Last year about this time, Luke's nose started running like a faucet. Non-stop. Buy stock in the Kleenex Corporation. Runny nose. I assumed it was probably seasonal allergies, but he was too young to do any kind of testing. Some tests come back as "false positives" if kids get tested too early.
So at his 2 year check up, I asked his pediatrician about testing again. He said we would do an Immunocap test which tests the blood as opposed to a skin prick test. Blood tests are supposedly more accurate. I won't go into the details of the visit to the lab to get the blood drawn. Let's just say, it was less than a fun experience for all parties involved.
We received the results and apparently Luke has a milk allergy. Huh? I've been giving him oh, I don't know, milk, cheese, yogurt, chocolate milk, quesadillas, pizza, cheese sticks, grilled cheese sandwiches, ice cream, shakes, and all manner of dairy since he was about a year old. Let me give you my address so you can send me the Mother of The Year Award.
Typically, children with milk allergies have significant symptoms like eczema, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach aches, etc. Luke has had none of that. None. Just a runny nose that stopped running for the last 6 months as soon as the weather got warm. But his milk intake never changed. Figure that one out and get back to me!
Well, we went back to the doctor's office so he could explain the results to me and we could figure out what to do next. His suggestion was to go one entire month with no milk in his diet then reintroduce it over a three day period. After a month of no milk then three days with milk, if we don't see any significant changes then we can just go back to a normal diet. I guess the mentality is that the number is so low (.78 if that means anything), that having milk here and there probably doesn't bother him.
But here's the kicker.
Go into your pantry and start reading labels.
I'll wait.
Oh my goodness gracious. Milk is in everything! Well, obviously not everything. But it is in LOTS of stuff. It is even in some lunch meat. How weird is that?
I went to our local healthy food store and bought rice milk, oat milk, and almond milk. I also bought yogurt made with coconut milk and cheese made with rice milk. I made smoothies with the coconut milk yogurt and no one complained. I made scrambled eggs with almond milk and they ate them. Thankfully, some of the cereals, crackers, and snacks Luke already likes are dairy free as are all of the fruits he likes so he'll still have familiar foods.
I have a whole new appreciation for moms whose children have severe allergies. Reading labels wears me out. Thinking about every single thing my child puts in his mouth is exhausting. I had to pack him a special snack for church since they serve goldfish and - you guessed it - they have milk in them. We went to Five Guys for lunch on Sunday. I asked about their hamburger and hotdog buns and sure enough, they have milk in them.
This could be a long four weeks. I'll let you know what we discover.
