Low Allergy Milk

Milk Safe for Milk Allergic?

I'll admit that I'm a little wigged out about genetically modified foods. For right now, my opinion is that I want it clearly marked so consumers can make their own choices. That said, I'm intrigued by the news of a genetically modified cow that can produce milk without beta-lactoglobulin - a whey protein to which some people are allergic.

Researchers were able to interfere with the RNA of a cow, that went on to birth a calf that doesn't produce milk with any detectable beta-lactoglobulin. (Said calf was also born without a tail, but researchers believe that is unrelated to the genetic modifications...still wigged out). Researchers will now watch to see if the genetic modification will be passed on through future cow generations.

Of course more research is needed and low allergy milk will probably not be found in grocery dairy cases in the near future. Read the abstract in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (full text copies may be purchased) and check out the article in the BBC that originally caught my attention. The ability to remove the protein that is causing allergic reactions is appealing to me as long as it is done safely and ethically. We shall see where this leads...

Allergy Free Eggs

It may seem a little science fictionish, but researchers at Deakin’s School of Life and Environmental Sciences in Australia believe they can modify the proteins within egg whites to produce chickens which will lay allergy-free eggs.

Maybe we can also answer that age-old question- "Which came first, the chicken or the egg? 

In this case, the egg wins.

Researchers at Deakin, in collaboration with CSIRO in Geelong and the Poultry Co-operative Research Centre, state that there are four proteins in egg white that cause allergic reactions. They have found a way to effectively switch off those allergens in the egg, which will make a chicken that will then lay eggs free of allergens.

This could lead to a flu vaccine free of egg allergen and may even lead to bakery items and other commercially available foods that can be labelled as containing "allergen-free eggs". 

While the research is expected to take another three years to complete, there is a possibility of allergy-free vaccines in five years. 

This leads me to wonder if allergens can also be switched off in peanuts, dairy and other foods that cause allergic reactions for many people.

Stay tuned!

Safe Treatment for Food Allergy

While avoidance has long been the recommended treatment for food allergy, several presentations at the annual meeting of the AAAAI this week offer hope for better options. One Step Closer to Treatment for Food Allergy outlines two potential treatments, oral immunotherapy and sublingual immunotherapy. Sublingual refers to the allergen being held under the tongue until it dissolves, while oral means actually swallowing the allergen.

Research with children who have milk allergy provided some clues to those who may benefit from either, or both, of these treatments. While the sample sizes are small, positive results have been obtained and resulted in tolerance for milk protein. For more information, check with your allergist about immunotherapy for food allergies.This is not something that should be done at home as it requires medical supervision.

Progress appears to be slow and steady...

For more information about presentations at the AAAAI annual meeting, see abstracts from the presenters.

Food Allergy Challenges for Baked Egg and Milk

I just baked a cake. It has an egg in it. A real egg for my egg allergic child! Last night I baked bread in the bread machine. I put 15 grams of dried milk powder in it. Real milk for my milk allergic child!

I haven't shared anything about this nearly 3 month journey because like all journeys, it's had plenty of bumps in the road and wrong turns. Frankly, I feel like we've stepped off the road and we're ploughing our way through uncharted territory. It's scary. It's exciting. We continue to move forward.

This food allergy journey began in July 2010 when we made an appointment to do a baked egg challenge in our allergist's office. As instructed, I baked an angel food cake with 12 eggs. My egg allergic child needed to eat one piece to get roughly one egg. There was much anxiety leading up to the appointment. It's hard to convince a child to eat something after telling them for 10 years to never eat it. The anxiety made the appointment difficult. Physical symptoms were hard to separate from symptoms of anxiety. The challenge was not completed. We left the office not knowing if there had been an allergic reaction.

Over the next few days, we, the parents, decided to use egg in baked products- just one egg in a whole cake for example. Our allergist was aware and not totally comfortable with the plan, but acknowledged that we had the tools to handle a reaction if there was one.

There wasn't a reaction.

For several months now my egg allergic child has been eating baked goods containing one egg that have been baked for approximately 30 minutes.

So, we decided to tackle baked milk. We wanted to use a small amount of dried milk powder in a batch of muffins. For the first serving, we decided to go into the allergist's office. This wasn't a traditional food challenge as technically we weren't using enough of the allergen, but the reassurance of having a doctor close by was helpful. My milk allergic child was able to eat a whole muffin that contained 0.33 grams of dried milk powder. As per the allergist's instructions, we've continued to keep milk powder in the diet over the past week.

This experience has been fraught with anxiety for all of us, but we hope we're doing the right thing in the long run. Our efforts are two-fold: get missing nutrients into the diet and begin to introduce the allergen slowly to allow the body to recognize it as okay.

There continues to be moments of, "I think my mouth is tingling" and "What if I can't breathe after I eat this?". We work through each situation as it comes up with as much confidence as we can muster. We're just parents trying to do the right thing by our child.

I certainly can't recommend this method, but I can recommend an open dialogue with your allergist. The research is coming in quickly and it's hard to keep up with the latest recommendations. Talk to your doctor and make a plan that is best for your child and your family.

I'll keep you posted on ours and hope you'll keep us posted on yours. We can all learn from one another.