I called the allergist’s office this morning to see if there were any cancellations/openings for us before the 30th, and we were in luck – they got us in at 11:00 this morning! I was very happy because I felt like I needed more guidance than what we were getting.
Dr. Friedman is great! She is definitely a realist and I need that. She doesn’t sugar-coat things, she’s honest about what to expect and about just how careful I need to be about things. She made me feel a lot better about using the Epi-Pen if I ever have to and really gave me a positive outlook on the milk allergy. She said that his allergy isn’t severe (even though it’s strong, it could be much worse) and that he’s got about an 85% chance of outgrowing it before he goes to school.
She gave Nicky a skin test that wasn’t bad at all. I thought it would be awful, but it really wasn’t. I tried to take a picture of Nicky’s leg and it didn’t work, but there was a piece of plastic that had 5 needles on it that the nurse put on Nicky’s thigh. She tested two controls, milk, egg whites and soy. I had really, really wanted to know about soy before we start giving it to him to drink; after all, he’s almost a year and will need to be switched from breastmilk (a whole other event, I’m sure). Well, big surprise, he’s allergic to milk, but he’s not allergic to egg whites or soy, so yay for that!
So, she gave us a written plan, which is good because we were there for a long time and I’m glad to have the references she gave us. Obviously, no milk. Also, NO DAIRY PRODUCTS WHATSOEVER. Our pediatrician had told us that goat cheese would probably be fine (and it definitely wasn’t when I tried it for him), but Dr. Friedman told me that the animals are so closely related that the proteins that cause the allergy are the same. She said that if I really had my heart set on giving him milk, he could have horse milk, but I’d probably have to buy my own lactating horse and milk it since we’d never find it in a store around here! It’s really okay, soy is fine with me. 
He can have eggs that are in baked goods, but not scrambled or cooked on the stove (they won’t get hot enough to denature the protein that causes the allergy that way). Even though he doesn’t have an allergy now, he can still develop one, and we don’t want that for sure! Because he’s allergic to milk, he’s more likely to develop other allergies, so we’re holding off on all of the highly allergenic foods, probably at least until he’s two. That includes fish (even though he had and loved tilapia), shellfish, peanuts and tree nuts. He’s been eating things with wheat right along and doing fine, so that’s still allowed.
So, we’ll follow up with Dr. Friedman in the next 6-12 months. She said nothing will change before then, so we shouldn’t retest for milk allergy sooner than that. However, if there’s something we’re concerned about, she told me to bring him back and we can test him for whatever we need to. I really feel like if I need something, I can call her to ask, which is great. I feel like I can be a more appropriate level of careful without going crazy. I guess I won’t be burning as many anxiety calories now…
So, now that we know what we’re doing with food, it seems like it’s just in time to make some changes. Nicky LOVES to feed himself and does much better at his meals when he can. So, I’m extremely sad that I won’t be using my beloved hand blender as much for now, I’m excited that he’s moving on to more table foods. Here are some things that I’ve been giving to him lately, cut up into baby bite-sized pieces:
- cooked apples
- cooked pears
- bananas
- avocados
- peas
- pasta rings
- blueberries
- mangoes
I’ll need to re-work my freezer and phase out the cubes of fruits and veggies and start making a stash of all of them in pieces now. I’ll probably keep doing some of the fruits in cubes so that I can mix them with his cereal in the morning because he still does well with that. Thank goodness, I couldn’t quit my pureeing cold turkey!