My 14 yr old son had skin tests done yesterday (his asthma has gotten worse since we moved to a new area) and after 13 1/2 yrs of just dealing w/ asthma (no allergies) of all things to happen, he showed reactions to 3 of the things he eats a lot of..:eek: Peanuts 5/5, whole eggs 5/6,and cow's milk 4/5. He loves a spoonful of peanut butter (he wasn't happy :nono: ). My question maybe stupid, but I have to ask it: Is a milk allergy the same as lactose intolerance? I'm the only reason he doesn't drink a gallon of milk a day (remember, he's 14 and has grown 5" in the last 5 months) as it is we still go through about 6 gallons a week. He has never 'shown' any sign of allergic reaction to any of the food that he tested positive for.......Are there any good subsitutes (sp?) for milk? any suggestions would be great, thanks, Tracy

My understanding is lactose intolerance is when the stomach cannot break down the enzymes. Milk allergy is when your nose runs, sneezing, rashes, irritability, the works.
I nasal irrigate and no longer have milk allergies. I can eat anything I want to with milk in it and no problems. If he truly is allergic to milk, milk is in everything. Pepsi! Anything with caramel coloring has milk in it, casseinate- a milk product--found in a lot of packaged seasoning, anything with "LAC" is milk, like lactate, lactose. I used soy milk as a substitute. Many items may say Dairy free--don't believe it. Veggie cheese is dairy free- but has casseinate in it---a milk product. Good luck
I swear by the nasal irrigating, turned off my milk allergy overnight.

That's what I thought, I just had to ask :rolleyes: The one problem I'm having accepting this is...He is asthmatic, diagnosed (sp?) @ 1 yr, we have seen reactions..........He has never shown any kind of sign when eating any of them or combination of them.....No stuffy nose, watery eyes (or my personal favorite) hives.......I guess I need to do some research and will try the irrigating....he does that occasionally during football or baseball season if he gets a snoot full during practice......................Thanks.... ..........T

Inhaled allergens are ideal to test for. Ingested...well they can be tested for, but they are much more skeptic about it. At National Jewish, they test when you have suspicions of an allergy and then if it comes up positive they do a food challenge. What this is when the child ingests nothing but that food. Then, they try to see at what amount of food (if any) (s)he reacts to. Your child may not be allergic to these foods, but have a predisposition to the allergy.

I have a 3yr old son, at 1 1/2yrs he was diagnosed thru a skin test of different food allergies as well as environmental ones. One was Chicken. A month ago, the doctor thought it would be worth doing a "food-chicken" challenge. He ate it (at the doctor office) and had no reaction. So.. the doctor told me to one by one at home introduce the rest of the foods he was intially allergic to-as we have and no reaction. Is the skin test the most accurate? They orginally tested him-he was getting bad hives, lips were swelling he was throwing up.
I was scared to death to re-introduce the foods but all seems to be ok-just hope one day he just don't react again??

That's what I thought...........He has never shown any sign of an allergy to any of the foods that he tested positive, I have seen (more than I care to) Asthmatic reations to different things especially when he bucked bales for my Mom. Until we moved here about 3 months ago, we had very little problem (lived in the high desert 4850' @ our house 9 miles from town on 40 acres) to now living in town in the valley ( about 350') Whole 'nother world I'm here to tell ya. Plus he started to have problems the first week of football.........turns out several trees, molds and grasses that don't exsist (or very little) in our old world do here. I understand the nonfood reactions in the test, just not the food.............He would LOVE to do a food challenge with the milk......Just think......ice cold milk......... Ice cream, yougurt.........He'd be in heaven...........:P

I can understand that. I moved from California to Kentucky and with the move I went from a moderate asthmatic to severe, steroid-dependent. I have since moved from Kentucky to the Denver metro area because I couldn't breathe there. In fact, I missed the last three months of my high school career because I was in the hospital.

For the both of you with food allergic kids: If your child shows no reaction to the supposed food allergens, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Make sure (s)he can learn the symptoms of an allergic reaction and learn the early warning signs. Then, make sure you have benedryl around. If you catch most allergies early enough they won't end up in anaphylactic shock. Make sure you have an epi-pen anyway though.

My 14 yr old son had skin tests done yesterday (his asthma has gotten worse since we moved to a new area) and after 13 1/2 yrs of just dealing w/ asthma (no allergies) of all things to happen, he showed reactions to 3 of the things he eats a lot of..:eek: Peanuts 5/5, whole eggs 5/6,and cow's milk 4/5. He loves a spoonful of peanut butter (he wasn't happy :nono: ). My question maybe stupid, but I have to ask it: Is a milk allergy the same as lactose intolerance? I'm the only reason he doesn't drink a gallon of milk a day (remember, he's 14 and has grown 5" in the last 5 months) as it is we still go through about 6 gallons a week. He has never 'shown' any sign of allergic reaction to any of the food that he tested positive for.......Are there any good subsitutes (sp?) for milk? any suggestions would be great, thanks, Tracy
Most of the panels will detect reaction of the allergic response in the blood stream and different people display their allergies in different ways, but you can tell those things that your kid reacts to by using avoidance therapy. He can go without for 1-2 weeks and see if there is a difference. That's really the best and cheapest way to see for yourself. Whether it's milk or whatever chances are he will not suffer 2 weeks without it. The same is true for that woman who suffered from itchy patches of skin - allergies manifest differently for each person. LG

Most of the panels will detect reaction of the allergic response in the blood stream and different people display their allergies in different ways, but you can tell those things that your kid reacts to by using avoidance therapy. He can go without for 1-2 weeks and see if there is a difference. That's really the best and cheapest way to see for yourself. Whether it's milk or whatever chances are he will not suffer 2 weeks without it. The same is true for that woman who suffered from itchy patches of skin - allergies manifest differently for each person. LG
I forgot to add that intolerance has a whole different set of symptoms - gas and GI upset that is very unpleasant. Allergy can be quite different with wheezing to diarrhea. LG