it's an allergy

Yesterday Miss Samantha had her appointment with the allergist since she had a reaction to scrambled eggs a few weeks back.  We decided to test for a few things but I can't remember them off the top of my head.  I know we did milk, soy, egg yolk, and egg whites.  The milk and soy tests came back negative.  However, both the egg yolk and egg white came back positive.  Her reaction to the egg whites was more severe and the rash actually started traveling up her little arm.  Poor girl.

Our game plan for now is to go back annually to restest to see if the allergy has been outgrown.  In the majority of cases, an egg allergy is outgrown by age 5.  In some rare cases, however, the allergy is lifelong.  Hopefully Samantha won't be one of those cases!  If she happens to still be allergic at age 4, they will do a blood test to determine how severe the allergy is.  Not sure why they don't do the test now, but oh well.  We are going back on Thursday to test to see if it is safe for her to get the flu shot since the flu shot is cultured on egg yolk.  I'm unsure either way if I'll let her do the shot, I need to do some research into it first.  We are also going to be testing her for a peanut allergy.

For now, Samantha cannot have eggs in any form.  Since I'm breastfeeding, I'll also need to make some dietary changes.  I can have eggs in baked goods, however, I can't have plain eggs on their own.  Eggs are a breakfast staple in our house so it's going to stink to not be able to enjoy them, but I'm willing to do it for Samantha.

For now, we will carry an epipen with us wherever we go in case she has a severe reaction and we will pray that in a few years, this allergy will be a thing of the past!