Food Allergies and Baking With Milk and Egg

As I've reported, we're adding tiny amounts of egg and milk in baked form to my egg and milk allergic child's diet. As all these food allergy transitions have been over the years, it's been challenging finding recipes that work. It sounds easy- just add an egg or some milk to any recipe.

It's not that easy. We're trying to stick to the guidelines of baking foods for at least 30 minutes at a minimum of 350 degrees. That eliminates most cookies and muffins and primarily leaves us with breads and cakes.

We've been eating an awful lot of chocolate cake in our house recently.

I'm in the routine now of having one baked good that contains one egg and one that contains a tiny amount of milk. My child eats egg one day and milk the next. The egg recipes are easier. Most cakes call for two eggs. For now, I use one regular egg and I substitute the other- usually 1 tablespoon flax seed mixed with 3 tablespoons water. The milk recipes take an advanced degree in chemistry with a minor in math. My childis off the scale allergic to milk so we're proceeding with extreme caution. I found a cake recipe that calls for 1/2 cup milk. I use 3 grams (our food scale comes in handy here) of dried milk powder mixed with an 1/8th of a cup of water. Then I add 3/8 cup of soy milk.  The plan is to gradually increase the amount of milk powder.

So, I'm certainly not complaining. Any time we can add more options to this food allergy diet is cause for great celebration, but I do see a need for a new kind of cookbook as more people are able to tolerate baked milk and egg.

In the meantime, we'll have to share.

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Dairy Free Chocolate Chips

I do love chocolate! When I realized that my Ghiradelli milk chocolate chips were no longer an option in our new world of food allergy, I was a bit panicked. Well, maybe panicked is a bit strong...

no, taking away my favorite chocolate chips did cause panic!

So, we embarked on a tasting of dairy free chocolate chips.  I was not interested in mini-chocolate chips. I prefer the regular size for most of my baking. Fortunately I discovered Barry Callebaut chips. I swear to you, you'll never miss the dairy in these chips. I order them from The Allergy Grocer, as they're not carried in stores. This works great, except:

•  the chips can't be shipped during the summer months due to high temps and melting
• they're awfully expensive, especially with the shipping...

but who can put a price on a good chocolate chip?

Imagine my excitement recently while shopping at Wegmans's, when I noticed their store brand of chocolate chips is dairy free. I bought a bag, giddy at the thought of saving on those shipping costs. We had a blind taste-testing in our home that night.

No comparison. Barry Callebaut wins out.

So, I'll keep ordering multiple 5 lb. bags of Barry Callebaut chips from The Allergy Grocer, but I'm always willing to do more taste-testing!

Any suggestions?

By the way, Allergy Grocer offers free shipping on orders over $100. Go ahead, you can do it...

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Common Sense for Food Allergies

I heard on the news this morning that a recent study in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine shows that changing to a later start time for high school students is good for adolescents.

 Makes perfect sens to me. Years of research has shown that the body clock during the teen years shifts to going to bed later and getting up later. We know this and should use this information wisely.

What does this have to do with food allergies, you may ask?

Well, this study seems like common sense to me. I don't believe we've used common sense for food allergies. Allergic to pollen? Get regular injections of minute doses of pollen to desensitize the body to pollen. Allergic to milk? Avoid it forever.

I've never thought that made sense. We do it in our house because that's the doctor's orders, but it doesn't seem like good common sense. Since getting the blood test results for my allergic child last week, I'm even more convinced. After 10 years of strict avoidance of multiple foods, all numbers are up- by a lot. My child is not out-growing any of these allergies. As a matter of fact, things are heading in the wrong direction.

This isn't good enough any more. I'm hopeful about  a cow's milk immunotherapy study published recently in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. This study involved placing cow's milk protein on unbroken skin in an effort to desensitize people.

Just yesterday, DBV Technologies got the go-ahead from the FDA to begin human clinical investigation of peanut desensitization. Trials begin this month in six medical centers in the U.S.

Avoidance isn't working. Desensitization makes common sense when it comes to food allergy. I recognize there are risks involved and I certainly do not recommend desensitization at home right now. But, let's all keep talking to our allergists and pushing for something better than "strictly avoid".

Stay tuned. We're starting to use common sense in food allergy treatment.

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Baked Milk and Egg Food Challenges

We met with the allergist last week. At the top of my list was to talk about food challenges for baked egg and milk. What I found out was quite encouraging.

She told me they've done many challenges for these foods over the past few months and nearly all have been successful. There are now dozens of children and adults in their practice who are successfully eating foods that contain milk and egg that has been heated to a high temperature. The most recent research, she said, is showing that those who eat baked milk and egg on a regular basis may get rid of all milk and egg allergy.

Woot!

We're going to give it a go this summer. She wants to start with egg first, using the angel food cake recipe used at Mt. Sinai for these type of challenges. It contains 12 eggs and will be baked at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. I'm a little nervous after a nerve-wracking and unsuccessful egg challenge a year ago, but I am feeling hopeful.

