snowdeal.org > ex machina: the eric update - day 319: no more eggs for odin! or a food allergy?

ex machina

the eric update - day 319: no more eggs for odin! or a food allergy?

some may remember that one of odin's very first foods was a soft egg yolk which we gave him since it's well known that they are a great source of iron and dha (docosahexalnoic acid). we continued the occasional egg for a few weeks until he had what was either a very coincidental bout of stomach flu or a reaction to the egg. we never really knew for sure what caused him to throw up nearly continuously for over an hour, but eventually concluded that it might have because the egg was too rich a food for someone not quite used to anything other than breastmilk.

since he's been doing so well with solid food lately we thought that we'd try an egg again. and unfortunately the result was quite similar. after a few hours, odin began vomiting for over an hour and didn't stop until his stomach was completely empty.

it's odd and a little worrysome that he didn't even eat that much egg yolk - we simply mashed up a bit of hardboiled yolk in some breastmilk and gave him a few small baby spoons of the mixture and topped of his meal with plain old milk. but despite the small amount, it seems too fantastic a coincidence for the egg to not be the cause his of stomach woes. could the little bit of diluted egg be "richer" than the straight yogurt and sweet potatoes that he's so increasingly fond of?

or are we perhaps witnessing the effects of a mild food allergy? although not common, it's not unknown for infants to develop an allergy to egg whites, but everything we've read indicates that it's far more unusual to see an allergy to egg yolks; who knows, maybe he's also allergic to egg whites and we just don't know it because we've never given him any. either way, hopefully there's another explanation because egg products are in everything and i've heard that it can be insanely difficult to keep infants and toddlers from accidently injesting something with egg as an ingredient.

bookmark: del.icio.us ::digg it ::furl ::reddit ::yahoo ::

5/19/2005 08:27:00 PM 3 comments

3 Comments:

Another way that baby allergies show up is that if mom eats something that the baby can't have, it'll pass over and the baby will have a reaction. I know this because one of my friends has a baby with dairy allergies and she (still nursing him) can't have dairy and it's driving her nuts.

SO...has Kris been refraining from eggs all this time? It seems like if she has eaten eggs Odin would get sick after nursing or otherwise consuming the "contaminated" breast milk (I have to say, it bothers me to call breast milk contaminated...).

By Emy, at 4:59 PM

It's possible that he's actually sensitive to the albumin. One of the reasons that some suggest holding off on eggs is because it's very difficult to make sure that the yolk does not come into contact *at all* with the white. When it comes to allergies, 'a little dab'll do ya' especially on a second exposure. Once the body is sensitized during the first reaction, it reacts quicker upon subsequent exposures. In the case of some allergies (esp nut allergies) less than 10 picograms is all that is needed to provoke a reaction.

What's great about the wee folk ,tho, is that they're so mutable. I had to cut dairy out of my diet until my son was almost 10 mos and then, miraculously, he could tolerate it once again (HALLELUJAH. I like cheese a lot). Lets hope this is the case with Odin and the eggs.

You might also want to file this one away for future use in terms of routine vaccines as well. The MMR that kiddos recieve at 12 mos is grown in chicken eggs, so if your kiddo is sensitive to whole eggs at all, they reccomend at least delaying this one.

By pumpkinhead, at 10:18 PM

My mom tells me that I was allergic to eggs when I was a baby. It took me puking them up twice to clue her in. I eventually grew out of this allergy though it took me a while to enjoy eating them.

By Danielle, at 9:34 PM

Post a Comment

[ rhetoric ]

“"it is hard to be brave," said piglet, sniffing slightly, "when you're only a Very Small Animal." rabbit, who had begun to write very busily, looked up and said: "it is because you are a very small animal that you will be Useful in the adventure before us."”

the complete tales & poems of winnie the pooh

[ about ]

this site chronicles the continuing adventures of my son, odin, who was unexpectedly born on the fourth of july at 25 weeks gestation, weighing 1 pound 7 ounces.

he's quite a fighter and you can always send him a postcard to the most current address listed here if you're inspired by his adventures. see the postcard project/google maps mashup to see a map of the postcards.

if you're new, you can browse the archives to catch up. and don't forget to watch a few movies that i made while we were in the neonatal intensive care unit. or if you want the abridged version and you can find a copy, you can read about his adventures in the november 2005 issue of parents magazine.

[ search ]

[ outbound ]