Warm Milk May Not Trigger Milk Allergy

by Aimee Amodio | More from this Blogger

04 Aug 2008 12:30 PM

A study from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York looked at children with milk allergies.

One hundred children with milk allergies participated in the study. In the first phase of the study, the children were given baked goods (muffins and waffles) that contained milk protein that had been heated. If the child tolerated the baked goods, he or she was given unheated milk. If the child could not tolerate the unheated milk, he or she was fed baked goods that contained milk protein for three months and then re-evaluated.

In the first phase of the study, 68 out of the hundred children could tolerate heated milk (in baked goods) but not unheated milk. Twenty-three children reacted to heated milk. Nine children tolerated both heated and unheated milk.

The children who had an allergic reaction to heated milk had a higher level of milk-specific antibodies. They also exhibited more severe reactions to milk than children who could tolerate heated milk.

After the third phase -- three months of baked goods that include milk -- the children had smaller reactions to skin tests and a higher tolerance for milk proteins than they did at the beginning of the study.

What does all this mean? Children with a milk allergy produce antibodies that react to specific milk proteins. Some children who outgrow a milk allergy may still have milk-specific antibodies. Heating the milk can destroy the reaction-causing proteins -- this is what led researchers to wonder if children with a milk allergy could tolerate milk that had been heated.

These results need to be confirmed by further study... but it could mean that in the future, the way we treat milk allergies will change. Study authors believe that allowing a child with a milk allergy to eat baked goods that include milk or drink heated milk can reduce allergic reactions.

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