A life without eggs? *gasp*
Egg whites are the second most common allergen so a reaction is actually more normal than you think and the good news is that your baby will most likely out-grow this allergy / intolerance by the time they are 12 months old. There are four different proteins inside the white that can cause a reaction, two of which are highly allergenic so even if your baby didn’t react, there is a very good chance you know someone who has experienced this with their child.
When following our Infant Nutrition Program, I preach that egg yolks are the very best start for your bubba and I stand by that statement despite the fact that Mason, my youngest baby, reacted very poorly to the whites. Egg yolks deliver so much of the right nutrition at 6 months so you need to give the prep a go (We have a step-by-step video on the program to help you!). It’s really tough to get a good egg yolk prep with ZERO white in there and reactions can range from a small rash around the mouth that will disappear in a few hours and will not affect baby’s temperament to full blown projectile vomiting and diarrhoea. I want to share my experience with you so you understand egg white allergies a bit more and so you know that you’re not alone if this happens to you.
Big Mase, as we like to call him because he’s HUGE, started on soft boiled egg yolks, liver and celtic sea salt at 6 months. It was his first food and he seemed to enjoy it. The first 3 times we tried it in that week, everything was normal. I’m positive I got a bit of white in on the second and third prep but Mason was fine. I was patting myself on the back for getting through my first introduction with him and then we gave it to him a fourth time. OH MY GOODNESS. He ate everything as normal and we were out later that day and he projectile vomited all over the car. In fairness, Mason was a champ at spitting up but this was 10x the amount that he would normally spit up so I knew something was going on.
What came up was mostly milk so I didn’t actually put 2 and 2 together to think it might be the egg. We started other foods in the rotation and he had beef, bone broth, sweet potato, carrots, yellow squash and ghee by the time I did egg yolk again. I mixed it with a cube of sweet potato, carrot, squash and ghee and he ate the whole thing so quickly that I thought it was a slam dunk combination (insert: more patting myself on the back). I fed him at 11am and he went to sleep around 12:30pm. Now, I’m one of the lucky ones – Mason sleeps for 2.5-3 hours every afternoon so you can imagine my surprise when he started squawking at 1pm and when it became clear that he was not going to put himself back to sleep, I went in to check on him. As soon as I picked him up, his little body started to convulse and I knew he was going to throw up.
The poor little guy was so sick! I managed to get it only on me and him so I did a quick change and he promptly threw up again. This went on for about 1 hour and then he stopped throwing up and the diarrhoea started. I changed him 4 times in 15 minutes before I finally decided to just lay him on his change mat and let him sleep. He was so tired.
He fell asleep for about an hour and I breastfed him as soon as he woke up. He was completely back to his normal, happy and giggly self.
I continued on with my food preparations as per the Infant Nutrition Program and he was eating everything with no issue.
I booked in with our GP and was referred to an allergist. My appointment with the allergist lasted about an hour and she went through Mason’s food history and asked me loads of common questions that you would expect would be asked. Then she marked up Mase’s legs and started “skin prick text” AKA the allergy IgA testing for the following things:
- Milk
- Soy
- Wheat (gluten & gliadin)
- Sesame
- Peanut
- Almond
- Brazil Nut
- Cashew
- hazelnut
- Macadamia
- PecanPistachio
- Pine Nut
- Walnut
- Coconut
- Egg White
- Egg Yolk
So here’s the catch. Mason reacted to NOTHING. Yep, that’s right. Zero reactions which means he isn’t allergic / intolerant to egg whites! It was such a relief to get those results and know that the reaction I saw was not due to an allergy.
We reintroduced eggs again 4 weeks after he was tested and he was absolutely fine. He now eats boiled eggs, sunny side up eggs, scrambled eggs and mini omelettes.
