Milk Allergy

Zach's milk allergy has come up a lot lately, so I thought I would write about it.

Zach is allergic to MILK PROTEIN. Not lactose. So he can't have any dairy products from animals at all.

We found out when he was 6 months that he was allergic to milk. We gave him formula and he had red marks on his face where the milk had touched. So we switched him to soy formula. If we gave him milk now, he would have a much stronger reaction on his face to the point that his face would get puffy and make it hard to breathe. So I guess that means the allergy is worse than it was before.

He can grow out of it- but not guaranteed. Lots of kids outgrow it between ages 2-5. He had a reaction yesterday when we were at someone's house...he didn't eat anything but must have touched something with milk. So it hasn't gone away yet.

We could 'test' him in a few months, but we are supposed to go a long time without any reactions before we would give him anything with milk. If we were going to 'test' him, we would give him something with butter baked in, not something direct like milk.

Yes, we have to read every label of every single thing he eats. And if it is questionable, it probably has milk in it. So no obvious dairy- milk, eggs, cheese, pizza, ice cream, yogurt, creamy sauce. Then the things we have to pay attention to are crackers, bread, cereal, etc. He can have meats, veggies, fruits and sugar. So he can eat plain chips, wheat thins, graham crackers, raisins, oatmeal cookies (obviously without egg or milk).

Eggs are included- I don't know why. They have the milk protein as well, so anything with eggs baked in don't work. So chocolate chip cookies- they have milk, eggs, and milk chocolate= he's never had any!

It is always hard in a different environment. At home, we know what he can and can't have and don't have to check anymore. Going out to a restaurant could be hard, but I have yet to find a place that doesn't serve a side of grilled chicken. He can't do the kids meals- they usually have cheese and then ice cream for dessert. He is a GREAT eater and eats pretty much anything we give him. It is always sad when we have something he can't have- we have baby food on hand for dinners like those. Adapting to a new environment was also hard, he had more reactions when we moved to California than ever before cause it is a hard thing to get used to when you aren't in the habit of checking everything.

In nursery or when anyone is watching him, we have to make sure to tell them about his allergy. He can't have typical toddler foods like fishies, so we bring a snack for him every week for church.

We have figured out that a tiny amount of children's Benedryl gets rid of the reaction on his face in minutes. Therefore, we always have it on us- especially when we go out. My sister in law Julie was nice enough to buy some for her house when we visit, just in case! We also have a prescription for an epi pen, but haven't filled it yet. I think the only time we would need to use that would be if he had prolonged exposure to straight milk, which doesn't happen. The Benedryl takes care of anything direct (like he stuck his finger on the sour cream lid when we moved here and reacted fast, but the Benedryl got it to go down within 5 minutes) so we are sticking with that.

He is also a stud at feeding himself. We sit down to dinner, pile his plate, and while some food makes it through the crack between his attached-to-the-table chair and the table, he does a great job at not making a mess. Plus, he considers things like apple sauce a great dessert!

Interesting thing I have figured out- when Zach was about 2 months old (so this is November '07 in Provo) he started to develop exema. He had red patches on his skin that itched and were raised and sore. We put lotion on him several times a day, and even though neither of us have exema or even in our family history, we figured it was the dry Utah winter. When we went to Southern California it mostly went away, which was so nice! Then within two days of being back in Utah he had the same sores back in the same places. He would scratch his face so we had to put little gloves on him a lot and keep his nails short. It was so sad! Well, now I have read that a milk allergy and exema can be related. So since he didn't have formula until he was 6 months, that would mean he had a milk allergy to the milk I was eating (if this correlation is correct). It is a bummer that we didn't know that- no one mentioned any realtion between exema and milk, and we had no reason to suspect an allergy at that point. He has spit up maybe 5 times in his entire life, and didn't have stomach pains after he ate.

Another interesting thing we just learned- there are studies coming out now that males should not have a regular soy diet. I guess it has a lot of estrogen and isn't good for them. This is over a long time- like 5 years. Zach has a bottle at night which is made from soy formula (second year formula) but we are on our last can of that now and then will switch to rice milk. Yum.

Hopefully I will read this in a few years and think 'o ya, I remember when we had to do that!' and we will be done with milk allergies...but who knows. We might have rice milk and soy butter in our fridge for a long time to come.

Here is the link for the time I gave Zachary a lactose-free milk bottle when he was a year. He didn't SWALLOW any milk, he spit it out right away and in the two minutes it took me to wash out the bottle and refill it, this is what I came back to. I washed it all off in the shower and then took him to the ER (where they asked if I gave him Benedryl, which I hadn't cause I didn't know back then, and they didn't give him any! Now that I know how great it works, I can't believe they let me sit there for 2 hours and waited for the reaction to just go away.)