When I found out I was pregnant, I knew I wanted to talk about my baby-well, now toddler-on here; but at the same time I know lots of my readers are only really interested in free from life and recipes.
I’m really gutted to discover that sadly there is more crossover between my blog and my son than I’d hoped for. Jude may well be A Balanced Belly’s youngest follower; since I’ve discovered he is allergic to egg and possibly now cow’s milk too.
I know lots of babies have various allergies but, I must admit, it’s hard not to link it to my own digestive struggles and wondered if I’ve passed it on.
We all know how stressful life can be with dietary restrictions and I’ve already flashed forward to birthday parties where he can’t eat the cake! I really don’t want that stress for him, or me as a parent, and yep, I feel guilty and assume as if he’s ‘caught it’ from me.
Yet I also know of plenty of babies who have outgrown allergies early on and babies whose parents have no allergies themselves so I’m not trying to go down that road.
Today I wanted to update you on his allergies and the struggles we’re still dealing with in the hope you might be able to share your experiences if you have them-of little ones and allergies too! This is a completely new area for me and I feel like I’ve still got a lot to learn…
Jude’s egg allergy
I talked in my does early weaning lead to Crohn’s? post about how I really wanted to introduce as many foods as possible to him. So as soon as he turned six months, I made sure he tried peanuts and eggs, as I know these are common allergens and some people suggest introducing them as soon as you can reduce their risks of allergens occurring (again, something I blogged about previously)
He had egg on toast a few times with no problem but, on Christmas day, my mum decided to cook him scrambled egg on toast and he came out pretty much instantly in a red-hives rash, which got worse across the day and pretty much covered his whole body by dinner time.
It was actually much worse on his chest but I didn’t want to share naked baby photos! Anyway, we took him to the hospital via 111 and we were given anti-histamines and told we’d then speak to someone about allergy testing, which we finally had in March.
Because Jude had egg several times before and in baked goods, I’d hoped his reaction wouldn’t be too strong. If you’re new to the world of allergies, the test (which was new to me too!) is relatively simple: on Jude’s arm, a tiny amount of the allergen in liquid form is dropped onto the arm and then covered for 15 minutes to give time for a reaction to develop. They also test water as a ‘baseline’, since it’s naturally for the skin to be a little red.
I believe this is called IgE testing and it only tests for the type of immediate allergic reaction Jude had; it doesn’t test for more subtle intolerances-for example when the baby struggles to digest food and has diarrhea or cows milk protein allergy.
The reaction is then noted: Jude had a strong reaction to the pure egg solution but also in cooked form; which means he can’t start the egg ladder yet and we need to avoid egg in cooking and baked items too. Because he hasn’t had an anaphylactic reaction, we were told ‘may contain’ warnings are not really an issue.
The egg ladder (again for those who aren’t familiar with allergens) is basically starting to reintroduce egg in small doses-e.g. in a biscuit cooked-to see if it can be tolerated until you gradually reintroduce egg. Apparently, almost 80% of babies can then go on to tolerate egg okay and grow out this allergy;but we were told we couldn’t start the ladder and he will have an appointment in a year’s time to see if he is ready then.
Jude’s ‘milk allergy?’
At the allergy test, Jude was also tested for milk which came back negative, but about 3 months ago; as we added more cow’s milk in his diet, I noticed a worsening of his eczema and he started to suffer from diarrhea. This did seem to coincide with me having some kind of sickness bug but it hasn’t got better. It was about 2-3 times a day and either complete liquid or very loose!
He has had a stool test for various bugs just because of how it started but that’s come back clear so now we’re on the list to see a dietician.
In the meantime, we’ve decided to switch to soya milk just to see if it makes a difference.
There seems to be so much research out there about the best dairy-free milk for babies and toddlers and that’s probably a whole other post. For now, I’ve just switched to Alpro’s 1-3-year-old milk since that’s the only one I could find for babies but, if he needs to be dairy-free long-term, then I will research it more thoroughly!
In the seven days since we’ve switched, we’ve noticed a big improvement to his skin, his sickness, and we did have a few days of almost normal poos or mushy ones; so it felt like we were going in the right direction. He’s also usually only have one poo a day now.
But it’s still a bit inconsistent and today we seem to have gone back to liquid poo (I must have used about 50 baby wipes!) so it’s really hard to know if I am doing the right thing or if I’m just giving up.
I’m also so confused about whether he can be tested for cow’s milk protein allergy (as his skin IgE test was negative) as I keep reading different things. And I also have no idea how to get started with dairy-free yogurt and cheese for a one-year-old. I’m so worried of him missing out on everything he needs.
I’m not sure if I should be asking for other tests-such as coeliac disease-or whether the bug I (and possibly he) had could have affected his gut bacteria and whether I should introduce some probiotics. It’s so much easier to make these decisions as an adult rather than for a one year old who can’t tell me how he’s feeling. I also thought I was an expert in poo-but baby poo is another level!
UPDATE: Literally just as I pressed publish on this post, we’ve had a phonecall to say he has an appointment with a pediatrician on Wednesday! Perhaps I should start blogging about winning the lottery next!
Useful Products for those with babies/toddlers with allergies (some items have been gifted)
-The lovely Emma who runs Free From Farmhouse kindly sent me a copy of her book and I’m about to re-read it (I read it when Jude has his egg allergy but now I’m obviously trying to learn about this new milk problem. It’s a really practical, easy to read guide for families living with allergies and I’d recommend it to anyone.
-In terms of baby and toddler food, there are quite a few different baby brands which are egg and dairy-free: I’ve blogged before about Mama Made Food in my top weaning products guide (I think there’s a discount code in there too) which is great frozen pouches which are free from gluten, egg and dairy but they also do finger food now too! We use Piccolo baby stock cubes in things like slow cooker dishes and stews (their gluten-free so I can have them). Alternatively, this is a great guide to vegan baby-led weaning which is useful (since there’s a crossover with not having egg or dairy)
-(GIFTED) Oggs now do a liquid egg replacer, which they sent me to try, we’ve not tried it yet but it uses Aquafaba which I know some people rave about. You can also sign up for a free sample of it here. (not an affiliate link). I’m hoping this will make it a lot easier to create things like muffins for him.
-There’s a great recipe book called: The Allergy Free Baby and Toddler cookbook. They also do a family one which is perfect for me being gluten free too. The recipes are really easy to follow and we’ve made things like egg free fish cakes (which were a bit on the mushy side I must admit) and risottos.
-There’s a great brand called Nuttery Buttery which is nut butters for babies! It’s really important to introduce babies to nuts and having an egg allergy puts Jude at more risk of a nut one. Unlike regular nut butters, these are free from salt, sugar and oils and designed specifically for babies.
I’ll keep updating this blog after we have the dieticians appointment.
