WARNING! Dairy where you would LEAST expect it

From the personal desk of Dr. Nguyen Tran:

My 2-year-old has a severe allergy to cow’s milk.  We discovered this after he had anaphylaxis to his first bottle of cow’s milk formula when he was 6-months-old.  Having to give my own baby an injection of epinephrine at home was one of the most anxiety provoking things I have done in my life and I am a board-certified allergist who does this for a living!  (I had to ask my husband what our home address was when I was on the phone with 9-1-1).  Thankfully he has been doing very well for over a year now without any bad reactions until recently.

We were on a family outing at a local farmstead in Kansas City when my kids decided they wanted to feed the baby goats.  Baby bottles can be purchased to feed the baby goats; I never suspected that they feed baby goats something other than goat’s milk.  Somehow during the feeding frenzy that occurs as the goats suck the milk from the baby bottles, some milk got on my little one’s hands.  Then he started rubbing his eyes and face and it went downhill from there.   He immediately started to develop hives on the right side of his face, his right eye became swollen, and he started sneezing like crazy.  Luckily it did not progress to wheezing, trouble breathing, or any swelling of his lips/mouth/throat, etc.  He responded very quickly to medicine but it was a harsh reminder for me that you should never really assume things and to be more vigilant about asking if there is any potential exposure to dairy.