Talk to me about dairy sensitivites Please!

[jenoline]

I'm hoping someone can enlighten me, or send me to some reliable sources that discuss dairy sensitivities.

The background info: My 15mo was having allergic reactions (red itchy rash on face, as well as recurring excema), that started occurring after he started eating solids, so we took him to an allergist. The doc did a skin test as well as a blood/IGe test. On the skin test he reacted to eggs, a couple different nuts, and soy. On the blood test he had IGe levels for eggs, and more nuts. Soy was negative. On neither test did dairy show up.

Shortly before and shortly after the test he had eaten primarily dairy foods (yogurt and pudding) and had a bad skin reaction. The doc said this isn't a "true"/life threatening (ie IgE mediated, I guess) allergic reaction, that it's likely just some kind of skin sensitivity. So, the other night we had pizza for dinner. He had one small bite, spitting most of it out (although I think he actually swallowed the cheese). A few minutes later his face was red, bumpy, and itchy, and he was hoarse and coughing a bit. We were seriously considering breaking out the epi-pen. However, he didn't seem distressed, so we held off. We put benadryl cream on his face, and gave him a liquid dose of benadryl also. The skin cleared up quickly, but the hoarseness stayed around for a couple hours.

Today, we experimented putting small amounts of different dairy foods on his back, to see what kind of reaction we would get. He got red bumps with a couple different kinds of cheese, and yogurt. However, he did not react to milk or butter. I understand the butter (it's just the fat, not the protein), but why wouldn't he react to the milk? What makes that different than the cheese and yogurt? And why wouldn't a reaction like this show up on the allergy test? Obviously it's not an IgE-mediated reaction, but everything I have found online states that most non-IgE mediated dairy reactions are GI oriented, and not immediate reactions. DH plans on calling and talking to the doc on monday, but I don't feel confident that we will get the answers we're looking for.

interestingly, my dh also has some reactions to dairy as well. Mainly his skin emits a strange stinky cheese smell after eating certain foods (pizza, buttered toast). He does not get this reaction from eating iice cream or drinking a glass of milk (raw or pasteurized).

Oh, and one more piece of info is that the milk we put on DS's back was raw/unpasteurized. I don't know if that could be the difference between the reactions he had?

thoughts on any of this? Thanks!

[mamafish9]

The tests are NEVER 100% accurate. There are others here who know a lot more than I do, but I suspect even most allergists would consider an obvious allergic reaction like your DS had to trump the test results. I'm glad you have an epi-pen! It sounds like you're dealing with a true dairy allergy, not a sensitivity.

[twilight girl]

Yes, that sounds like "true" allergy. In an IgG sensitivty/intolerance, the reaction would normally be delayed by hours or even days from the exposure, and normally are more behavioral. An immediate rash and respiratory effects sound like a true allergy.

Of course, it's possible that it's not the dairy at all, but something in the cattle feed.

It only just occurred to me, but when we're nursing, what we eat can make our LOs react. Similarly with non-grass fed dairy cattle, my DH is telling me that there is a lot of corn, soy, fish, chicken litter and other crap in their feed (his family are beef cattle ranchers). So, that stuff would end up in their milk too, yes?

Was any of it from grass fed dairy cows? Was the raw/unpasteurised milk from a grass fed cow? Maybe the cheese was not from grass fed dairy cows?

[jenoline]

The milk was from 100% grass fed cows. The yogurt was home-made from that milk, but cultured with yogurt from the store, and heated to 180 degrees (basically pasteurizing it) before being cultured. DH was wondering if the heating of it killed something beneficial that keeps him from reacting.

The cheese was commercially produced.

I think that perhaps there was some mis-communication between us and the doc re some of the reactions we had seen. He seemed to dismiss the reactions to the yogurt and pudding, in part because of my descriptions of them and b/c DS has appeared to tolerate dairy at other times. After this most recent event (which occurred Fri evening, so no time to call doc yet) I feel more certain that DS has a dairy allergy. I just wish I understood why he reacts to some things but not others.