Food Allergy Adventures: The Diagnosis

It was the expensive baby food, organic mashed potatoes.  After all, he was our first so I only bought the good stuff.  He was 11 months old and we’d dealt with colic, reflux and nursing problems from the beginning but now things were under control.  At least, I thought they were.  Within minutes of eating the potatoes he had a rash and our allergy story had begun.  

I looked at the ingredients and saw that the potatoes contained butter.  I wasn’t surprised that he had a milk allergy, since both my sister and I had milk allergies as babies.  We had outgrown them easily and I don’t even remember it, so I thought he would be the same way.  I called the pediatrician and arranged to come in.  He drew blood for some allergy testing and told me not to give him any dairy products.  A few days later I got the call, he came up allergic to dairy, egg and nuts and I was referred to an allergist. 

According to the allergist, blood tests can be unreliable for detecting allergies and the best option was a food challenge.  This is when the patient is given the allergen while in the doctor’s office and under close medical supervision.  The dairy had already been challenged when I gave him the potatoes and he did not want to expose my baby to nuts at that age, even as a test.  So I was told to bring eggs for him to try.  My husband and I sat in the office trying to get him to eat the eggs but he wanted nothing to do with them.  We finally got a spoonful into him and within minutes he was covered in hives.  I will never forget the guilt I felt for forcing him to eat something that he didn’t want and that made him so sick.

We were told most children outgrow these allergies by 3, but he didn’t.  He didn’t outgrow them at 5 and now at 7 he is still as allergic as ever.  When we had our next child we were very careful.  He was exclusively breastfed for 6 months.  He was not exposed to any products containing his brother’s allergens until he was allergy tested at 1.  He has no food allergies at all.  We did exactly the same for our third child.  At 1 he tested positive for eggs and diary.  By 18 months he outgrew the egg allergy but he still had the dairy one.  The truth is we can do our best, but some things are beyond our control.

We are so lucky in so many ways.  We are lucky that he is not anaphylactic.  We are lucky that we have a great support system.  We are lucky that he isn’t allergic to soy, so we have a viable dairy substitute. Our biggest stroke of luck is our son.  He has such an amazingly positive attitude about his allergies.  He is his own best advocate, checking labels and asking questions about possible cross-contamination.  While I wouldn’t wish this on any child, I am glad my (almost) 2 year old has such a great role model as he learns to navigate a world full of pizza, ice cream and macaroni & cheese.

Quick Tip – In a family where children have differing food needs, a Sharpie can be mom’s best friend.  I write their names on their cups so that there is no confusion about which contains soy milk and which contains cow’s milk.  If your child is a pre-reader, try drawing simple pictures (shapes, smiley faces) or color coding the cups.