The past few years have brought some welcome additions to Matthew’s diet. Due to the creation of a better blood test, he was able to do a food challenge for milk and eggs in breads and has been eating bread, rolls, and doughnuts with milk and eggs in them successfully for the past few years. He still can’t eat either milk or eggs raw or in things like cookies (they don’t bake long enough for the proteins in the milk and egg to break down enough to prevent a reaction) but the new foods he has been able to eat have definitely added some variety to his plate.
Today was his yearly appointment with the allergist and based on our past experiences, I didn’t expect much to change. There haven’t been any new breakthroughs in testing or treatment, so I thought today would be another “stay the course” appointment. In some ways I was right, but there was one big surprise. Due to the fact that Matthew’s IgE for milk is still low (around 10-it was around 26 three years ago) and his reaction to the skin prick testing was minimal, she wants him to do a food challenge with baked cheese. We’re talking pizza here. Well baked cheese is a must, it can’t be just gooey, but pizza! This is something I honestly never thought Matthew would be able to do. After ten years of being taught that milk could kill him, Matthew is understandably freaked out. I’m kind of freaked out too. It is completely scary. But it is also very exciting. It would make fast food pizza ok for him since he already tolerates milk and eggs in breads (the crust) just fine. It would mean that he can eat goldfish crackers. Even more than that, it might mean that the risk of cross contamination by milk wouldn’t be such a big deal and that alone would give him a bunch more food options.
Matthew isn’t ready to do the food challenge yet. Like I said, it is very scary. We’ll encourage him to do the challenge but like we have in the past, we won’t push him to do it before he is ready. He has to make the choice. It is his life and he knows the risks as well as the benefits. He will get there, but it is going to take some time. And it is even a bit scarier for him right now because his allergist is retiring this December. His first reaction was when he was 5 months old so he literally does not remember a time when she was not his doctor. She would like to see him do the challenge before she quits, but I’m not sure that is going to happen. But we’ll see. This could be a life-changing event for him.
