Still Dairy Free

Lauren went to the allergist today to get skin tests for food allergies and try a food challenge to see what, if anything, she could tolerate.  I was terrified of this appointment because of all the unknowns, more so with the food challenge than anything else.  Then of course you sign tons of paperwork stating you understand the risks for doing testing and every possible thing that could go wrong. 

She was a champ for the skin testing.  Squirmed a little but overall nothing bad.  They tested for dairy, soy, peanuts, and two different types of cat allergies.  That was a surprise, we went in thinking only food was our issue but after talking to the doctor he decided it would be smart to test just in case at the same time.  I agreed.  Dairy - positive.  Soy and peanut - negative.  Cat - one positive, one negative.  It's amazing to see the difference between them all and how even the positive reactions looked completely different.  She was uncomfortable but also hungry and did a great job. 

They also gave her a pea size piece of baked pancake when they started the skin tests.  She scarfed it down and wanted more but within 5 minutes was scratching and getting red in her arms/cheeks.  So that was a big old positive too.  No baked milk or any dairy whatsoever for Lauren.

Crazy how quickly she reacted and pretty scary also.  Based on everything we learned today the allergist recommended she go back on soy formula (did a complete circle here...) until 15 months, at that point she can switch to soy milk and see how it goes.  He also confirmed again that she can have absolutely no dairy.  She now has an epi-pen prescription in the event she accidentally does ingest anything with dairy and a full supply of Benadryl along with the epi-pen at home and school.  Daycare has an action plan and we understand what we need to do as well.  If we are very careful about what she eats (which I'm probably overly careful which in this case I think is okay) then she shouldn't have to use any of the action plan steps but its there to be safe. 

We'll go back and try the oral challenge again in 6 months.  The doctor is still optimistic that she could grow out of it, it just may take a while longer for it to happen.  And if she doesn't, she doesn't and that's all good too.  I'm a really good label reader and substitution cooker nowadays. 

As for the cat allergy, totally shocked.  However, the doctor didn't say or even hint that we need to get rid of the cat, just gave us a list of things we could do around the house to help her out.  So Knuckles and Lauren can both stay ;) She LOVES him but luckily he doesn't reciprocate that love yet so it won't be so hard to keep him away from her.  And of course, we'll work on keeping cat hair to a minimum, which all of you cat owners know is pretty impossible.  Good thing we have a Dyson!

The great news about this appointment is being able to eat soy again gives us a ton of new food options!  Woohoo!