So, did I mention, we can now give MyItchyBoy eggs?
Well, when I say eggs, I mean we can bake cakes and buns and things and actually put real egg in. Yes, real egg, from chickens. It may sound like a trivial thing, but when they have been out of his diet for the past three years, it is a major step forward in our family. We removed eggs from his diet a couple of weeks after we first introduced them. He was already suffering eczema by that time and it was quite obvious that after eating eggs his eczema would flare up.
MyItchyBoy did have a scratch test done at the allergy clinic which came out as positive. However, the IgE blood test was negative. Either way, we knew that when he ate eggs, his eczema arrived the following day in all its itchy glory.
Now that MyItchyBoy has reached the grand old age of four, our allergy consultant decided it was worth challenging him with some baked egg. This requires putting one egg into a whole cake (or equivalent) and seeing what happens. Thankfully nothing happened. We have since got up to the equivalent of two eggs per cake and again, thankfully his skin has tolerated it just fine.
Since we started this though, MyItchyBoy has had a cold, random flare ups and chicken pox so we have not progressed any further up the line just yet. But, for now at least, I am certain he is tolerating this new baking regime with no ill effects at all. In fact, he loves it! After all, cakes taste far better with real egg in. As grateful as we are to egg replacers, it has been a blessing to be able to bake a simple batch of muffins for Husband and MyItchyBoy that are light and fluffy and behave according to the original recipe. It has also been great to be able to bake successfully using gluten free flour so that all three of us can enjoy the same thing (exchanging flour, egg and milk in a recipe has always been a tricky one). It makes my life so much easier to only bake one lot of goodies at once!
My hope is that in time, MyItchyBoy will be able to progress up the scale to be able to sit down and enjoy an omelette with us. Or, a traditional English breakfast, egg on toast, egg in a stir fry… I would also like to see my boy enjoy a pancake day with pancakes. Of course, for the moment we still have to replace dairy in recipes, but you never know, maybe one day we can get around to challenging that too. For the moment, I am enjoying baking so much more and glad that we have made a small step towards normality for MyItchyBoy.
MyItchyBoy
My son has atopic eczema and he reacts badly to dairy, soya and we are slowly working towards him eating eggs again. He's had a mild anaphylactic reaction to peanuts and has regular flare-ups to random things that we rarely manage to pinpoint. I started the blog to share my experiences and frustrations of having an itchy boy.
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It’s always a real worry introducing a food back into a child’s diet when they’ve previously had such a bad reaction to that food. I had to do the same with my daughter. At the age of 14 she can now eat omelettes and loves them! Good luck moving forward.
on April 29, 2013 at 9:22 am DeborahThat gives me hope! Consultant did remind me that it is a really slow process so patience is key. Always tricky when there are other things that get in the way to flare him up so checking on whether it is egg or not can be hard.
on April 29, 2013 at 9:59 am MyItchyBoyTotally understand how you feel but there definitely is hope. Keep us posted as to how you get on. Good luck.
on May 1, 2013 at 11:44 am DeborahWill do!
on May 1, 2013 at 2:01 pm MyItchyBoy