Back From The Allergist

Clara's appointment with the allergist today brought us some good news, some expected news, and some not-so-good news. They did a skin scratch test to a few foods to figure out what might be her prognosis and some options for us in the here and now.

The Good: Clara didn't react to soy, so we can start giving her soy milk and weaning her off Neocate. Yay! Soy milk is the nearest to cows milk in terms of nutritional content, so that's a big positive.

The Expected: Yes, she is in fact still allergic to milk proteins. Duh. But the doctor was very encouraged by the fact that her reactions to milk and casein were fairly mild. He's reasonably sure she'll outgrow this one in the next few years. Let's hope.

The Not-So-Good: He decided to test peanuts, since they are a great source of protein. But...she reacted. The degree of reaction was about the same as the milk, so hopefully that indicates it won't be too serious, and she may even outgrow it, although it's less likely than the milk allergy. But at this point there really is no way to tell how badly she'll react if she were to eat peanut products. As such, the doctor gave us a prescription for an epi-pen on the very unlikely chance that she may have a severe reaction.

She'll be retested in a year for both peanuts and milk, and we're hopeful that this will be short-lived. In the meantime, we'll pass on the peanut butter and I'm collecting dairy-free recipes. Anyone have some good ones?