Is this an allergic reaction?

[bigknitwit]

Dd is 14 months old and was tested for food allergies (ELISA testing - we all had them done), and hers came back with a clean slate = no food allergies. She's the only one of the 5 of us who came back with nothing.

I recently (2 weeks ago) introduced raw goat's milk into our diets. I drink it daily, and she drinks a little bit every day or so as well. Recently her poops have been different. First of all, she'll wake up early (5am) to poop, and seem very uncomfortable doing it. Her poops changed colors too. Some of them have been greenish, and some of them have been a very light brown. She has little tastes of all kinds of foods, but is still 95% breastfed. I'm wondering if she's reacting to the goat's milk that she drinks herself, and that I've been drinking...

On a more embarrassing note, I am starting to wonder if I am reacting to the goat's milk with (sigh) rectal itchiness! I had it for several months after dd was born, and it wouldn't go away. Then recnetly I noticed that it had disappeared, and I'm wondering if it was tied to my allergies (egg/wheat/dairy). I've been off those foods for 7 weeks, but recently introduced the raw goat's milk 2 weeks ago. Sigh - I think I will have to stop drinking it and see what happens...

[lilgsmommy]

Sounds to me like it could be a reaction. If I recall, goats milk is still part of the dairy family, and those with dairy allergies should avoid goats milk too,as well as buffalo.

[WC_hapamama]

Have you had RAST or skin prick testing done? I'm not terribly familiar with ELISA testing in regards to allergies, other than that the food industry uses ELISA testing to test for allergens in food.

I'm fairly mainstream when it comes to medical stuff though, so take that with a grain of salt.

Allergies or not, if a food I eat makes me feel "off", sick or causes discomfort, I try to avoid eating it.

[WC_hapamama]

Originally Posted by lilgsmommy

Sounds to me like it could be a reaction. If I recall, goats milk is still part of the dairy family, and those with dairy allergies should avoid goats milk too,as well as buffalo.

As far as classic IgE mediated allergies go, anywhere from 40% to 90% of people with cows milk allergies are also allergic to goats milk.

[FireWithin]

Originally Posted by lilgsmommy

Sounds to me like it could be a reaction. If I recall, goats milk is still part of the dairy family, and those with dairy allergies should avoid goats milk too,as well as buffalo.

DS1 has a beef protein allergy, both meat and dairy. Once in a while, we eat buffalo hotdogs. I never thought that it could have a similar protein structure. I am going to have to keep on eye on it.

any thoughts?

[tikva18]

rectal itcing could be due to yeast which can be influenced by dairy consumption.

[lilgsmommy]

Originally Posted by Mammo2Sammo

DS1 has a beef protein allergy, both meat and dairy. Once in a while, we eat buffalo hotdogs. I never thought that it could have a similar protein structure. I am going to have to keep on eye on it.

any thoughts?

I dont know if the meats have a similarity or not. My boys cant do dairy, and have major issues digesting beef, but they do well with buffalo and turkey meats. I havent tried any buffalo milk or buffalo cheese yet with them, but I plan to this month sometime. We just found thier corn allergy, so we are trying to work through that first.

There is another mom on here whos oldest DD has dairy issues. She cant have beef either, but she does tolerate buffalo meat. I know her mom tried buffalo yogurt and had some major issues that her DD is still recovering from. I will direct her to this thread so she can reply

[lilgsmommy]

Originally Posted by tikva18

rectal itcing could be due to yeast which can be influenced by dairy consumption.

I get a full body reaction to some foods. Including rectal itching. Dr said it is common. Reaction doesnt hit when the rest of the reaction (swelling, hives, flushing etc) does...it usually hits when whatever I ate is on its way out.

[bigknitwit]

Hmmm, I'm wondering if the itching could be due to the increase in junk foods that also coincided with the addition of the goat's milk? Time to stop eating the junk foods, that's for sure. My bowels definitely work better with the milk in my diet, so I'm not all the way sure that the milk is the culprit. I will have to watch and see - thanks so much for all the responses.

[cat19]

Just FYI, IIRC, ELISA testing isn't going to detect IgE-mediated (traditional) food allergies. There is debate on whether or not it detects allergies mediated (i.e involving) other pieces of your immune system; some drs say that you make IgG to substances by eating them, whether or not you have an allergic or intolerant reaction to them, and ELISA detects IgG. I have not read of any reproducable peer-reviewed research studies demonstrating the certain levels of IgG can be tied to reactions.

But whether or not you beleive in ELISA for IgG testing, it definitely doesn't detect IgE reaction allergies--thus, for example, my environmental allergies, my son's food (peanut treenut dairy egg) allergies, and my husband's mold allergy all wouldn't show up on ELISA testing.

All of those did show up on SPT and/or RAST tests done with an allergist.