Allergies

[ShinySloth]

Hoping to get some advice as I feel utterly clueless and overwhelmed.

DD is 7m and earlier broke out in hives after eating scrambled eggs on toast. (Contained butter and cow's milk too) She's had every ingredient a few times before with no reactions. She's fine and happy otherwise although a bit congested with a runny nose, but no breathing difficulties.

I don't think I'll be able to see a GP before 7th Jan. In the meantime guessing I need to exclude eggs and dairy and probably bread too? Or should I wait a few days and try each one on its own to try and work out what caused the reaction?

I'm scared if I do that she'll have a proper anaphylactic reaction! I'm also breastfeeding and have been eating all those foods. Should I continue for now or stop them all?

Hopeful bump

As it's only a week or so away, I would consider excluding the three ingredients until you can be seen. Either than, or attempt to see an out of hours GP. It is likely however that they will just tell you to avoid the ingredients until you can be seen by an allergy specialist.

Our baby had a severe reaction to eggs at a similar age, only we ended up in A&E. Allergy severity can increase with repeated exposure, so you do run a possible risk of it being worse next time.

If you are concerned that your baby is going into anaphylactic shock, you should call an ambulance and use the word anaphylaxis. It will also be useful for you to be aware of how much your baby weighs, as this was the first thing we were asked, so they could dose him properly.

I have no idea about breastfeeding however, perhaps someone else will be able to help.

Please ring our helpline at Allergy UK next week. We're closed on Mon and Tues but open on Wed. Www.allergyuk.org

Children can often react to lightly cooked eggs but be ok with baked eggs (DD was allergic to all forms, but the sheet the dietician gave us said 80% only have a problem with lightly cooked or raw egg). They can also only react on the 2nd exposure after being sensitised by the 1st.

When you say she's had egg before - how many times and baked or lightly cooked? How often, and in what form has she had cows milk and wheat?

If you've seen no reactions through breastmilk before no need to exclude from your diet, at most it's only very low levels get through to your milk. I would start keeping a food diary to track what you and your DD are eating and any mild symptoms (e.g. diarrhea), just so you can track back if you do see something that makes you worry.

If you're on Facebook there's a very helpful group called Breastfeeding with CMPA and other Food Allergies.

My DS reacts to runny egg but he is fine with scrambled and boiled. Definitely best to omit eggs, milk and butter until you've been to see your GP. Has she had cows milk before though? If she has and never reacted to it, then it is most likely the eggs as she's just had it first time.

Thanks for the responses!

@sar302, that must have been really scary! Has your baby outgrown their allergy or is it still an issue?

@Reythelastjedi, I'll call on Wed, thanks.

@Teddyreddy, thanks, that's all really helpful. She's had scrambled egg once before without milk and didn't react, boiled egg twice before, and egg baked in pancakes and fritters 6+ times, all fine. Cow's milk and butter just once before. Butter maybe three times before. Wheat definitely 10+ times before, all fine. Before weaning I wondered about allergy or intolerance as she had quite mucousy nappies and very mild eczema. But she seemed happy and untroubled so nobody was concerned.

@WhenLifeGivesYouLemonsx, she's had them both before but egg more frequently than cow's milk. I wish I could pinpoint which it was!

@ShinySloth He's just turned a year old. We had an allergy appt at the hospital when he was 10 months. They did a skin prick test which showed he was allergic to both the white and the yolk. We now need to wait for another test at 16-18 months to see if anything's changed. It was scary! And egg free day to day is a bit of a pain. But apparently they very commonly grow out of it, so hopefully he'll be fine in a year or two :)

I’m hoping someone can help. I’m trying to wean my ebf dd (she’s 5 months) onto formula for 3 reasons - 1) I’m going back to work full time in a few months and don’t have a breastmilk stockpile, 2) I need a break from breastfeeding in the meantime to give me some freedom and 3) she is waking frequently at night to feed so wanted to put her on formula to try and fill her up a little. I gave her about 2oz of Aptamil readymade and she took it. She fell asleep and then about 2 hours later I breastfed her. As soon as my milk hit the Aptamil in her stomach she was violently sick for 2 hours until nothing else came up. Since then she has refused to take the bottle (she was previously drinking breastmilk from the bottle and now she won’t take from it at all). We started her on some porridge and all seemed to be going well so we steadily increased the portion size and also added some formula to it. She lapped it up but after a good amount of porridge and about 2oz of powdered formula (Cow & Gate) mixed in, her whole body came out in a rash. She also had a very green poo. We tried to give her some alternative formulas (Hipp Organic and SMA lactose free) but she refused to drink them. The formula that ended up round her mouth still gave her the rash. I went back to just porridge and the rash appeared after a good helping of that too. We went to the GP who was useless and gave us no answers. Has anyone else experienced this or have any advice? Thanks!

Sorry, I meant to add that Asa thread. Didn’t mean to hijack your post. Please ignore me! X

DD has grown out of egg at 2, although not yet milk or soya - so there is hope!

Based on what you've said, milk seems the most likely, and then egg, they are also much more common allergies than wheat. I don't know what your local hospital is like, but round here you'd be waiting months for the referral to the allergy clinic to come through - which is a long time to exclude everything for.

If you did want to try wheat as the one that sounds unlikely to be the problem - which is also the hardest work to avoid (gluten free bread has egg in it normally. ...) my dietician told us to test foods we suspected of causing an instant rash by touching a small piece to the forearm skin, leaving it several minutes, then the cheek, wait, then the lip, wait, then touch to the tongue, wait, and finally give a small piece to eat. I'd be worried about trying this at home with the more likely milk though!

My DD's only reactions to egg through me was mucuousy nappies and mild excema (milk and soya were worse) but I wouldn't start cutting stuff out your diet unless you are sure there is a problem.

Check the ingredients in the bread too, if it’s a different bread to usual x