Visit to the allergist

Well J had his bi-annual appointment with the allergist today. I was hoping that maybe the allergist would agree to a food challenge test with milk baked in, but he told me that the earliest we would try it would be a year from now, after he turned five. I was really anxious to possibly have him try food containing milk after I read an article in Allergic Living Magazine on breakthroughs in milk and egg allergies http://www.allergicliving.com/features.asp?copy_id=384. Basically the article stated that studies done at John Hopkins have found that 75 percent of kids that test positive for milk and/or egg allergies can safely eat milk and eggs when baked in food for at least 30 minutes at 350 degrees. They also believe that it may help the child to grow out of the allergy. After reading the article I was so excited and hoping that maybe we could try a challenge test.

When I approached the doctor he told me that he would feel better waiting until he was five for two reasons, first J is more allergic to milk than anything and he tested 4.8 on a 5.0 scale, egg whites come in a close third (just 0.1 behind hazelnuts) and he feels that is he waits another year he has a better chance of outgrowing the allergy. We have not seen any movement in the milk or egg white number yet, but he told me that he has had some patients that have no movement while they are toddlers and then around five or six totally outgrow the allergy. Second, he said that he feels better waiting, since he feels J would be able to better express the side affect that he feels at the age of five. So basically I had my bubble burst. But on a positive note he told me that he feels comfortable with me feeding my children coconut and that I can consume coconut, which is considered a treenut, but he told me that 99.99 percent of people with treenut allergies do not have problems with coconut.