My experience probably won’t match yours but sometimes it helps to know that this happens to others. If you experienced a small rash, I would wait 4 weeks and reintroduce eggs using prep #2. You can go for egg yolks again or go for a fully cooked version, like an oat slice because the baking process will denature the egg white proteins. It’s very likely that your baby will grow out of this quickly. Continue on to the beef preparation because it’s really important to get the iron and zinc into those little bodies now for optimal brain growth and development.
Hey! So what was the reaction then? My 8month old has the same reaction – vomitting and diarrhoea just like you described and I’m narrowing it down to eggs. Not sure white or yolk because i used both in her pancakes.it has happened twice. She has eaten boiled egg whites earlier but hardly any quantity to trigger a reaction i guess.
Hi Rani – I’m so sorry you’re experiencing the same thing we did – it can be stressful when Bub is unwell! In our case, it was egg whites but given that your bub has had egg whites before with no issue, I don’t think that will be your culprit even though whites are more likely to cause a reaction.
To investigate further, we’d need to understand how much egg white was originally given (when you saw no reaction) and we’d also want to know the other ingredients in the pancakes. Without that extra information, we would recommend avoiding both egg white and yolk until month 10 to allow Bub’s intestines to seal up a bit more. When you re-introduce, start with a boiled egg and split out the yolk and white. Test them separately and in very small quantities. Keep us posted on how Bub handles it.
Thank you for sharing! I’ve been following a similar food introduction. My little guy is experiencing almost exactly the same thing. He was doing great with boiled egg yolks then suddenly he wasn’t. The first time he vomited a couple of hours after eating and threw up every 10-15 minutes for about 2 hours. I took him to the pediatrician and they did an ultrasound to check for pyloric stenosis – everything came back normal on the ultrasound. I too didn’t connect it to the eggs until today (10 days since the first vomiting episode) I tried the egg yolk again for the first time since and the same thing, woke up vomiting a couple hours after eating it. I’m wondering now if I should go to the pediatrician to be referred for allergy testing or try egg yolk again in 6 weeks or so. Do you think the egg white could be getting into the yolk causing the reaction?
Hi Ali – it’s so tough watching the little ones be sick, isn’t it? It’s great that you were able to narrow it down to eggs though so we can try to figure this out. I’d definitely be waiting 6-8 weeks to let your bub’s intestines close up a bit more and then try an egg that is cooked a bit longer so it’s really easy to separate the yolk and the white – try 7 or 8 minutes in the boiling water. If you get the same reaction, then wait until month 10 and test out something like commercially baked banana bread that you’d get from a cafe. Yes, the ingredients are not ideal and will be processed but those breads are cooked in a very hot oven so the proteins in the egg white will be denatured. If you still get a reaction then, I would consider getting the allergy testing. That is just one option, if you want a result now, then definitely get the allergy testing done as soon as possible. The photos look like it was a hassle but honestly, it wasn’t bad and it did help give me confidence that he wasn’t allergic to anything else. I hope that helps!
You said try 4 weeks later with prep #2. Remind me what that is?
Hi There 🙂 Prep 1 has a higher chance of getting some sneaky egg white in with the yolk which can cause a reaction. Prep 2 is cooked longer and the yolk will separate much easier. The choice of prep is up to you and really depends on if your Bub is okay with the harder texture of prep 2 but if bub reacts to prep 1 then prep 2 will be a safer option to really test if it’s the white that is causing the reaction. Waiting 4 weeks just gives Bub’s intestines a chance to close up a bit more. Hope that helps!
Thanks for sharing this! How do I learn about egg prep? Thanks!
Hey Kirsten – both preps for egg yolk are in month 6 of the nourishing phase nutrition program. My first bub preferred prep 1 but my second liked prep 2 so we offer both depending on what your little one prefers. You might need to thin out prep 2 but that’s easily done with a bit of breastmilk or formula! If you’re a member of our Nutrition Project family, check out the month 6 tile and you’ll see step-by-step photos for both preps there. If you’re not in the family yet, hop online at http://www.thenutritionproject.com and click “join our family”. We’d love to have you!!