New Guidelines on Handling Food Allergies

This past December the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) released new guidelines to help health care professionals who treat patients with food allergies. Today NPR interviewed Dr. Fenton with the NIAID, Dr. Sharma with the Children's National Medical Center, and Julia Bradsher with the Food Allergy Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN), you can hear the interview here.

I have been dealing with recurrent sinus infections and recently narrowed it down to allergies. Since I find it hard to avoid pollen, dust or grasses, my health care provider suggested we look at food allergies. The more triggers I can avoid, the less likely I am to develop yet another sinus infection. She sent my blood in for the full food panel IgE antibody test. The results indicated I am allergic to dairy, eggs, almonds, garlic, bananas, crab and oysters. I am not surprised about dairy and in fact since I have cut out dairy, I am not congested anymore, I have more energy and no body odor when sweating (that is the best part!). But I was surprised to find eggs on the list, I have never noticed a reaction after eating eggs.

The new guidelines caution doctors on using indiscriminate blood panels results to determine food allergy. Apparently, your body can develop an IgE antibody to a certain food although you may not be allergic to it. Dr. Sharma and Dr. Fenton both recommend determining food allergies by how your body reacts when you eat that food. So I plan to reintroduce eggs and see what happens, you may see me at St. Joe's with an EpiPen in my neck or better yet, at The Daisy Cafe eating their Twin Sisters egg dish with gusto!

Other interesting facts I learned from the interview:

• 5% of Americans have a food allergy, yet 50% of Americans have developed IgE antibodies to a food;
• 90% of all food allergies are from the "Top 8":  milk, eggs, soy, wheat, peanut, tree nuts, fish and shellfish;
• Your body can be allergic to a certain protein such as latex, but also react to other proteins similar to the protein you are allergic to; a latex allergy can trigger responses from exposure to bananas, cantaloupe and kiwis;
• check out FAAN to learn how to advocate for yourself regarding food allergies.

Great Goats!

Well, I said I would keep you updated on the goat's milk experiment. Clare loves it; she drinks about 24 oz on average a day. It doesn't smell different or taste different but OMG the goat's milk burps are disgusting! They smell just like a barnyard - yuck! But the good news is her bowel movements are much more "normal" in color and consistency.

I have continued my research online and at the local grocery stores. I can get local pasteurized goat's milk for $3.69 per quart (32 oz), or non local pasteurized and fortified with vitamin D for $4.19 per quart. This is one expensive habit.

As for content, goat's milk has proteins and fats that are easier to digest than cow's milk (http://www.askdrsears.com/html/3/t032400.asp), less lactose, and a different mineral content. Goat's milk has more calcium, vitamin B-6, vitamin A, potassium, niacin, copper and selenium; however, it has five times less vitamin B-12 and ten less folic acid than cow's milk. Dr. Sears's recommends supplementing with folic acid.

So, currently Clare is taking 400 IU of vitamin D per day and fluoride (our water isn't fluoridated). I had decided against giving her a multi-vitamin because I think she has a well-balanced diet and good appetite. Goat's milk has about 1 mcg folic acid per eight oz, so Clare is getting about 24 mcg per day and the RDA for children is 75-100 mcg. Foods high in folic acid are beans, lentils, leafy greens, oranges, peas, nuts and liver (http://www.womenshealth.gov/FAQ/folic-acid.cfm). Clare eats one of those every day and can't get enough of satsumas right now. As for vitamin B-12, the RDA for children is 0.9 mcg per day (http://dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/factsheets/vitaminb12.asp). Between the yogurt with 1.4 mcg per cup and the cheese with 0.9 mcg per ounce Clare is probably getting enough B-12. Both of these vitamins are in fortified cereals so I could look in to giving her a serving of cereal each day.

What do you readers think? Don't worry, give her a multi-vitamin, supplement with folic acid, or pour cereal down her gullet? Click on the "comments" hyperlink below and let me know your thoughts.

A Cow Says Maaa...

I should have known. I always hope I can get away with things. But I have been caught once again, this time by genetics. Clare's dad is lactose intolerent. Yeah - no ice cream for him. And I remember quite vividly going with my mom to the goat farm to get milk for me. So why I thought I could skate by this one I don't know.

I think Clare is allergic to cow's milk protein. I started her on full-fat yogurt at eight months. And she immediately pooped; it ran right through her and came out a beige color. Which is absolutely gorgeous on my new purse I must say, but as a 8 month-old child's bowel movement - not so pretty. So I backed off on the yogurt. I was hoping it was the brand which was flavored but when I tried plain, the same result. So I waited until ten months and gave it to her again. She seemed to tolerate it much better and her poops didn't change. So after a couple weeks I gave her cheese and she seemed to handle that fine as well. Around her first birthday I started introduing whole milk to her, which she had no interest in. But I also started weaning her and with less breast milk, she started drinking more whole cow's milk. She is now weaned and I have noticed that if she consumes more than about 8 ounces of cow's milk she gets the beige poop.

I did some research (http://www.askdrsears.com/, http://www.wholesomebaby.com/), asked some friends, and talked to her pediatrician. Based on Clare's age and response to the cow's milk, I think she is allergic to the protein in cow's milk and not lactose intolerant. My choices were to keep the cow's milk at a minimum and increase her intake of cheese and yogurt as well as water; offer her lactose-free cow's milk instead; or switch her to a different milk. There are a lot of different milk products available - goat, soy, rice and almond to name the most common. Goat's milk is the most similar to cow's milk in nutrients, fats, and proteins. It is lower in folic acid and B-12, which I will need to supplement. I would prefer to just reduce her intake of milk; however, she is on the small side (55 percentile in height, 5 percentile in weight) so I try to get as much healthy fat in her as I can.

So we are on the fourth day of trying goat's milk; the first day exclusively goat's milk. I gradually increased the amount of goat's milk while decreasing the cow's milk in her cups. As soon as the goat's milk content reached 50%, her bowel movements became more normal in color and consistancy. Clare hasn't shown an indication that she has noticed a change from cow's to goat's milk. I will keep you updated on Clare's Great Goat Experiment. Maaaa....