An Allergy Story

Since I am often asked questions about Ethan’s allergies, here’s a little bit about how I found out.

When I first Suspected: At 5 months, I started to slowly replace his feedings with formula. He immediately started breaking out in hives, so I stopped right away. Dr. said it wasn’t unusual, but to switch to soy formula. At 10+ months (I think), we tried again to start introducing more adult foods. When I gave him cottage cheese, he had the same sort of reaction. We stayed with foods I knew were okay until we could have him tested with an allergist at 1 year. I had no idea he was allergic to the eggs.

Why Me? I have no idea why it happened to us. Allergies are increasing dramatically & no one fully knows why. Allergist says it’s genetic, although neither of us have known allergies. From what I’ve read, more people have milk intolerances than they think. Some people just think it’s digestive problems or skin problems, when really it may be milk that’s the culprit.

Is there a food connection? Before pregnancy, I may have considered the option that allergies may have something to do with foods eaten by a pregnant mother. Now, I highly, highly doubt that is the case. I’m very interested in eating healthy & during pregnancy I still ate pretty well. Lots of fruits & veggies (although I did eat a good bit of cereal & developed a taste for coke floats near the end.) Other than that, I did not eat much processed, creamy, cheesy, heavy foods. We do not have processed foods like cokes, chips & cookies in our house at all.

Babys & Food: To answer Courtney’s question, E. ate store bought baby food. Doing my own would have been super easy. But I don’t know why I never gave it a shot. To answer other questions I’ve gotten about E’s eating, I think his allergies are partly why he is a pretty good eater. He hasn’t had exposure to grilled cheese & chocolate chip cookies, so he doesn’t know what he’s missing. So he gobbles up his healthy foods. I’ll be in really big trouble if he goes through a picky stage. Seriously.

What the Doctors say: The longer we can go without introducing his allergic foods, the better his chances of outgrowing them. That’s why I’m an extremist about not letting him have foods that have even a pad of butter in it. The rationale about delaying introduction seems counterintuitive to me. I would think that you would expose them to the foods, and they would develop a tolerance to it. Nope - not according to the “experts.”

80% of children with these types of allergies outgrow them by the time their 5. I’m very hopeful that he’ll be in the 80%, but that’s a long ways away. Also, I’m supposed to steer clear of these foods while I’m nursing any future kids, and other future kid(s) are supposed to also stay away from them.

My Dr. says, "You know, kids don't really have to have milk. It's the nutrition that's important." So for people who might think that dairy is causing their child problems, it certainly doesn't hurt to limit their intake, and replacing milk with the great qualities of foods like broccoli and black beans. But it definitely means a lifestyle change for many. And the road ahead of me will definitely not be the easiest one.