Author Topic: Interesting development with dd's egg allergy (Read 1742 times)

hk · « **on:** July 03, 2015, 05:37:28 PM »

I'm mainly writing this here while it is still fresh in my mind and so I can refer back to it before dd's annual appointment with the allergist in a few weeks. I would certainly welcome any thoughts anyone has though.

We just returned from a trip to my hometown several states away. Said town has had the same local pizza place since I was a little girl. DD has eaten pizza there probably 12-18 times on previous visits because the owner told me there was no egg in the dough about six years ago. She was a very old lady, but she was very specific and actually starting laughing and said, "who puts egg in pizza dough". I told her that she would be surprised!

We were getting ready to order pizza and my father mentioned that the owners had recently sold the business to new owners. With that information, I decided to ask if the recipe was still the same. They said it was and I said, "so it does not contain egg?". Then I was told that the pizza had ALWAYS contained egg! I canceled my order and went in in person the following morning to make sure I had the correct information. I spoke to the manager, who has worked there for 9 years. He told me that the dough has contained egg the entire time he has worked there. SO dd (who has reacted to minute levels of cross-contamination with egg) has eaten baked egg on multiple occasions, seemingly without reacting to it.

Her allergist has offered to do a baked egg challenge for the past few years (while also maintaining that she will likely never outgrow her egg allergy as her numbers continue to rise each year). DD has not wanted to do it since two of her four anaphylactic reactions were to egg. She is going back and forth on wanting to do it now.

Do you think it would be useful to determine how much egg is in the pizza prior to the appointment with the allergist or is that irrelevant?

DD was exposed to egg in a bizarre lunchroom incident last year and definitely reacted to it. Another child was laughing while eating and accidentally spit scrambled eggs on dd's face. Her cheek was swollen, red and itchy.

For those of you who have had your dc start eating baked egg, has it made a significant difference in your lives (I.e, less worry, more dining options)? I don't want to push dd into the challenge if she's not ready, but it would be helpful for her to know what others have experienced.

Thank you!

lakeswimr · « **Reply #1 on:** July 03, 2015, 06:07:24 PM »

I would challenge. that's great news! I would certainly try to find out more info about how much egg she ingested.

Good luck!

yelloww · « **Reply #2 on:** July 05, 2015, 08:36:51 AM »

Definitely interesting! DS failed am egg challenge years ago. Then we changed allergists because I didn't believe it was a true fail. The new one is at Hopkins and started him on small amounts of baked egg in items.

Basically, ds can now eat things that may contain egg, and a few highly processed foods with egg in them (like canned soup with noodles in them) without reacting. But if I bake a double batch of brownies and put one egg in the whole batch, he's doubled over with massive Gi pain for six hours.

So it's opened up a few things for us, loosened up the may contains, and otherwise hasn't changed much. I think he has a few new convenience foods from it. Really, it's the flexibility it's given us more than Anything.

Good luck!

CMdeux · « **Reply #3 on:** July 05, 2015, 08:22:00 PM »

Yes, I'd find out HOW MUCH egg-- and recall that it's done at very high temperatures.

For example, in Yellow's brownie example above, we've not tried-- even now-- anything that isn't WELL cooked, and it's only been in the past 10 months that this includes items made on the stovetop at all (pancakes, crepes, etc.-- she still doesn't eat undercooked egg in ANYTHING).

Everything else has ALWAYS been cooked to at least 325F, and often 350+. Plus, of course, being mixed with a lot of other ingredients.

DD started out with 1/96th of an egg baked like that into a batch of family sized brownies, spread SUPER thin (1/2") and baked for 30 min at 350F. We stepped her up and up for years, and then kept her at 1/20th of an egg daily for several years before trying an open egg challenge.

We truly NEVER expected that she'd outgrow. It was enough to be able to get her a flu shot, honestly. But having some commercial salad dressings, being able to have store-bought bread again, eating in a local diner when she wants a burger or sandwich... no specialty-made-in-Italy-pasta-- it's been LIFE changing just to not have to worry constantly about low-level cross-contamination. We did for many years-- no store-bread (cross contact with eggy varieties/washes), no commercial salad dressings (shared lines), only two brands of pasta, etc. etc. NO restaurants other than Taco Bell and one local pizza place that we lost when they began making a gluten free eggy crust-- really not kidding.

The other thing is that egg, like milk, is just so darned hard for OTHERS to accommodate. KWIM? This is a big, big deal when they are in high school and college, and as they move into young adulthood. I'm so, so glad that we did egg when we did. It's been way, way better than I ever imagined.

PurpleCat · « **Reply #4 on:** July 06, 2015, 07:59:53 AM »

I'd challenge baked egg. I don't think it really matters how much egg was in the pizza dough. When we did our baked egg challenge our allergist said just make something you will make if she passes. She said forget the fractions and the math, it will drive you crazy for no reason. I made vanilla cupcakes for her challenge.

Egg protein mixed with wheat protein and cooked at a high temp for a "long" time is what DD can tolerate.

Here's a quick article I sent my Mom and my SILs way back when to explain it to them cause they thought I was making it up. http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/774221

Although 6 months after her baked egg, she passed an open egg challenge with hard boiled eggs, anaphylaxis to direct eggs returned in less than 6 months.

DD continues to eat baked egg in baked goods, meatballs, meatloaf, pasta and may contains without incident. DD does not eat something like French Toast or meringues. No egg washes. No direct egg. She has been eating this way for many years now.

Our allergist has mentioned re-challenging egg....but the fear that came when that allergy returned has both DD and myself gun shy to do so. Her test result numbers have not come down as low as the did when we first challenged egg.