Possible egg allergy?

[Katherina198819]

I've been giving my son eggs since he was 6 months old, usually in purees; mostly boiled eggs and pasta.
He's now 12 months, and I recently tried giving him scrambled egg for the first time. He mostly played with it, but I did see him try a small piece. About 10 minutes later, he developed a bad rash on his face, which disappeared within an hour. There were no other symptoms.

I contacted our GP, who advised cutting out eggs completely for two weeks. After that, he suggested reintroducing just the boiled egg white to see how he reacts.

Is this the usual advice? I'm feeling really anxious about trying eggs again in case he has a worse reaction. I asked for a referral for an allergy test, but the GP said they wouldn't do that unless there's another reaction after trying again.

I’ve thought about going private, but the allergy test costs around £400, and I’m unsure whether to go ahead with it or follow the GP’s advice first.

Has anyone been through something similar?
My son also has eczema—it’s not severe but tends to flare up when he’s sick or during hot weather.

My son has an egg allergy. It took 18 months for his referral to be seen. It will be a skin prick test. If a skin prick test shows a reaction it is an ige reaction. This means potential for anaphylaxis and the reaction is immediate. Any reactions that come on after a few hours and show symptoms such as bad tummy a bit later etc can not be diagnosed via allergy testing and is just a case of trial and error. I wouldn’t pay privately as by the sounds of it it would be a non-ige allergy which can’t be diagnosed via allergy testing as such. I wouldn’t pay privately follow gps advice. Look up the egg ladder and maybe reintroduce it that way x

My son has an egg allergy. It presented with a rash on the face and neck, passing lots of wind and vomiting. We've had allergy testing to confirm. Was advised by the doctor at the allergy clinic that, in fact, a lot of babies react to their first 'proper' taste of eggs. He said parents usually dive in with scrambled egg which is very high up on the egg ladder ie less well cooked, even if thoroughly cooked its not cooked for long.
They then have a histamine reaction as opposed to a true allergic reaction. This is due to the sudden volume and relatively short cooking time. Once they get used to it, the histamine reaction doesn't happen anymore.

This unfortunately isnt the case for my son and he has an actual allergy. I would suggest looking at the egg ladder and taking your time progressing up the steps. If your DC starts to react again then visit GP. The egg ladder is difficult to navigate without medical assistance in my experience. But might be a good way to introduce egg slowly while you determine if the reaction happens again.

Its best not to eliminate egg from the diet altogether as you do want to build tolerance. This is obviously only possible in the absence of severe reaction eg anaphylaxis. So it is quite difficult to advise as a non medical professional when I dont know you or how severe his reactions might be. The fact you've given egg in other foods is a good sign that there isnt a severe allergy though.

My daughter had an intolerance to milk and we reintroduced it using the 'milk ladder'. I've just googled whether there is an 'egg ladder' and there is. Might be worth having a look? Xx

If you were worried you could drive to a hospital car park and sit there for an hour after he eats egg in the car.

Don't rule out any oils you cook in. My DD always got awful contact reactions from olive oil, it blistered her face!

Get the white part of the egg and put a bit on his wrist to check for reaction - check this before giving to him to actual eat it

@mumnet87 @Poster2233 Thank you so much for the responses!

I didn’t realize allergies could be this complex. I really hope it’s nothing serious. We use eggs a lot for cooking and baking since we’ve got chickens.

I’m planning to try just the boiled egg white in a week. Fingers crossed it’s just a bit of skin sensitivity. The scrambled egg he had was quite runny (he’s still catching up with chunkier textures, so I didn’t want to give him anything too dry).

Yes, I’ll definitely stay close to the hospital—just to be safe.
I was wondering about the oil too—maybe it was a bit too much. I always use olive oil for cooking, but it’s never come into contact with his skin before.

This sounds promising then to be more of a histamine reaction than a true allergy if the egg was a bit runny. Based on what I was told by that doctor it seems to be the less well cooked it is, the more histamine the baby produces. And good that you use eggs in baking etc. Hopefully all of this means it's not an allergy. Best of luck navigating it and just seek medical advice if not sure about anything along the way.

He could have a slight allergy. Google egg ladder and you'll see scrambled egg is quite high up and if it was runny means it was rawer so there might be a small allergy there. Keep using the eggs he's tolerating and maybe next time cook the scrambled egg and try a little bit

It's worth noting that most kids outgrown egg allergies by age 3/4 so its not the worst thing even if he does have a small one