My 9 month old has food allergies and actually, he has been diagnosed with them for several months now. I often get asked how in the world that can be as he was exclusively breastfed until he was just over 6 months old. So let me tell you a little bit about how we figured out we had a baby with food allergies and what I recommend you do if you think your baby has food allergies. If you are interested in reading Leroy’s story more in-depth, check out this post I wrote about it.

Let me start off by saying that this was our experience and I’m not offering any medical advice. But at the beginning of our food allergy journey, I had a hard time finding personal stories about babies with food allergies. So here is what our journey looks like so far.

I’ve talked about raising a baby with food allergies, but I wanted to have a separate post talking more in-depth about Leroy and his food allergies.

I have a 9 month old who has already been diagnosed with two food allergies and is doing more testing soon. Many people have wondered how in the world a baby who hasn’t even eaten much solid food could be diagnosed as having food allergies. So this is Leroy’s story.

Let me start off by saying that this was our experience and I’m not offering any medical advice. But at the beginning of our food allergy journey, I had a hard time finding personal stories about babies with food allergies. So here is what our journey looks like so far.

Backstory

Let me first tell you that everything was pretty much normal during my pregnancy, labor, and delivery. He was born a good weight at full term and besides a misshapen ear which first failed the hearing test, but then got itself straightened out, he was perfect.

But my family has a history of asthma and as I have now learned, asthma, allergies, and eczema are all carried on the same gene. So even though no one else in the family has food allergies, the asthma that runs from my father to me to Mac meant that Leroy had a chance at getting any or all of those afflictions.

Two Month Checkup

At his two month well child check, the doctor noticed that his skin was very rough. We had noticed that also, but it was the middle of winter in Minnesota, so we didn’t think much of it. The doctor, however, was a bit more concerned and suggested it looked more like eczema.

I decided to tell her about his spitting up. Obviously all babies spit up, but Leroy seemed to spit up a lot. So I told the doctor about it. She told me that it was probably nothing, especially because my happy boy didn’t fit the bill of reflux babies who are super grumpy and don’t sleep well. But she humored me and checked him out. She said “Oh yeah, I can hear him refluxing constantly.”

This started the journey of my elimination diet. I cut out dairy and eggs because those were the most likely culprits. We also started him on some medication that wasn’t meant to stop the reflux, but was going to help coat his esophagus so it wasn’t damaged by the stomach acid going up and down.

Check-In

After a few weeks, I went back to check in. Worryingly, Leroy had stopped gaining weight at the rapid pace he previously had been. He was still gaining, but much slower. I asked about doing some allergy testing, but our regular pediatrician suggested she consult with some other doctors because such a young baby would be unlikely to have food allergies.

That seemed like a logical explanation to me, even though my mom senses were tingling. I had been doing a lot of reading about food proteins, especially peanut, being transmitted through breastmilk and I just had a gut feeling. But I went with it.

After this appointment, I started keeping a food diary in the notes section of my phone. I was able to include photos of rashes that popped up. If nothing else, it helped me confirm to myself that I was not just making stuff up.

A Different Doctor Weighs In

Two weeks later, Leroy started to have diarrhea and there were some streaks of blood in it. We called for an appointment, but our regular pediatrician was on vacation. So we saw a different doctor that day.

While the blood ended up being just from his bottom being irritated, this doctor re-asked all of the questions we had gone over before. I appreciated her thoroughness and was even more appreciative when she said “Why don’t we just do a blood draw to check for allergies?”

Blood Test Results

When the test results came back, egg whites were just above the normal range into the allergy range and peanuts were significantly above the allergy level. The next step was to see the allergist and confirm the allergy diagnoses by doing more testing.

Referral to the Allergist

Shortly after we got the blood test results, our regular pediatrician referred us to an allergist. Our allergist isn’t specifically a pediatric specialist like I would have liked, but she works with children a lot and she has been great so far throughout the process. After getting our referral, we immediately called to schedule an appointment, but they would only make an appointment a month out. We took the first appointment we could and then we waited.

Consultation with the Allergist

After a month’s wait, we had our consultation. The allergist first talked about what symptoms we had been seeing. We talked about his reflux and eczema. We then did a scratch test to confirm the two allergens he had tested positive for in his blood test and the allergist decided to also test for dust mites as that was a more over-arching allergy that may explain some things.

A scratch test is rather simple. They scratch the skin on the back with something that also introduces the allergen into the body. They also do a negative and positive scratch. The positive is a histamine and shows what an allergic reaction would look like in that person. The negative is saline, I believe, and just shows how that person’s body reacts to being poked in general.

The scratch test was interesting. Because Leroy was younger, he really didn’t mind the scratch test. He didn’t like it, but we didn’t have to hold him down or anything to do them. The hardest part was figuring out how to keep him entertained for 15 minutes while holding him in a way that wouldn’t touch his back.

