Coburn Kids

More on the egg allergy front, it seems that Caden is really truly highly allergic to eggs.  I just spoke with his doctor because last night, when my parents were watching the kids while I took Daniel out for a birthday celebration, they gave him his dinner (egg free) and some fruit.  The rest of the family had some hot dog buns (contains egg) and a fruit salad with mayonaisse (contains egg) and my mom mentioned that Caden’s face looked more red and he had the watery eyes again.  This morning even his face was still red, he had watery eyes, runny nose and more.  So I called up his pediatrician and her first words were “doesn’t surprise me, he tested really high for it.”  We have to keep even anyone that’s cooked or touched eggs away from Caden and they have to wash their hands and face before they can kiss him, touch him, etc.  She even recommended that Caden not be in the same room if I prepare something with eggs.  Wowww. Food allergies are serious business.  It would be rare for eggs to cause an anaphylaxis reaction, but the more exposure he gets to eggs the worse his allergic reaction will get.

Found interesting information that kids with egg allergy can become egg tolerant, but the rate that children are developing tolerance to eggs is slower than in the past when it was thought that most children outgrew egg allergy by age 5 or 6. An egg allergy study published in December 2007 stated:

• 4% of children outgrew egg allergy by age 4
• 12% of children outgrew egg allergy by age 6
• 37% of children outgrew egg allergy by age 10
• 68% of children outgrew egg allergy by age 16

They found that a kid was less likely to outgrow the allergy if they had high IgE antibodies when blood tested for egg allergy (strike 1 for Caden), if they had other atopic disease like eczema or asthma (strike 2), or if they had other food allergies (we’re good here). So we might be in this for the long haul or be lucky!