Our family is growing in many ways... Growing in numbers, knowledge, parenting skills, growing in love, in our faith, growing our culinary skills (if you can call it that), growing without gluten (some of us), growing green...........

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Home Allergy Test Results

So....we put the dye on Aiden last night and left it on for 24 hours (since we were putting it on his back, which is less sensitive - but out of his reach). Tonight, we take off the bandaid, and this is what we see:



The purple is where the dye was. It will take a couple days for all of it to come off. (Looks like some terrible bruise, doesn't it?) But it was very clear to see that he was more red from the bandaid than the dye! He had no reaction to the dye. After that, we ended up putting some on the inside of his elbow because that is more sensitive. No reaction. Even put a dot on his face. No reaction.

The doctor had this crazy idea to also check for egg whites, so we thought we would do that, too. Why was it a crazy idea? Because Aiden has eaten eggs with no problem. So...doesn't make sense that he would have an allergy to them. Right?

Here...his face after a tiny swipe of egg white was applied and wiped off shortly after:





Yep, it's the EGGS, folks. (Imagine this all over his face and much more intense. That would give you an idea what happened from the icing that sat on his face for about five minutes.) Really didn't expect this.

Now, can anyone explain this to us? We're a bit confused. Can you be allergic to egg whites and still be ok eating them? Or has he had some reaction that we're not aware of?? We'll be calling the doctor tomorrow to see what he says. But...confused over here!! It's hard to really know this at this point, but I'm kind of thinking it might have been simpler to be allergic to the dye.

6 comments:

Gwenn Mangine said...

Hey Daisy--

Sorry about your discovery.
As a mama to a baby boy with an egg allergy, I SYMPATHIZE! and remember that he's young enough that he most likely will outgrow it IF you avoid it for a year.

A couple of things I do to make life more tolerable--

--Carry Benadryl with you everywhere (the single serve spoons are VERY convenient.)

--find a good egg-free cake recipe (I have a simple one if you want it) and make up a batch of the cake or make it into cupcakes. Then freeze in baggies in individual portions. THat way,when you have to go to a birthday party, or something like that, you can just grab one out and go so your son doesn't have to be excluded from the cake.

-- I know you don't do a lot of processed foods anyway, BUT, many restaurants have their allergy info online.

Good luck!

Becky said...

Very interesting. I was sure it was the dye too. Maybe I'll try this with Colin just because I can... He has had eggs too and had no reaction, but he isn't really a big fan so he hasn't had much. I'll be interested to see what the dr says. I wouldn't think there would be egg whites in the frosting though, since it isn't cooked... Speaking of cooked, does he react to cooked egg white the same way? Or was this cooked?

Daisy @ Our Growing Family said...

Thanks, Gwenn! For the tips and sympathy. :) We do have benadryl, but I hadn't seen the single serve ones. We have to use a really low dose since there is no "infant" benadryl, though. But I'll look into that. We're still not sure what all he CAN take. I've made things like banana bread with eggs in them - and he was fine - but they do have small amounts, and he doesn't eat a lot of them at a time. He's had scrambled eggs a couple times, and we didn't notice a reaction (though the last time he did get a little red around his chin and mouth area, but we thought it was some of the fruit irritating him...likely it was the egg, now that we know this). But he could have had reactions that we weren't aware of, like a slightly upset stomach or a loose BM - but he has been breastfed, so we might not have noticed that, if it happened. It could also be that he's more allergic to the raw egg whites. It seems like there is a wide range of how you can be allergic to eggs, now that we've looked more into it.

We've been instructed to give no eggs until our next appt on Monday, where we'll do blood tests. We'll also be talking to the dr about the vaccines that have egg. Did you have problems with the MMR - or did Josiah get it? I can't remember...I think I remember you mentioning it on your blog at one point? The flu shot also has egg. And what bothers us is the shots withOUT thimerisol has egg - but most shots WITH thimerisol don't have egg. And we want to avoid the thimerisol, too! But I think Ryan read they can do a patch test to see if a reaction will occur? Apparently the egg in the flu shots is stronger than in the MMR...

Becky - if you want to do the test on Colin, it's really simple. Just wipe a tiny bit of the egg white somewhere on his face and let it sit for a few minutes before wiping off. Lots of frostings have uncooked egg white, and egg white was listed in the ingredient list from the bakery. Actually, a lot more items than you might expect have raw eggs (egg whites) in them - esp things that are fluffy or have a glaze. I'm not sure about doing a test with cooked egg - we used raw. But we'll be doing the blood tests soon, so hopefully we'll find something out.

LeafGurl said...

Daisy,

One thing to be sure to ask the doctor about is vaccines. Many, if not most vaccines are created in eggs. I know that as a public health nurse involved in many vaccine programs, if a person has an allergy to egg whites there are several vaccines we do not administer. Specifically the influenza vaccine. Myself , our oldest(20) and youngest(10 months) all have egg white allergies. We can't eat egg whites but not as bothered if they are in cakes, breads, ect.

I wish you luck. Take care.
Melissa

Daisy @ Our Growing Family said...

Melissa,

That's one of the things on our list to discuss. Definitely important. We're concerned b/c the flu vaccines without egg whites are with thimerisol...another ingredient we want to avoid. :( We're wondering what our options are if he shouldn't get the flu shot with egg whites. (Any thoughts on that??) While we are for vaccines, we do an alternate schedule - and we put off the MMR just because we wanted to wait for Aiden's little immune system to get stronger. Man am I glad we did that!! But we're worried about the flu shot.... We all get it each year b/c we get the flu so easily (at least I do and my son does - I used to get it multiple times a year before I started getting the shot every year). And with an older brother in school and going to playdates and everything...it's definitely a high priority to find out what our options are and discuss this with all of our doctors. I would love to hear any thoughts you have.

I'll have to look up what other vaccines have eggs... I only know of the flu shot and the MMR.

Thanks!!

LeafGurl said...

Hi Daisy, The other two vaccines that I am sure have egg components are Typhoid and Yellow Fever, both are generally taken as Travel Vaccines depending upn your destination and not as routine, but still something to keep in mind.
Our eldest daughter had a minor reaction to her first two flu shots, but they were minor localized reactions, however to be safe we had her take the inhaled version for a few years. Now she is at University in the nursing program and is required to be vacinated against influenza anually and has been for the past two years without incident. She still exhibits reactions to egg whites though if eaten, generally around her mouth and lip area. Once n highschool she put eggwhites all over her face, to tighten pores or something (a girl thing) and ended up in emerg all swollen and red, we still tease her that her pores did shrink though!
Professionally speaken I always recommend that people follow the vaccine schedule as recommended by their physician, that being said, my own family physician agreed to allow us to postpone our first MMRs as well. So I don't think it is something that is uncommon, and certainly if there were an outbreak of measles or mumps in our area, I'd have our babe in there ASAP.

Melissa