After the wait time, the nurse came back in and measure any bumps that swell up as compared to the positive.

After our wait time, there was nothing in the “dust mites” categories, but both peanuts and eggs had swollen up and were positive for an allergy.

After the Diagnosis

At that point, Leroy was confirmed to have allergies. We were given a prescription for an epinephrine injector. And we walked through what we would do in the next few months, which included some in-office eating challenges to see exactly what his allergy looks like. For example, when he is around a year old, we will be testing to see if he can handle eggs that are baked into things like cakes.

Possibility of Eosinophilic Esophagitis

As we were leaving the allergist office that day, she told us to be on the look out for excessive spit up that continues even after he starts solid foods. There is a food allergy that is a fairly new diagnosis called eosinophilic esophagitis (or EoE). It is a food allergy that means as food moves down to the stomach, the esophagus has white blood cells that are too close to the surface and will mistakenly recognize some foods as being foreign and will fight it off. Instead of causing anaphylaxis, as may happen with other allergies, it causes people to throw up. This kind of allergy is actually quite common, but unfortunately it is harder to actually diagnose because the reaction can be hours later. Because of Leroy’s reflux, we were told to be on the lookout for it.

One night, Leroy had applesauce for his dinner. About 45 minutes later, he started vomiting and over the course of two hours, vomited out the contents of his stomach. He wasn’t showing any other signs of being sick (no fever) and nobody else in the family was sick or vomiting.

The next morning, I messaged the allergist who suggested this may be indicative of EoE. At that point, we were referred to a GI specialist to talk to about Leroy’s reflux.

Referral to the GI

Next, was a consultation with a GI doctor. This doctor gave a few “new” suggestions to try. She said we should try to feed him some prunes to make sure everything was moving alright. She also suggested we cut dairy out of my diet as it can also gum up the works.

She also said we should do a GI imaging with Leroy just to make sure everything is anatomically correct inside.

GI Imaging

Leroy had a GI imaging series done at the local children’s hospital. He couldn’t eat for three hours beforehand. We gave him a bottle with nutritionless stuff inside that would light up his upper GI tract on the screen so we could see if there was anything wrong.

Without too much detail, the good news was that besides it looking like he may also have asthma, his upper GI tract was normal.

Looking for Other Allergies

Now, Leroy started being diagnosed with food allergies right as he was starting solid foods. It was a little scary to try to figure out what to feed him while being careful about introducing him to any of the other top allergens. I finally came around to having him try wheat and the first time he ate a piece of toast, his eye got a weird pink ring around it about a half hour later.

We went to do a scratch test for wheat and at this appointment, I also suggested we test for dairy as his refluxing had gone way down after I cut diary out of my diet.

So we had another appointment for a scratch test to test for wheat and dairy. The good news was that he didn’t react at all to wheat. But strangely enough, he reacted to dairy. The nurse mentioned it was strange because he hadn’t actually eaten dairy before, but to me, that was just par for the course.

We are currently thinking that perhaps dairy is the trigger for his eosinophilic esophagitis.

His First Real Reaction

Up until about two weeks ago, Leroy had never had a “real” reaction. We had caught all of his allergies before he actually ingested them. And then he ate hummus.

I was trying hard to figure out what to feed Leroy while keeping in mind allergens. Leroy liked to eat rice, but I was trying to figure out what to mix with it to make it a bit more exciting for him. I realized that hummus might be the perfect thing.

So one day for lunch, I heated up some rice and mixed some hummus with it. Leroy loved it! He was eating it and after a few minutes, I noticed some redness around his mouth. At first, I wrote it off because I thought of hummus as a “safe” food. But the redness started to spread around his face. I realized then that he was having his first reaction.

Thankfully, my neighbors are not only medically trained, but have a son with allergies. I grabbed the kids and headed next door for their help as in the moment, I felt like I wasn’t sure what to do. They helped me give Leroy medicine and keep an eye on him to make sure it didn’t get worse.

It didn’t get any worse than the rash, but we go in next week to test for a sesame seed allergy.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Besides feeling like we live in doctor’s offices, we are starting in-office eating challenges this week. First up is peanuts.

Studies have shown that children who test on the low to middle end of positive for a peanut allergy may be able to be sensitized to peanuts so that even if they are still allergic, their reactions will be less severe. This week we go in and will spend several hours slowly feeding Leroy small amounts of peanut butter to see if, when, and how he reacts. If he is able to tolerate an entire serving of peanut butter, we will then start

Two months from now, we will go in and repeat the scratch test for dairy and then do an in-office eating challenge for that to see what kind of reaction he has to it.

Around Leroy’s first birthday, we will have an in-office eating challenge for baked egg. He may not be able to eat eggs by themselves, but being able to eat them baked in a cake or cookies would be really nice.