I'll keep you posted!

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Egg and Milk Allergy Lead to Peanut Allergy?

A recent study involving 500 infants seems to show a link between early milk and egg allergy to later development of peanut allergy.

The Consortium of Food Allergy Research (CoFAR), a major food allergy research program supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) conducted the study and plans to follow the infants to age 5.

In light of this finding, researchers recommend parents of milk and egg allergic children speak to their doctor, or consult an allergist before introducing peanut in the diet.

Check out the full report. Interesting, huh?

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Monday Review: Earth Balance

This Monday Review is sponsored by Earth Balance natural spreads.

Finding a "non-dairy butter" for baking and spreading is no easy feat. It was important to me to find something our entire family liked. As a matter of fact, I wanted a product that would fool everyone. My non-dairy chocolate chip cookies needed to taste just as good as anyone's cookies. The butter on my table for our dinner rolls needed to taste just like any other butter. Our non-dairy butter would be my little secret.

Well, I found the right product and I can't keep it a secret. I've used Earth Balance spread for years, ever since my son outgrew his soy allergy. Our local grocery store just recently began carrying Earth Balance sticks. This gives me another option in baking*. And now, Earth Balance has come out with a soy-free version of their spread. I've never been able to recommend a soy-free, dairy-free butter alternative. Until now. It's arrived and it tastes good. No wonder it got the 2009 Best Chef's Taste Award.

Check out all the Earth Balance products as well as some great recipes.

*Fleischman's Unsalted sticks are also dairy-free.

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Children's Hospital in Boston

I recently posted videos from Children's Hospital in Boston where they are conducting a milk desensitization study. The latest installment is a grocery shopping trip with the mother of 11 year old Brett who is participating in the study. Brett has 15 different food allergies, his brother has 16- Yikes! People often say to me, "How do make food without dairy, nuts and eggs?". I've gotten to the point where it's pretty easy to avoid those foods, but when I hear about people needing to avoiding beef, chicken, turkey, nuts, eggs, soy, and so on...well, wow! Where do you begin to find good protein sources with all those restrictions?

The shopping trip shown in the video takes place at a Whole Foods Market. Take a look, you may learn a few things. I learned that Rice Dream®, a non-dairy alternative to cow's milk, contains barley which would be unsafe for celiacs and others. Who knew?

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Milk Allergy Study in Boston

We've been hearing about peanut desensitization studies in the news recently. I'm thrilled to report that Children's Hospital in Boston is conducting the first ever milk desensitization study. Check out this video and follow along each week as 11 year-old Brett goes through the study.

This is great news!

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I Had a Brain Freeze, but Brain Thaw Arrived in the Nick of Time

So we spent Memorial Day week-end at the shore. My son is taking Zyrtec daily for seasonal allergies. We ran out of his Zyrtec syrup during the week-end. No problem. We stopped at the closest CVS and picked up more. My brain freeze resulted in my thinking that we should get the children's chewable tablets instead of syrup. As I opened the package, my brain thaw occurred and I read over the inactive ingredients. Duh! I wrote a while back about Zyrtec tablets containing lactose monohydrate. I even sent a letter to them. It went unanswered.

Today I called Zyrtec and chatted with Malika, Zyrtec Customer Service Representative. She confirmed that lactose monohydrate contains bovine milk. She went on to say that the manufacturer of the lactose monohydrate had issued a "Certificate of Suitability." When I asked what that meant, I was put on hold- for 8 minutes. Finally Malika came back and apologized for the long wait. She said, "It contains milk, so those allergic to milk should avoid the product." Okay, I still don't know what a "Certificate of Suitability" is , but I guess it doesn't really matter.

I told her that I wanted to register a complaint that the label doesn't clearly state "Contains Milk" in big bold letters- make that super size letters so even those of us in a brain freeze can't miss it. She apologized and said she would forward my complaint to the appropriate department. Uh, huh- I'm watching...

If you want to register your concern to Zyrtec, call 1-800-343-7805.

Why don't medication manufacturers have to follow the same labeling rules that food manufacturers must follow?

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Outgrowing milk allergy

When we learned of our son's dairy allergy, we were told that he would probably outgrow it by the age of three. When that didn't happen, we were told that he would certainly outgrow it by the age of five or six. When that didn't happen either, we began looking around and realizing that there seemed to be an awful lot of teenagers still holding on to their milk allergy. The largest study to date on milk-allergic children published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology supports our personal observation. Record numbers of students are entering college with a milk allergy. A little dis-heartening to those of us hoping for a quicker outcome.

As this article discusses, milk allergy does not get the same respect as a peanut allergy. To sit a milk, allergic child at the "allergy" lunch table while students eat grilled cheese sandwiches, yogurt, chocolate milk and cheese curl snacks is not allergy friendly to that child. Most schools have a "peanut-free" table, but we all need to work together to keep food allergic children safe while respecting the rights of all students. To see the study, go to:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/11/12/milk.allergy/index.html?iref=newssearch

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