Does that Have Cow Milk?

I’m sure everyone who reads this knows, but at 1 year old Colin was diagnosed with a milk protein allergy. This meant that for the past two years, we have had to be vigilant about making sure he hasn’t ingested milk in any form or in any amount. If you’ve never dealt with a milk allergy, it’s almost unbelievable how hard it is to avoid. Milk is in so many things, even soy products. In order to avoid it, we’ve had to read every single label while shopping with a list of ingredients that contain milk in mind. We’ve had to avoid eating out because of the risk of cross-contamination.



Recently, I told Colin about his milk allergy. He has been so much more independent and has been at school, so I knew he needed to ask people about what is in his food. I didn’t know he would not only understand his allergy, but become completely obsessed about talking about it. He has a litany of “cow milk” questions/comments that he goes through whenever he eats. “Does that have cow milk in it?” “Does it have cow milk?” “I don’t drink cow milk.” “I drink soy milk! and rice milk!” “Daddy drinks cow milk.” “Owen drinks mommy milk!” “Mommy drinks rice milk!” “When I’m 20, I’m going to drink cow milk.” “I’m allergic to cow milk!” “Bobby drinks cow milk!” “Blue [from Blue’s Clues] drinks cow milk!” “Do we drink horse milk?” “No, horse milk would be so silly!” and on and on and on and on…

Colin was tested via a RAST blood test two weeks ago to see if he is still allergic to milk. I had a faint hope that he might have outgrown his allergy, but I barely let myself entertain it because of the risk of being so incredibly disappointed. Amazingly, he has outgrown it! I cried real tears of joy when I got the phone call. It has been so hard keeping up the vigilance of having a child with food allergies that I almost can’t imagine life without that heightened awareness. We still have two hurdles to overcome. He has to have a skin scratch test done to confirm he’s outgrown the allergy and then he will undergo a food challenge at the allergist’s office. But it looks like soon enough Colin will be enjoying eating out, sharing birthday cake with his friends, eating pizza at school and of course, drinking the elusive cow milk.