Not too much changed in our household since Dylan's milk allergy was diagnosed. Because he was so young, I didn't find it too difficult to avoid dairy. I was able to find a dairy free brand of organic baby cereals at our local health food store, and I slowly introduced single pureed fruits, vegetables, and meats. We had a rough go with solids at first and Dylan was definitely not a big eater for quite some time, but we were getting there. And getting there without any more allergic reactions, which was key! He moved from the single foods to mixtures, purees to mashed, and finger foods. I always kept Benadryl with us, just in case, but fortunately didn't have to use it. My biggest difficulty was actually finding a commercial bread that didn't have milk ingredients in it!
Over the months we did discover that the milk allergy was a bit more challenging than we had originally thought... Despite my care, and the fact that I was reading ingredients and preparing everything myself, Dylan kept getting hives. Sometimes it was just a few that went away on their own, sometimes a bit more severe. I finally realized that he had a contact allergy - so if I ate cheese, and then touched him with my hands, he got hives. If I drank my coffee with cream, and gave him a kiss, he got hives. Fortunately, if he did get hives in this way, usually we just had to wash the area well and the hives went away. I avoided dairy (though certainly not the way I did when I was on my elimination diet) and washed my hands/rinsed out my mouth when I did have something. We still didn't have to use the Benadryl, so everything was well under control.
In October 2009 my year-long maternity leave was up, and I had to return to my full time job. Fortunately, Mike's sister worked in the infant room of a very reputable daycare in our town - I felt much better leaving Dylan at daycare with his Auntie rather than with strangers. She and the other ladies in the infant room were well aware of Dylan's allergies, and they had an anaphylaxis emergency plan posted. We filled out a form and provided the kitchen with a list of ingredients that had to be avoided, and the cook went out of her way to ensure that she made meals safe for him whenever she could. For example, when the lunch was fettuccine alfredo with chicken, she set aside pasta, chicken, and broth to make him his own dish; or she'd make him his own pizza with no cheese. I even brought in Dylan's dairy-free margarine, and she used it to grease the dishes for meatloaf and the like to ensure that they were safe for him. She was (is!) a fabulous woman.
But Dylan kept getting hives. Sometimes it was easily explained - one time, they had a rubber dinghy in the room because of a water theme. Dylan and one of the other little boys found the inflation valve and the other boy started pretending to blow it up. Dylan followed suit, and within minutes had hives from ear to ear and nose to chin. As it turns out, the other boy had had yogurt for breakfast at home, and the residue in his mouth was enough to cause a reaction. My sister-in-law and the other ladies always tried washing first, but in this case and several others they did have to give medication.
There were a few cases of hives though that weren't easily explained. They were after lunches (which were eaten in highchairs) that were known to be dairy-free. I think the poor cook was going crazy trying to figure out what could have caused them. She finally realized that on three occasions, Dylan's unexplained hives happened after lunches containing dijon mustard. She told my sister-in-law, who took matters in hand for us and eliminated mustard from his diet at daycare. She had Mike sign another form eliminating it from his diet, and voila - mystery hives drastically reduced.
And so allergy number two was discovered. And as frustrating as the dairy allergy was (and is) the mustard allergy actually makes shopping much more difficult. Because milk is one of the top 10 allergens, Canadian law requires it to be listed in plain English on all food packages. Mustard is not a priority allergen, and so can be hidden in ingredient lists under "spice(s)". So whereas before I just had to read and put back on the shelf, now I had to read, write down upc's and phone numbers, and call companies. And while a couple of companies were fabulous (Kraft was amazing, for example) and others were okay, many had no idea, and promised return calls or emails and did not follow through. I thought dairy was a challenge, but mustard threw me some curve balls I was not expecting.
And unfortunately, we weren't done yet.
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