recipes-curried-coconut-soup-aubergine-stew-sweet-potato-croquettes-fritters-yotam-ottolenghi?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Gmail

Some dairy allergies are cow's milk specific; both mine and my daughters are. We use goat's milk or coconut milk, goat's or sheep's cheese, and goat's milk butter as substitues in recipes

Oh OP, I've been there.

I'm still there! Except it's become totally normal for us now.

My 7 year old went into anaphylactic shock at 5 months when he first tried dairy.
He was breastfed and I had to eliminate it from my diet as well.

Turned out he was also anaphylactic to dairy, egg, nuts, shell fish with moderate allergy to soya, wheat not to mention the reactions he has to polyester, leather, feathers, pollen (grass is a fricking nightmare).

We have a very very allergic child.

And yet I can still tell you this - even if her allergies don't get better, the situation will.

You learn to not even see the items that contain allergens in the shop. They simply stop existing to you. You learn to bake totally differently. Your go-to recipes which are the exact same foods as before are simply adapted with different ingredients.

15 months is a really tough time but I promise you, it gets easier even when the allergies themselves do not.

My son can eat whatever he wants now - just his own version of it.

When he was first diagnosed there was no bread option for him in the supermarkets, they all contained egg, wheat, soya or all of the above. I had to bake bread from scratch. Now not only is there bread, there's pitta breads pizza based, rolls and more besides!
And now they have a dairy, egg, but, soya and wheat free cheese pizza in Tesco!!
Amazing!!

If there's a particular food you miss, or something you want to cook just say and I can tell you how to do an allergy free version.

Good website to use is Pig In the Kitchen if you like baking cakes etc.

There's lots of Facebook pages too.

Oh and he's anaphylactic to banana.
I knew I forgot one.

It does get easier to handle over time, even if the allergies don't improve.

My son grew out of cows milk allergy by three.He's a very snotty child though and I do wonder if there's something else going on. He takes anti histamine three quarters of the year for pollen issues. My daughter is coeliac. My ex was allergic to peanut and dairy and coeliac. We didn't get a lot of dinner invites ;)

To my mind egg is the hardest to replace. Dairy free especially if they can tolerate soya is getting a lot easier.
Your DC is still very young don't give up.

It's quite rare not to grow out of egg and milk allergy.

I know this because my DS1 is someone who hasn't.

But you get used to coping with it, it becomes a way of life. He is at Uni now and managing well; he is very sensible. I couldn't have imagined that when he was 3. You'll be OK.

oh and look at accidentally vegan.

There's a surprising amount of everyday stuff that's OK, Oreos, party rings, Co-Op Doughnuts (gawd bless the co op, that's what I say), those home bake cinnamon pastries you get in the chilled section.

What do you mean by reduced dairy? So you're still eating a bit of dairy?

OP it would be easier if your husband could just get over himself and be more accommodating of your daughters allergies. He’s an adult FFS! There is so much vegan food out there now it really isn’t hard to source alternatives...they do vegan quorn now and everything! I’m vegan but my kids aren’t. Most of the time we all eat vegan meals though so we can all eat together and most of the time I don’t want to cook separate meals, and also I think it’s important to have shared family mealtimes. Maybe suggest he has his dairy/egg fix out of the house, as I’m assuming cross contamination could be dangerous.

BTW if you go to a cafe and order something vegan for your child, make sure you state your daughter has allergies. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve been “dairied” (I can’t digest it so it has a very specific effect on me) despite saying I’m vegan. Including in hospital, of all places.

dd grew out of the egg allergy at 5 but kept the milk allergy

with the advent of veganism, it has made getting egg and milk free food easier I have to say!

I got quite good at just cooking meat and vegetables all the time. Stews, bean casseroles, chicken breasts etc. We never had a problem with her diet but it was time consuming preparing everything from scratch all the time when she was a baby (but this was almost 20 years ago now!)

Couldn’t agree more with theday. DD is allergic to milk nuts eggs soya pineapples broccoli peas lentils.

Anaphylactic to milk. We carry four epipens. She had her first reaction to milk at a few days old. I was exclusively breastfeeding.

She’s 22 months old now and has just been given the all clear to start the egg ladder.

Milk and the rest are a big no no. We don’t even miss them as we now have so many alternatives. It gets easier.

Just a word of caution about the vegan being safe - my son has a CMPA diagnosed at 6 months and had but has outgrown an egg allergy. Around the time he was 11 months we decided that a vegan restaurant would be a good idea for a family meal out, which was when we discovered he is anaphylactic to cashews. Vegan food often uses cashews in some form as a dairy alternative. And coconut which it turns out my son also has an allergy to. He is 5 now and as previous people have said the situation gets easier. He outgrew the egg allergy around 2.5 and did a peanut challenge around the same time which was fine. Still allergic to milk, wheat, rye, barley, cashew, pistachio and coconut. Have you been introduced to the milk ladder by whoever you are under at the hospital? We are slowly working our way up that. He can now tolerate milk in cakes / pancakes and recently we have successfully introduced rice pudding with cows milk. Good luck it does get easier and reading all the fine print on packets will become second nature and make you realise that milk and wheat get everywhere, even where you wouldn’t expect it. On the advice of the hospital we waited until we had successfully reintroduced egg before we started on the milk ladder.

Thank you everyone, it's really reassuring that some children do eventually grow out of it, but I guess there's no way to tell but time.

I guess I find vegan cooking so daunting because actually I have an anaphalaxis allergy to peas, chickpeas and lentils and we cook them while I'm in the house as even that level of exposure (not eating) triggers it.

My husband doesn't expect me to make him different meals, but he will just eat separately which is tricky as sometimes i end up with the three of us eating different things at different times (made worse by the fact that my DH works afternoon/evening shifts) so it's a struggle to all eat together to encourage our daughter to eat more solids.

I think it's the social side that upsets me more than anything. She's already had reactions just from sitting in high chairs in cafes. I guess I'm most worried about when she's a little older and gets invited to parties she will have to have her own food and i'll have to watch her like a hawk. I just want her to be able to have a normal childhood, but I guess we will adapt...

Thanks again. I appreciate not feeling so alone.