Pros and Cons

Back in May I commented about a positive food challenge for Matthew. Unfortunately, that was the last positive challenge he has had. We’ve continued to try different recipes with different bake temperatures, different numbers of eggs and different bake times. But Matthew has reacted every time. Sometimes he reacts to one bite. Sometimes he is fine with one bite but reacts after eating a full serving. The length of time before he reacts differs as well. We had one theory about higher baking temperatures and another about longer bake times. All of them seemed logical and none of them panned out. He even reacted to a recipe he ate with no reaction a couple months back. We don’t want to give up on baked goods with eggs, but honestly, we had no idea what to do next.

On the other hand, he is eating eggs in waffles with no problem. We eat waffles at least once a week and he gets first dibs on any leftovers. It has been really fun because we’ve tried a myriad of different flavors of waffles and have discovered about a dozen different recipes that we love. It keeps weekly waffle eating interesting. Matthew has even gotten comfortable enough to feel safe reheating waffles in the toaster. That’s a big deal for him. It means he isn’t concerned about cross contact with the egg in waffles and the other things he toasts.

As I’m sure you can imagine, those juxtaposed experiences have led to a good deal of confusion. With a spreadsheet full of data and no idea how to proceed, we figured it was time for some bloodwork and a visit to the allergist. His appointment was today, and we got the guidance we were looking for. Allergies are a finicky thing, which we already knew, but his doc gave us an idea of what to do next. The egg white is where his allergy currently resides so we can start using just the yolks. After a bit, we can introduce the egg whites a little at a time. The hope is that with a slowly increasing amount of whites, his body will learn to accept them without reacting. It’s the same idea behind oral immunotherapies.

We will start doing that at some point, but honestly, now that we have the info, I think we’re going to just stick with waffles for a bit. Mentally, he’s not ready to go back to weekly food challenges. It is scary and stressful. And it’s not like his entire life is stress filled right now. He’s been a trooper and has learned to deal calmly with the reactions, but it has been difficult and disappointing to have so few positive results. Add to that the huge challenges Covid has thrown at us and he has a lot to deal with right now. As do we all.

On the upside, we did have some very heartening news. Matthew has always had a really high IgE. High enough that his first allergist used him as an example of a “highly allergic individual” when she was training new medical workers. Today his doc told us that it is completely normal for IgE to go up at his age and to continue to climb until about age 20 when it generally plateaus. It makes perfect sense. He is growing rapidly at this age and will reach his adult size and stop growing around age 20. The interesting thing is that Matthew’s IgE is actually going down. The lowering IgE is why he’s been able to introduce some new foods to his diet. If his reactivity were still as high as it has been in the past, there would be no way he could tolerate eggs in any form. But it’s dropping. Unexpectedly.

I call it a little bit of a miracle. Matthew calls it a big miracle. I think he’s right.