J failed his baked egg challenge in hospital yesterday.
It’s not a dramatic story. There was no anaphylaxis or breathing difficulties, no rash or swelling but he vomited after he had eaten ¼ muffin.
I had felt very hopeful about this one. He passed the baked milk challenge a few months ago, despite his anaphylactic reaction to fresh milk last year. Since then we have successfully moved up to step two and I was hoping baked egg would follow the same pattern.
Highly sensitive to baked egg
I made him some dairy free muffins with chocolate chips which he seemed to love and was excited each time the doctor gave him some more. So I thought something was awry when he refused to eat the next dose of ½ muffin. Then about 10 minutes later he went quite clingy and dozy and was sick everywhere.
I seem to cope very well with all his medical mishaps at the time and then the doubt, disappointment and fear set in when I’ve had time to process the information.
In good news, it wasn’t a severe or anaphylactic reaction and that is very reassuring. It also wasn’t immediate like most his reactions are as there was about 40 minutes between him eating it and being sick. However, he only had a ¼ muffin and I had used 1 egg to make 8 so, if my maths is correct, he only ate 1/32 of an egg so is highly sensitive.
The egg ladder
Studies show that 80% children with an egg allergy can tolerate it when baked but unfortunately, at the moment, J is not one of them.
Toddler food challenges
Even though they are a bit scary, I am happy we are doing these challenges while J is so young. Some people decide to wait until their children are older can express their feelings more clearly but actually I think there are lots of benefits of doing it as a toddler. He doesn’t really understand what we are doing and just knows he gets to go to hospital and eat cake! It’s all a fun adventure for him rather than a chore.
He also doesn’t have any food anxiety or associate the cake with his sickness yet. There was an older boy having a food challenge while we there and I heard his mum say ‘it’s really difficult to eat something that you think is going to make you ill’. So I feel lucky that we are not dealing with that yet.
And, fingers crossed, by trying to introduce these foods into his diet we might have some success, open up his diet and start to build some tolerance. So, although this fail is a disappointment, I still believe we are moving in the right direction and when we try again in 6 months time hopefully I will have a different story to tell.
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Oh NO!!! Poor you and poor J. That is rubbish. Fingers crossed that as he continues to grow he grows out of all of these. x
Yeah it is rubbish but keeping fingers and toes crossed for the future x
Aw poor little guy, that’s awful for him. I totally agree with you though, better getting it out of the way while he is little. Hopefully things get better with time. Thanks for linking up to the #MMWBH
Yeah, I hope so!
My son is the same after about 30/40 mins of eating egg cooked in something he will be sick or diarrhoea. We were told it gets better with age but he is 4 soon and its just the same. I noticed it depends on how its cooked in a hard biscuit doesn’t affect him as much as a soft muffin because the egg is cooked more and diluted more. Hope your little one grows out of it and or it becomes less severe. I know all too well about allergies and anaphylactic it’s awful with my son. Thank you so much for linking up to Share With Me. I hope to see you again tomorrow for another great round #sharewithme
Thanks Jenny. It’s so hard clinging on to the ‘they’ll grow out of it’ hope isn’t it as that’s what everyone keeps saying! Sorry to hear your little boy is still struggling. It’s all so unfair.
Hi
It is rubbish failed challenges. A similar thing happened to us – my daughter who is nearly 4 passed her baked milk challenge 2 months ago but today failled baked egg :(. How is your son has he since passed his chalenge?
You’re right, it is rusbbish. Sorry to hear your daughter failed too. J is doing really well with baked milk now and can have it in biscuits, cakes and pancakes too. We tried baked egg again and he failed but with a more delayed reaction so I’m hoping that’s small progress.