the worst mother ever has some great news

[JJ]

My son, 5 1/2, whose first reaction at 9 months to pure cow's milk was to go into anaphylactic shock, accidentally had pizza with cheese on it on Saturday. I was not here and my husband was away, but it was completely my fault. (The last time my son had a bite of cheese, his throat started swelling closed, but that was 3 years ago...)

Anyway, he didn't react. I, being the bad mother, decided that he probably wasn't so allergic to at least cheese, butter and yoghurt. And so have tried those over the past few days. He's not. No reaction. He even had a sandwich and part of a croissant yesterday while we were out. (A new world for us.)

Wouldn't have posted this if he weren't fine. He even tried a tiny amount of ice cream tonight. Not dead so far.

This is surreal....

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JJ, Since you had a good experience I decided to test and see if my ds1 had outgrown his milk alergies. He had eaten a biscuit with milk powder in it by mistake and was fine, so decided to give him cheese - also fine and then milk - still fine! So at almost 4 he started nursery this week able to have toast and margarine with the others and went to his first unaccompanied party yesterday and only couldn't have the cake. He doesn't actually like milk / cheese much but is very taken with tweenie yoghurt and milk chocolate! Now we just have the eggs to contend with. I was also told to avoid nuts until he was 7, but didn't know why - he was tested as not allergic - so it's interesting to read other people have this as a cut off age too. But already this is making life so much easier. And I don't think you were paranoid about the party Podmog - I wont leave ds1 anywhere if people don't know how to use the epipen and keep him safe.

Thanks again. Yep, it's just hitting me that I now have to really watch out for peanuts (I did so before, but the milk allergy almost took care of everything peanutty).

The birthday party wasn't a success, but not because of food allergies. My poor son ran in front of a little girl on a swing and got bashed in the face. He hurt his hand, knocked his tooth around a bit and has a bruise on his face. Everything will be ok -- just a milk tooth and no broken bones. So instead of eating cake, he was visiting the emergency dentist.

Luckily, my friend has another child with a birthday in a few weeks, so we will try again. Hopefully he'll last for more than an hour....

Podmog, your post reassured me because my friend is not at all like that and I don't blame you for going back. Karen99, what are the signs if you've had a bit too much? LizP, yay! Life is so much more relaxed now, isn't it? RobinW, his first test (at 10 months) was a RAST where he tested very high but he tested extremely high to wheat also, and he's not allergic to that ( he had loads of positives that he'd eaten and wasn't allergic to). So I've been going by the skin test results. First time for that (at 2 and a bit 17 months after the RAST) his forearm swelled up and was hard to the touch. It went down over 3-4 days. The second time, June 2002 (4 1/2) it was just a huge irregular welt. So dramatic differences. I'm hoping it means something...

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Can I just say that your child is only at danger of a peanut allergy if you or a member of your family suffers from allergies or asthma. If you and your relations are all fine and healthy, there is no need to avoid nuts in your pregnancy, or in your child's diet. Also peanuts are classed as legumes which are different as they grow under the ground rather than as a fruit. There is a risk of choking, as with anything that small, but I give my dd (3 years) nuts from time to time under supervision and she's fine. Just use common sense.

JJ, v sorry to hear about the party upset! I guess I've still got all this to come (my ds is only 11 weeks old!)
Symptoms can vary from person to person. I always get flu-like symptoms, the first sign being bad congestion. When I was younger and had too much milk I could be in bed for three/four days with congestion and a fever. Now as soon as I get congested I ease up on milk products, usually clears up in a few days.
Howver, a girlfriend of mine used to get a bad skin rash when she ate too much, never got the flu symptoms.
And finally a recent friend who is also forced to have a gluten-free and MSG-free diet (plus the dairy-free) gets very bad stomach pains etc.

What does yor son experience?

Rhubarb, we didn't have any allergies in our family when I was pregnant with DD (and peanuts advice wasn't the same back then) but last year I discovered that I react quite badly around horses - eyes water, nose streams, pressure builds up on the bridge of my nose. So I guess after 35 years of good health, I have developed an allergy Never had this reaction to horses before and spent some time around them as a child/teen.

So I am left confused as to whether my daughter is likely or not to develop allergies altho she doesn't have a problem with peanuts.

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SueW that's interesting about the horses, I have the same reaction to rabbits, so I can't wear anything with angora wool in it.

Karen99, thanks. He hasn't had a reaction lately, but when he was little, he went through a phase of seeming to try out each and every combination of reaction symptoms (eg vomiting with shock, throat swelling closed while having an asthma attack, hives on the body but not in the mouth..). It's good to know what to look for now. He's had an ucky-ooky tummy (the technical term) for a few weeks, but that predates the cheese pizza. And he had an asthma attack yesterday, but not a bad one.

I have to say that with my youngest, I'm completely irresponsible. He's has nuts (it was an accident, but once he had them...) but not peanuts, although none of us have peanuts. I do agree with Robinw, that unless you're reading every label and taking huge precautions, your child has probably had nuts at some point (which is why I wasn't too worried about it).

Again, completely different symptoms..

My DS is only 12wks old (tomorrow!) and as I've got the milk allergy and my mum and her mum suffer from asthma I guess I've got to start thinking about these things, cos to be honest, I didn't realise how susceptible he might be because of his family history.

I've found this string v. interesting - many thanks.

Just wanted to say thanks again, Karen99. I've referred to your post a number of times over the past couple of weeks-- in fact, it led me to the doctor yesterday. Good results, too! He has a suspected Mg defiency and had an actual milk skin test. He passed the latter enough for us to try the real challenge and passed that. Hurray! The extra Mg he's been prescribed has resulted in no more tummy aches, also.

Also, referring to your first post.. when my son initially had the pizza, I rang a friend of mine who, in addition to being my friend, has a PhD in molecular biology. She quizzed me on the type of cheese he had, etc and was going from there. It was interesting to read your post-- I thought she was just being a bit picky! Will have to tell her your experiences.

If it's not too much, may I ask you what you like to eat? My son doesn't like dairy things that much and we're gradually going into it. I've no experience cooking with dairy (at least for the past 5 years) and want to start with things that I think he'll like. Thanks.

Any questions about babies with allergies, please send my way!

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