I thought I had read that they are searching for a different way of making the vaccines without egg --- that no one has an egg-free vaccine??    That it is not possible yet?

could be wrong.

DD had her very first flu shot on Monday.  Had it in two parts.  She did FINE!!!  Need to get DS in to have one.  He was sick at the time.  (both kids have egg allergy)

oh, there is over here in the uk, had to order it through the gp.

There are no egg-free flu vaccines. 

isnt there egg free flu vaccines? my son has had them  over the years.

I emailed Dr. Wood's office late last night and I had a repy around lunch today (they're so awesome).  Here's what they said:

I certainly don't want to discount the stomach aches, but unfortunately the only way we are going to know if DD can truly tolerate some baked egg is to give it to her in a form that she does not know it is in there.  This is something we frequently have to do when it is just too difficult to tell how much the mind is playing in the symptoms vs. a true reaction.  I would make something that DD generally loves, that way you have a quantifiable amount of egg and give her no more than 1/16^th of a baked egg (maybe even half of that).  If you want to really be clear about the symptoms, perhaps make a muffin (for example) that has no egg in it and let her have a muffin with no egg 1- 2 times, then give her the same muffin with the egg in it.  If she thinks she's eating the muffin without egg and she complains of a stomach ache, then we have our answer.  I would back off making her eat the prescribed bites of baked egg, she won't lose tolerance, just get her back to baseline so we can try and make some sense of this.

She can still have the flu vaccine, we know she can tolerate a fair amount of egg with only possible mild symptoms.  There is very little egg protein in the flu vaccine compared to what she has been able to eat.

Hope this helps,

I hope you're able to get to a level she is comforable with. I know it's got to be stressful to eat a food you've been avoiding, but in retospect I would interpret those stomach pains as a minor rxn.  Sorry you went through this last night!

I'm so sorry - I'm sure Dr. W's office will get right back to you.  I'll be interested to hear what they recommend.

I've been thinking about posting a question along these lines.  With permission from my doc, I've been trying to add in baked egg.  I didn't post about it, because I don't really see it as that big of a deal for me - I've never had anaphylaxis to egg, get flu shots (with precautions), and have only hived up from overt egg. (That I know of - I'm a frequent random hiver.)

Last week I had probably a bit more egg than I should have at one time, and was MISERABLE.  Horrible GI symptoms and cramping...to the point where I curled up in a ball on the floor and cried for a while, and I'm not a kid.  It was heinously painful - almost exactly like how I feel if I get 'soybeaned' by accident. 


Haven't eaten any since, and not sure that I want to go back to it.  Though now that I see that other people have had similar issues, I might try again, but definitely be more careful about my dosage.

Quote from: CMdeux on September 26, 2011, 01:36:53 PM
Ugh-- I'm sorry.

It does sound as though she just exceeded her tolerance.    Poor kiddo.   


This (meaning, GI symptoms) is what we were told to expect if we started to get too close to DD's threshold.

Have you run it past Dr. W's office?

I guess I probably would.  I'm not so sure that this does (necessarily, I mean) mean no to the flu shot.  If they have a super-low-dose batch, and she's KNOWN to tolerate some egg (as she seems to be, yes?) then I'm thinking that Dr. Wood might be okay with it anyway.

DD still isn't anywhere close to the kind of dose that you've been trying-- and we're nearly a year into things.  I don't anticipate us getting to something like "normal" doses in baked goods for a while yet.

I bake infrequently (only about every eight weeks or so)-- but I keep individual doses FROZEN.  They're just single bites, really.  Might be something to think about.

I've baked a big batch--basically a sheet cake--but DD didn't like the taste of it (one of her common complaints during dosing even to items she initially liked).  I'll email Dr. Wood's office when I get a chance today to see how we should proceed.  I think if we are asked to continue that I'll have to go back to baking and known dosing levels.

@becca, I'm not sure what we'll do.  It will depend on what Dr. Wood's office says. 

Sorry maeve!  Maybe it is a bug and not the egg.  That would be better.  Will you try again?  or stop the doing?  So confusing.  I hope she feels better.

Ugh-- I'm sorry.

It does sound as though she just exceeded her tolerance.    Poor kiddo.   


This (meaning, GI symptoms) is what we were told to expect if we started to get too close to DD's threshold.

Have you run it past Dr. W's office?

I guess I probably would.  I'm not so sure that this does (necessarily, I mean) mean no to the flu shot.  If they have a super-low-dose batch, and she's KNOWN to tolerate some egg (as she seems to be, yes?) then I'm thinking that Dr. Wood might be okay with it anyway.

DD still isn't anywhere close to the kind of dose that you've been trying-- and we're nearly a year into things.  I don't anticipate us getting to something like "normal" doses in baked goods for a while yet.

I bake infrequently (only about every eight weeks or so)-- but I keep individual doses FROZEN.  They're just single bites, really.  Might be something to think about.

DD had a baked egg challenge in January and was given a dose of 1/16 of an egg.  For the first 5 to 6 weeks, everything went well and she ate the cupcakes I baked and seemed to tolerate it well.  She got sick in March, so I held off on giving her the egg dose because I worried how the illness might affect her immune response; the illness was one of those viruses that just seemed to linger for a few weeks. 

After the illness, DD has not been cooperative about eating items with egg.  In addition, I've been working horrendous hours and am not usually home in the evenings (to either bake or give DD her dose) and DH was not good about giving DD her dose.  We saw Dr. Wood in late July and he said that he's had patients who have had success eating commercially prepared items where egg is the 3rd or lower ingredient on the list.  He did note that we would not know the exact dose she was getting but the goal was to get her tolerating egg in baked goods.

She's complained her stomach hurt when she's eaten baked goods. She's had no other symptoms: no hives, no breathing issues, no swelling. Though, it's been hard to tease out whether the stomach issue could be anxiety.

Well, we still had trouble getting DD to comply with the treatment.  I finally got her to agree to an incremental approach: one bite one day, two bites two days later, etc. (dosing every other day).  We also got her to eat the School Safe Banana Chocolate cakes as her dosing vehicle.  Last night she ate six bites of the cake, which was about half of it.  It was about 8:30 to 8:45.  Right away, she lay down on the couch looking a bit tired (though that could have been explained by staying up late the night before and then getting up early for swim lessons).  She went upstairs to take her shower, and DH heard her crying.  He asked her what was wrong, and she said she had really bad diarrhea and her stomach hurt a lot.  TMI alert:  DD said the diarrhea was very liquidy. 

She went up to her shower about 10 to 15 minutes after she at the eggy item.  She had the same side dishes and veggies DH and I had but she had a hot dog vs. hamburger for the entree; the date on the hot dog package was still good.  DH ran out for some liquid immodium.  We gave DD one dose, and she's been fine since then.  She did say her tummy was a little crampy this morning but she's eaten a bagel with cream cheese, a piece of toast with laughing cow on it, and Fruit Loops with skim milk and banana (and just came up asking for lunch).

I'm thinking her GI symptoms last night were a reaction to the egg.  I'm thinking that this also puts a damper on being able to get the flu vaccine.