Egg Allergy Question

what I would do(if I am allowed to voice my opinion...been hard lately)....but I would cut out ALL egg at this time and call the Allergist after the holiday and get further testing done. I can't honestly say if she is having a reaction or not, but you really don't want to mess around with this if in fact she is.

My son Jake is my only kiddo(of my 3 egg allergic) that has had reactions to egg, neck squeezing to be exact. It was from dipping his finger in cake batter and taste of a lemon merange' pie that caused his near anaphalaxis. He did however eat egg in baked goods but suffered horrible eczema(so as it stands NO eggs of any kind in his(or siblings) diet).

Good luck, but I would suggest backing off of all egg until you can get more info from the allergist on this. You don't want to be facing something serious. Good luck!!

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Chanda(mother of 4)
Sidney-8 (beef and chocolate, grasses, molds, weeds, guinea pig & asthma)
Jake-6 (peanut, all tree nuts, eggs, trees, grasses, weeds, molds, cats, dogs, guinea pig & eczema & asthma)
Carson-3 1/2 (milk, soy, egg, beef and pork, cats, dog, guinea pig and EE)
Savannah-1 (milk and egg)
Foster Mom to
Cody-10 (seasonal/environmental allergies)
Jordan-6 (also seasonal and environmental)

[This message has been edited by chanda4 (edited July 03, 2007).]

I have to firmly agree with other poster with the advice to totally remove egg in any form from your childs diet until you get further medical advice.

The allergy symptoms you discribe are all internal, so are considered a serious reaction. Have you got epi pens etc??

It is of course common for egg and peanut allergies to go hand in hand. ( something to do with similar proteins.)
I would personaly question your previous medical advice, as many people are allergic to egg, BUT can eat it if egg proteins exposed to high heat.
For e.g able to eat sponge cake, but not scrambled egg.
It does seem a little splap dash to leave this area , with out further testing.

Skin , blood tests and previous history are often used together to gain a clearer idea of allergy status.

So advice is , get futher medical support, remove egg from diet, but remain hopefull as your child is soooo young they have a extremely high chance of outgrowing!!

good luck.
sarah

Yes! Do eliminate egg - at least for now until you can meet with the allergist. You know what they said about continued exposure - for us there was a lot of exposure in our home - at this time the allergist thought DD would outgrow it - not even close!

Our DD is allergic to egg - and yes, before she was diagnoised, she did eat baked goods with egg and pasta's too. Well, after eliminating egg, her skin was so beautiful! She said her "tummy felt better" and "her asthma felt better"! From my point of view - her gaging and occasional throwing up at meals was also improved!

DD was smart enough to listen to her body and she never to want to eat eggs such as scrambled. The allergist did not want to test her but I pushed the issue because she did not want to eat or smell eggs - and it turns out - she is allergic.

Ask away about egg - I don't mind sharing and if you search the recipe section, you will find egg free recipes and tips there.

Yes, definitely eliminate egg. My oldest was also egg allergic. Like your child, he could tolerate egg in baked products but tested positive (about 12) on the RAST. We were told to completely avoid egg because he'd be more likely to outgrow egg and would outgrow it sooner than if he continued to have exposure, however minimal. He was diagnosed with the egg allergy at 1.5 and outgrew it last year at 4.5. I'm happy we only had three years to deal with the allergy; it may have been longer if we hadn't avoided egg.

There is a difference between cooked eggs and raw. Some children can tolerate the protein in cooked eggs because the protein chains are broken up by cooking (denaturing) and the body doesn't recognize them any more as egg.

The gagging and then sleeping thing sounds very scary from my perspective, as that's what used to happen to my son if we didn't treat his milk allergy. The gagging was caused by mucus he couldn't clear from his airway. The sleeping was a drop in blood pressure. Our doctor told us to give an Epi-Pen for that combination of symptoms.

I'm not so cavalier as to tell you to eliminate a whole food group without checking with a doctor first, but I would definitely make an appointment ASAP with the doctor and avoid egg until you can get in.

My DS had an egg allergy( egg whites) . He could tollerate it in baked goods. for the same reason that a prev poster stated the "protiens" change when cook and he was not allergic to the protien in the cooked form. he out grew his egg allergy. I would avoid the foods until you get to the Dr and let him guide you. My firend has a little boy who had gagging problems ect when he ate they thought it was food allergies but it turns out it was a form of reflux. and had to do with his asophogus ( sp?) any check with the dr . Hopefully you will see the allegist soon
Therese

It can't hurt to eliminate eggs until you see the allergist however, if your child has eaten eggs several times without a reaction, I would question whether or not this is a true allergic reaction. You said there was some dry coughing. Were there any hives or swelling? The fact that she tested slightly positive means very little if she had been eating eggs all along with no reactions. Kids who are allergic to one type of protein tend to have many false positives to others. (i.e my DS who is definately allergic to peanuts had a CAP rast of 5 for sesame but he eats sesame seeds all the time!)

When you asked about fried eggs vs. egg noodles, are you implying that she has eaten fried eggs and had not problem? Has she eaten them once or several times? Certainly, she would be more likely to react to those than egg noodles (which have much less concentrated egg) if she were truly allergic.

So...I'm not saying that she's not allergic but I wouldn't necessarily assume she is without talking more with your allergist. Maybe she just aspirated a little bit of the soup or the noodle which made her cough.

My son is highly allergic to eggs and cannot tolerate eggs in any form, even baked. He also had a severe reaction to a flu shot.

I agree with the other posters that the safest thing would be to eliminate egg until you can get an appointment with the allergist.

Here is a website that may help you: [url="http://www.kidswithfoodallergies.org"]www.kidswithfoodallergies.org[/url] It is a supportive community with a large, searchable recipe database. You have to pay $25 to join, but you can read their main forum (but not post) for free. They also have free memberships for those who cannot afford to pay.

