Egg allergy is another common early childhood allergy along with milk. Doctors suggest not giving children eggs until they are at least one year old. We didn’t realize that my son had an egg allergy until he received his MMR shot at 15 months old, which at that time was an egg-based shot. After he swelled with hives for 3 days, we had a good indication he had an egg allergy!

At his first allergy testing at 18 months old, he scored high on the skin prick test for an egg allergy. Two years later, when the test was repeated, he scored a zero. However, today when he eats products with eggs he does get flare ups of his eczema. So I’m not sure the egg allergy has completely disappeared yet, even with the -0- skin prick score.

Upon his 5th birthday, when he would have received an MMR booster, we decided to take the precautionary route. We went to the allergist’s office and had him allergy tested with skin pricks with the MMR shot. Slowly the amount of the MMR shot was increased from a skin scratch to a skin prick to a shot. It took most of the day for him to receive the shot, but it was worth it to ensure his safety. And he had no reaction this time.

A visitor to Allergicchild.com wrote about her experience with an egg allergic son. When her son had to have a surgery, the anesthesiologist recommended a gas anesthetic rather than a liquid IV because the liquid contained albumin – an egg derivative. 

Also, be mindful of flu shots that are all egg based and not suggested for the egg allergic. The yellow fever vaccine also is egg based. Yellow fever is still a major problem for people living in or traveling to tropical South America or Africa.

Reading food labels will be a necessity for a child with egg allergy!

The Food Allergy Labeling Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA) was passed in 2004, requiring: labels to be marked such that a 7 year old could read and understand the ingredients, all allergens are declared even if they are in the spices or flavorings, and curtail the current widespread use of the ‘may contain statements.’ This act went into effect January 1, 2006.

For more information on this important law, please see:

http://www.foodallergy.org/Advocacy/labeling.html

Eggs show up in many products – cakes, pastries, cookies, mayonnaise and egg substitutes that frequently contain just egg whites.

There are other names that eggs can be called on food labels. Avoid any product with the “Ov” prefix listed as an ingredient, for example, Ovalbumin.

Some egg allergic children can consume eggs in baked goods, where the protein changes in the baking process. I wouldn’t suggest trying this…this food challenge has happened for some children purely by chance, and parents have determined their tolerance to baked goods. If your child has never had eggs, and is testing severely allergic to eggs, complete avoidance is the only cure!

There are substitutes for eggs in recipes. 

For a product that you can purchase, try: Ener-G Egg Replacer - Click Here
Or you can use the following in recipes:

2 tbsp corn starch = 1 egg
2 tbsp arrowroot flour = 1 egg
2 tbsp potato starch = 1 egg
1 heaping tbsp soy powder + 2 tbsp water = 1 egg
1 tbsp soy milk powder + 1 tbsp cornstarch + 2 tbsp water = 1 egg.
1 banana = 1 egg in cakes.