What does a mild/moderate milk allergy really mean? (2mm wheal from SPT)

[Leanne]

Ben was tested today, mainly to confirm an egg white allergy, but I figured we may as well run the gambit since we were there anyway. Turns out that in addition to egg white (3+) he's also allergic to peanuts (3+), egg yolk (2+), and cow's milk (2+).

Now, he had exzema when he was <6 months so Ben's paed suspected it was cow's milk related (specifically the casein protein) suggested switching from Enfamil to GoodStart, and that completely took care of the exzema problem. At 12 months we started introducing cow's milk on the advice of our GP and it was going well. He had a small patch of exzema, but it cleared up on it's own and we haven't observed any sort of digestion issues at all. Ben's been on homo milk exclusively for over a month now. In fact, had we not required the egg white test we never would have stumbled upon the milk allergy.

So, all that said, what does it mean? Does Ben need to be switched to soy milk exclusively (he's not allergic to soy), or is cow's milk tolerable enough? I'll be posing these questions to the allergist on Monday, but wanted to run it by you ladies here first.

Thanks so much.

[Mom to M&M]

TBH, allergy testing under the age of 2 is not always reliable. Did they do the skin prick test or the RAST blood test? I can't remember right now but I know that one tends toward false positives and one toward false negatives... I would think if he truly had a milk allergy he wouldn't have been able to tolerate Good Start - which is still milk based, just partially broken down and whey proteins only.

If it were me, I'd probably want to speak with the allergist ASAP and possibly try to confirm the milk allergy if possible. Depending on those results, I might lean toward switching to soy milk so as not to turn a possible allergy or intolerance into something bigger. Do any allergies run in your family?

[Leanne]

Thanks for the reply, Marisa'sMom.

It was a SPT, not a RAST; I've heard the latter tends to produce false negatives.

We switched Ben to soy milk this morning and will continue with soy milk until we're told otherwise by the allergist. I'm just not sure if this means Ben shouldn't have any dairy at all, or if cheese and yogurt in moderation is okay.

I wouldn't have expected Ben to tolerate GoodStart either, but apparently mild allergies show fewer symptoms, so perhaps he can tolerate some, but not a full diet. I'm not sure.

Anyway, yeah, I'll be discussing this with the allergist on Monday and will hopefully get some answers then, but like I said, I thought I'd inquire here in the meantime.

Thanks again!