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So glad I made the call!

I had a conversation this week with a friend who's children have just undergone allergy testing which got me questioning my current breastfeeding diet. Today I also had a really helpful chat with someone involved in Childhood Allergy and Immunology Research at Princess Margaret Hospital. Both mentioned the latest research that showed that some exposure to the allergens (this is in the case where anaphylaxis doesn't occur but they are even doing this in a hospital setting more and more now) at an early age is more likely to assist with growing out of the allergy rather than complete avoidance.The other thing was that my friend's baby wasn't able to be skin-prick tested for peanuts because she had never been exposed to peanuts via breastmilk or orally and so the test could have shown a false negative. This got me thinking that it's highly likely Miss 5mths hasn't been exposed to peanuts since I definitely haven't eaten them since she was born and quite possibly not even while I was pregnant. That will mean she won't be able to be tested for it or some other nuts (I have eaten almonds and hazlenuts) unless I expose her to them. The lady from PMH gave me some really helpful advice so here's my plan:

1. I'm going to start having a very little bit of dairy and egg maybe once a week and as long as her eczema doesn't get out of control I will keep doing it.

2. I'm also going to do some stealthy night-time nut eating to ensure she has been exposed to the nuts before we do allergy testing. This will mean I will have to be really careful to get all contaminated utensils etc into the dishwasher and washed before breakfast - not too hard but must remember to be vigilent! I shower at night so should be clear of nuts before I see Mr 5 in the morning. And get the nuts up high and always remind babysitters that they aren't for Mr 5!

3. Miss 3 has also missed out on eating nuts because of Mr 5. I'm pretty sure her skin-prick test negatives to nuts were valid since she would have been exposed while I was pregnant and breastfeeding (we only found out about Mr 5's allergies after she was born) but she should keep eating them semi-regularly and so should Miss 5mths once we have determined she's ok with them. Next year Mr 5 is full time at school so that should give us some easy opportunities to eat them without him around as long as we clean up and brush teeth etc before we see him. This is a bit scary but worth doing I think.

Introducing food to your baby

With Miss 0 now at 4 months of age this is something I am about to get into! Yikes!

Click here to read a recent article by Coles Baby and Toddler Club with information from ASCIA regarding when to introduce allergenic foods. I should make clear that the reason I'm avoiding foods in my diet while breastfeeding is not to try to prevent an allergy in Miss 0 but rather because she reacts obviously to the foods via my breastmilk and when I remove them, her skin doesn't break out. I definitely wouldn't avoid a food if it didn't cause a reaction!

I should also say that if there is a history of food allergies in your other kids then you will need to exercise more caution and ensure that you introduce allergenic foods one at a time and probably not as the very first foods. Vegetables and fruits are a good starting point. Be aware that some rice cereals (eg Farex) contain traces of wheat, milk and soy (crazy! I know! Especially because they didn't use to!).

Wheat!

I finally got around to challenging wheat this week. This means I eat food made from wheat and see what it does to Miss 0 through the breastmilk. I've been putting it off because I thought she would have a strong reaction and who wants to do that to their baby? I waited until the dairy was out of her system - I'm pretty sure she is allergic to that. I started on wheat in the morning so that I could see her reaction rather than eat later in the day and risk her reacting overnight and waking with terribly itchy skin etc. But amazingly, I needn't have worried. I have been eating wheat (rather substantially since the first day...!) for 4 days now and she hasn't reacted at all. She had a bit of nappy rash but that cleared today so I don't think it was related. I'm quietly excited and hopeful that it won't be an allergy for her at all and, in the meantime, am enjoying the ability to eat it. Still keeping an eye on her skin just in case but it's looking hopeful! Very thankful to God for this little mercy.

Yummy pizza topping

I didn't even care that there wasn't any cheese it was so good!

but cheese might have made it look prettier...?

The toppings were:
- BBQ sauce
- chick peas
- pre-cooked cauliflower florets
- leftover chicken from when I used this chinese chicken recipe
- roasted beetroot (from our veggie patch! Just roast with olive oil, salt, pepper and a splash of water all in a closed pouch of aluminium foil for about an hour, peel and slice)
- diced red capsicum
- sliced English Spinach (also from our veggie patch!)

all on a GF pizza base (I used a pre-made one this time)

Enjoy. 

Avoiding Contamination #4

The toasted sandwich maker hasn't had much of a workout since Miss 3's allergies turned up and even less since my diet was restricted. I don't know about you but I tend to just give it a wipe with a damp paper towel and that's the extent of my cleaning of it. Which means I leave lots of things on it like the margarine I used on the outside of the bread to make it golden and the bread itself, and the cheese - you get the idea.

I thought I'd give toasted sandwiches a try since I was looking for an easy Sunday night dinner and I used to love them as a kid. And thankfully allergen-proofing wasn't particularly hard - I used my trusty roll of baking paper and created a lining to put the sandwich in and it cooked beautifully! Pity Miss 3 wasn't that thrilled about a toasted baked bean sandwich. Will have to think about yummier options for her - she's not that keen on baked beans or tinned spaghetti (not that I can blame her!). Any ideas for dairy and egg free toasted sandwiches?

Check out my other posts on avoiding contamination in the kitchen - #1, #2 and #3

Minton Cookies

So distracted by the yumminess I focussed on my jeans.... :)

It seems like dairy is off the cards again - her skin got worse and now I'm off it, it's perfect again. At least I can console myself with Leda's Minton Cookies - think Mint Slice but allergen free. Yum!

Challenge Updates

Spotty forehead

It has been a while since I posted but my household was in the grips of illness. We've had my 2 older children with a terrible flu which had my son admitted to hospital with suspected meningicoccal (when the hospital suggested it I freaked! Thankfully it was only a flu!) and both of them sporting temperatures soaring to 40 degrees celsius without Panadol and Nurofen tagteaming for over a week. Quite stressful. Then we had interstate guests arrive who unknowingly brought a gastro bug with them and that felled half the household in domino form. I was thankful that God granted my prayers for protection of Miss 3 who was still in the grips of the flu and wouldn't have coped with gastro as well. Little Miss 3months was protected too and what a relief that was!

In the midst of the illnesses, we had a visit to our new allergy specialist (since we've moved interstate) and it was encouraging to see Miss 3's allergies diminishing and the promise of a baked egg challenge and maybe even a baked milk or even normal milk challenge on the agenda. We await her blood test results to see when and what will be tested. Master 5's peanut/treenut allergies continue to skin test strongly and we will go for a desensitisation program eventually (to reduce the chance of death, not to be able to eat it) but not for a good few years. I was able to briefly chat to him about Miss 3months and my current diet and what I should be doing. He said that I should not be avoiding anything "just in case" but if it was creating a reaction in her then I could avoid it. When I mentioned the dairy challenge I did, he recommended doing another to confirm a reaction rather than just going off one which could have been caused by something else.

So, I have done a dairy and an egg challenge since I last posted and I am pretty pleased to say that it seems dairy is ok. Her face has coped a lot better and there is no nappy rash and nothing on her torso. So I am going to stay on dairy for a while and see how she goes! (Yay chocolate!) For the egg challenge I had one fried egg (with a runny yolk - yay for not being pregnant!) two mornings in a row and watched how she went. The first day didn't really show much but by the second she had some spots developing on her forehead. It certainly wasn't a big reaction but her skin quality was compromised. So, I've stopped egg to get her skin clear again and then we'll do another challenge. Maybe I'll eat pavlova next time (yum!). It was nice to know that I could potentially eat egg and not get a big reaction from her.

Wheat is the final frontier. Stay tuned.