Cathy

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Mom to 8 yr old PA/TNA daughter and 4 yr old son who is allergic to eggs.

[This message has been edited by Momcat (edited July 04, 2007).]

Thank you for your responses. Some more information on my situation. DD tested Class 3 for peanuts and Class 1 for eggs. I think her egg RAST score was .5. I am not certain of the exact score but it was definitely very low and Class 1. I have an epi pen due to the peanut allergy.

I am not certain what she had was an allergic reaction. She could have had a virus. Something could have gone down her throat the wrong way. She is teething and had a lot of excess saliva that night. So, any number of things could have caused the gagging. As for the coughing with the soup. She has been coughing over the past few days,which is unusual. So, the coughing could be from seasonal allergies and I think she has issues with how she swallows her food. She is coughing a lot while eating recently. I am not sure what to make of it.

I am suspicious of the egg noodles but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. For months she has been eating eggs for breakfast 2-3 times a week. She loves them. So, they haven't been a problem in the past.

We haven't gone to an allergist yet because our ped. is fairly knowledgeable in this area and I wasn't quite ready to make her go through skin testing unless necessary. We know she had a reaction to peanuts. That's why the RAST was run. As for the sleeping after vomiting. This is the second time it has happened in a month. The last time she had significant vomiting not just gagging and we thought she had a stomach bug. She didn't eat anything suspicious beforehand. I have talked to the ped. about it and said he is only concerned if these episodes become more frequent. In the end, I think the only way to ease my mind on this issue is to talk to an allergist because I don't know that I will feel completely comfortable until then.

Another possibility is the egg might be causing/inflaming EE in your daughters esophogus. The swallowing problems and coughing when eating, caught my attention. My 4yr old went through bouts of pain when eating...after a couple endoscopy's and biopsies....and soem additional allergy testing, we found he deff had Eosinophilic Esophogitis and the cause(in his diet) was pork(class 2, almost 3) and beef(class 1). His egg was a class 2 as well.....so we REALLY buckled down and I took ALL allergens out of his diet. He was having allergic reactions(pain, swelling, inflamation) of the esophogus, but I couldn't *see* the reaction, so I never knew. He had to swollow steriods for about 3 months and along with the diet adjustment, he is pain free now(for 4mths).

So, I am not saying this is what is going on, just the problems when eating, the vomiting....it just caught my attention. Sometimes we don't *see* the reactions. FAAN had a really good article on EE this month in their newsletter, it explained it as a reaction, which I guess I never *got* before. I thought it was a disease, btu they are finding it's most the time caused by eating foods you are allergic to. Anyways, this was really long, sorry....good luck trying to pinpoint what is going on. I do think seeing the allergist at this point would be helpful, my youngest had allergy testing at 2mths, not a big deal, really(found she was allergic to milk(then eggs at 6mths)....explained ALOT!!!) HUGS

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Chanda(mother of 4)
Sidney-8 1/2(beef and chocolate, grasses, molds, weeds, guinea pig & asthma)
Jake-6 1/2(peanut, all tree nuts, eggs, trees, grasses, weeds, molds, cats, dogs, guinea pig & eczema & asthma)
Carson-4 (milk, soy, egg, beef and pork, cats, dog, guinea pig and EE)
Savannah-1 1/2 (milk and egg)

I really think that if she eats eggs 2-3 times a week then you don't have to worry about an egg allergy. As you said, she has a lot of saliva and it could have been a virus.

Don't you wish you could just ask her? I remember at that age wondering what was wrong and thinking that if my son was just a few years older, he could say, "It's O.K. Mom, I was eating and some went down the wrong way" or "I've had a little bit of a chest cold the last few days."

Let us know how things work out!

When both of my children were teething they both would gag on all that drool. I guess they would breath it in then start coughing and gagging. I hope your child is not allergic to egg. My son recently grew out of his egg allergy, but still refuses to eat eggs. He doesn't like the way they taste, but he does eat it in Waffles, pancakes and baked goods w/o problem. I really feel that egg is harder to avoid then peanuts.

I still do think it would be wise to get it checked out though..even if she eats it 2-3 times a week. My 4yr old ate sausage, bacon, hot dogs, pepperoni with NO problems(that I could tell...no diaarhea, no thrwoing up, no hives, no swelling, nothing but pain in his esophogus...which I couldnt' see) and he turned out to be almost class 3(high 2). You just never know, the coughing just worries me, sorry [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img]

again, good luck!

edit to add... here is a quote of symptoms I found, I'll put the link under it..."What are eosinophilic esophagitis symptoms?

The major symptom among adults with eosinophilic esophagitis is difficulty swallowing solid food (dysphagia). Specifically, the food gets stuck in the esophagus after it is swallowed. Less common symptoms include heartburn and chest pain. Among children, the most common symptoms are abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting , coughing, and failure to thrive."
Failure to thrive was not one of our problems, but son was a good size, I'd say in the 75% even. But here's the link for more info(if interested of course)

[url="http://www.medicinenet.com/eosinophilic_esophagitis/page2.htm"]http://www.medicinenet.com/eosinophilic_esophagitis/page2.htm[/url]
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Chanda(mother of 4)
Sidney-8 1/2(beef and chocolate, grasses, molds, weeds, guinea pig & asthma)
Jake-6 1/2(peanut, all tree nuts, eggs, trees, grasses, weeds, molds, cats, dogs, guinea pig & eczema & asthma)
Carson-4 (milk, soy, egg, beef and pork, cats, dog, guinea pig and EE)
Savannah-1 1/2 (milk and egg)

[This message has been edited by chanda4 (edited July 05, 2007).]

[This message has been edited by chanda4 (edited July 05, 2007).]