We found out Jonathan had food allergies in February 2018 when he was 6 months old. I had been exclusively breastfeeding him since birth and was scheduled to go out of town in a couple of weeks. To prepare for my absence, we decided to try some formula one weekend afternoon. We used the same Enfamil formula we had given Clara without issue and figured he wouldn’t have any problems either.

Jonathan ultimately refused the bottle, but some of the formula got on the area around his mouth and his chest. He immediately started crying, got a red rash on his chest and his lip started swelling. Once we realized what was happening, we immediately gave him Benadryl and all piled in the car to head to the emergency room. Luckily, Jonathan was okay and it was determined he was most likely allergic to milk. This began our food allergy journey.

Around the time of his food allergy diagnosis

We talked to our pediatrician and received a referral to a local allergist to have Jonathan allergy tested. If he was allergic to milk he may have other food allergies were weren’t aware of or have environmental allergens. We scheduled our initial appointment a couple weeks later, crossed our fingers and hoped for the best.

We started our appointment explaining to the doctor what happened the day of the initial reaction, then Jonathan had his first skin prick tests. These tests confirmed he was indeed allergic to other foods besides milk – including eggs, peanuts, soy, wheat, corn, oranges and navy beans. He was falsely reacting to a couple of them as he was already eating them on a daily basis – i.e. wheat was in his oatmeal that he ate daily. After an in-office challenge for soy we were also able to rule that one out.

Waiting for the doctor

Being able to consume soy was a big win for us and for Jonathan. It meant he could consume soy milk and soy formula without issue. However, with such a long list of allergens I had a huge problem finding a soy formula that didn’t include corn specifically. Every single one I looked at included a corn product. Finally after a lot of extensive research I was able to find Nature’s One Baby’s Only Organic Soy Toddler Formula online. It was more expensive than other formulas found locally, but I was able to buy it from Vitacost.com usually with 15% off my purchase. I often bought a large quantity at once to help lower the cost per can.

The following month, in May 2018, Jonathan had another in office food challenge – this time for baked milk. Food allergies are caused by the body’s reaction to certain proteins in food. When one is allergic to a food – for example milk – their body thinks the proteins are bad and cause a reaction. When some of these foods are heated, the proteins change in a way that is acceptable to the body and can sometimes be tolerated. Jonathan passed his baked milk challenge with a muffin, so we began making muffins at home for him to consume.

Since Jonathan’s initial diagnosis in April 2018, he has been retested for food allergies and tested for environmental allergies. Environmentally Jonathan is allergic to a number of things including grass, evergreens, cats and dogs. He takes Zyrtec daily and aside from the occasional eczema flair up seems to be handling those without too many problems.

In the spring of 2019 Jonathan was skin prick tested for a number of allergens again and this time also tested positive for a number of tree nuts (almonds, coconuts, brazil nuts and walnuts), and a fish mix. At his current age – two – both are avoidable through diet restriction. We have to be vigilant in what he consumes, but is relatively easy to avoid. He also had blood work last fall to determine his IgE levels to milk, eggs and peanuts.

Even though we added a couple major allergens in fish mix and tree nuts, he also didn’t react to corn. We did an at home challenge on a Saturday morning, first giving him 1/2 a kernal of corn and upping his dose every 30 minutes for a couple of hours. He never reacted and now happily eats handfuls of corn.

We are usually very vigilant about watching Jonathan at home and out and about to make sure he doesn’t eat any of his food allergies. This can be extremely difficult with a small child who wants to put all kinds of things in his mouth. It hasn’t been an easy road and we’ve definitely had some road bumps along the way. I’ll discuss those in the next post about life after food allergy diagnosis and our experience.

As always, feel free to post any question or comments below!