My 10 year old daughter became allergic to milk just this past Feb. Or at
least finally exhibited major symptoms. She always had some congestion
problems but we always chalked them up to allergies, ie, dust, pollen dog,
etc. We had her tested in March due to some bad incidents with hives,
stomach problems and intestinal problems. The tests all came back negative.

So I was thinking, "What next?. We kept a food diary for a good two months
and noted when she had symptoms. It was hard to track down the culprits,
especially when we kept having to give her Allegra for hives and congestion.
But we did finally find out it was milk in any form or derivative and
peanuts. It took us a while to get all of the hidden forms of milk out and
to find a soy milk that she liked. But we did it. We also discovered that if
those foods touch her skin she will develop the same reactions.

My allergist told me that the allergy tests for foods, both blood and skin;
are not reliable. The pediatrician didn't even want to run a blood test
because of the high false negatives. My daughters total IgE was 6 and that
is extremely low, and she had hives just before the blood draw. Go
figure?...

We have totally excluded all milk from her diet, even traces. She has had a
few Popsicles that have the warning "may contain trace amounts of milk". One
time she had a reaction and the other she didn't. Could be that one had
trace amounts and the other did not. Who knows? Food allergies can be very
tricky....

But there is hope for children with food allergies if they avoid the food
for two years. I have been told by my allergist that Katie may outgrow these
food allergies or be able to have some of those foods once in a while in a
few years without major symptoms. But because she is allergic to milk and
peanuts that we need to be very diligent in avoidance so that her allergy
does not turn anaphylactic.

I recently found that I am also allergic to milk. I have had some problems
for years and have always just passed them off as normal for me. Can't tell
you how great it is to not have stomach aches, cramps at a certain time of
the month since I went milk free! And I have almost gotten my husband to see
that humans should not consume another animals milk, it was not meant for
us; we are not capable of digesting it.

Hope this helps in some way...........

Jennie


----- Original Message -----
From: "Kim Johnson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2001 7:40 PM
Subject: Question...


> Hi, this is my first post to the group and would really appreciate help =
> if you can.  My 13 month old is having problems with milk and I don't =
> know why.  At 6 months we tried switching her off of soy formula to =
> regular formula and she vomited for 4 hours.  We tried again at 8 months =
> with the same result.  I took her to an allergist and had her blood =
> tested for milk allergies.  The dr sent it to the Mayo Clinic because he =
> said they would be very thorough.  The test came back negative, so I had =
> her scratch tested for any sensitivity to each specific part of milk =
> (they did  5 different ones).  Absolutely nothing!!  So we were sent on =
> our way.  At about 10 months we started feeding her a little processed =
> food that had trace amounts of milk in them and she did just fine.  =
> We've gradually given her more and more.  Even cheese once.  She's =
> always been just fine.  Yesterday we gave her 1-2 ounces of milk and she =
> vomited all over a few times again.  1)  What is the difference and 2)  =
> How come she does that when all of the tests came back negative???  Any =
> help would be greatly appreciated!!
>
> Kim
>