Baked milk challenge - highest IgE and passed?

[DrummersMom]

DS will be having a baked milk challenge early next year.  His skin test indicates he's likely to pass but his high level on IgE blood tests indicate otherwise.  He also has high total IgE with only mild eczema when an infant. So I'm curious if others have passed with high IgE levels?

[rebekahc]

I don't know, but it seems to me that if his total IgE is high, then it's reasonable for his milk specific IgE to also be high, so maybe it doesn't mean as much WRT his sensitivity.

[DrummersMom]

In addition to the high total IgE, most of his individual IgE's are very high (milk, casein, whey, egg, peanut, almost all tree nuts). He avoids all. He definately is (was?) allergic to milk. Not really sure about the others since he never ate them directly but did react when nursing and to potential contact when in daycare.

[Ree]

Yes, my DS has an IGE in the 20s (I believe) and a significant skin test.  He recently past his baked milk and I'm cautiously introducing a little every day.  I don't think he'd pass straight milk or cheese though.  Hopefully this will help him outgrow it!
Good luck!!

[Carefulmom]

I don`t think there is any correlation between milk IgE and chance of passing a baked milk challenge.  I have read that 75% of kids who are allergic to milk can tolerate baked milk, so he has a really good chance of passing.  Also, I read one study that giving them baked milk increases their chance of outgrowing allergy to unbaked milk, although that does not seem to be true for us.  Dd`s cap rast to milk is 0.34 and she still cannot tolerate unbaked.  Her tolerance of baked, though, just keeps getting better and better.  Last night she was at the Homecoming Dance, and she texted me that they were selling pizza (a place we go to) and could she buy a piece.  I texted back and said yes, but stop eating if she has symptoms.  When I picked her up, she told me she had no sypmtoms.  Never thought the day would come.  When she first tried pizza 1-2 years ago, she had symptoms after half a slice.  Now she can eat one large slice with no symptoms, or 2-3 slices of pizza with light cheese.  It has really opened up her diet a lot.  If I had known, I would have done it sooner.  Also, her cap rast, which had been sitting at 1.0 - 1.25 for years, dropped when she went on baked milk.  Not sure if that is cause and effect or a coincidence.

[DrummersMom]

careful mom, the allergist (who has been involved in some of the original baked milk studies) stated that the studies found that having an IgE level above a certain point correlated to not passing a baked milk challenge. Even despite DS being well above this cut-off, the allergist is still willing to try a baked milk challenge if DS and parents are willing. We are willing due to reading positive stories here and elsewhere of kids tolerating more and more after successful baked milk challenges.

[Carefulmom]

I think it is great that you are doing it.  If he does not pass, at least you will know.  And if he does pass, it will open up a whole new world, as far as diet.  Really dd`s diet expanded by magnitudes after she started baked milk.  And cooking is more fun, too.  I always found it boring to bake or cook milk free items, as it was so restrictive. 

[DrummersMom]

careful mom, does your DD eat out? Did tolerating baked milk make eating out more of a possibility? DS rarely eats out, only an item or two at a few places. We are traveling to the UK next summer and I am concerned about how we will feed him while there. We are traveling with a group so eating out will be frequent. However, there will be time to shop and cook for him if we need to go that route.

[Carefulmom]

Oh, eating out became so much more doable when dd started baked milk.  The fact that she was tolerating baked milk made me so much more comfortable with milk cross contaminated items.  I used to read on the old board about milk allergic kids who would eat a hamburger in a restaurant and I would think how I would not dare do that because of either concern about contamination with a cheeseburger on the same grill or concern about milk in the bun.  Now dd eats burgers in several restaurant chains, but we still check ingredients very carefully, because of peanut/tree nut concerns.  (Are the buns in a plant with tree nuts or peanuts.)  Recently she ate fries in a restaurant made in a fryer that also fries breaded items that have milk in the breading.  I only let her eat 10 fries, but she had no symptoms!  I never would have done that a few years ago.  And Inn and Out Burger is a staple for her.  They have almost nothing on their menu, so less food for the burger to be cross contaminated with.  Their fryer only makes french fries, so your ds may be able to eat there now.  It really depends on how you feel about hamburgers being on the same grill with cheeseburgers.  I don`t think their buns have milk, but they can change any time.  At one point their buns did have milk, but I last checked a year ago and they did not.

I really really hope your ds passes.   Before dd went on baked milk, I was always worried about almost any restaurant food, because even if it didn`t have milk, I figured almost any item could be milk cross contaminated.  Now I don`t worry about that quite so much, although we still have the peanut issue.  But there are some food places that have no peanuts like Chipotle, that I never would have let dd eat at before.  There is cheese scattered everywhere as they are making your food.  Now she has eaten there several times with no problems. 

[DrummersMom]

Thanks for your detailed reply. No In and Out Burgers nearby, so that's out. One place we do allow him to eat is at Chipotle and it's always the same thing: 3 tacos with just chicken and rice. The staff at all we've been to have been so FA aware, always changing gloves without asking and taking great care not to allow any cross contamination.

To know he tolerates baked and would be unlikely to react to cross contamination would be such a stress reducer. We have been allowing milk and cheese in our house for a year or two, so I'm certain he's come in contact with dairy through cross contamination and been fine. Eating out is a whole different thing.