Heated Milk For Milk Allergy

Filed in archive Allergy: Research and Development , Food Allergies on July 24, 2008

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Most kids with milk allergy may tolerate cow's milk when it is heated extensively.

One hundred children (mean age, 7.5 years; range, 2.1-17.3 years) underwent heated milk challenges. Sixty-eight subjects tolerated extensively heated milk only, 23 reacted to heated milk, and 9 tolerated both heated and unheated milk. Heated milk-reactive subjects had significantly larger skin prick test wheals and higher milk-specific and casein-specific IgE levels than other groups.

At 3 months, subjects ingesting heated milk products had significantly smaller skin prick test wheals and higher casein-IgG4 compared with baseline; other immunologic parameters, growth, and intestinal permeability were not significantly different. Heated milk-reactive subjects had more severe symptoms during heated milk challenge than heated milk-tolerant subjects experienced during their unheated milk challenge.

Such were the research findings reported July 14 in Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Extensively heated meat products talked about in this particular study are baked products. Can cow's milk allergic kids eat cake now? I suggest talking to your doctor...don't go right ahead! Building tolerance like as described in this study is for sure isn't applicable to every kid.

The group at Mount Sinai School of Medicine hypothesized that because high temperature largely destroys conformational epitopes - children with milk allergy would tolerate extensively heated (baked) milk products. Well, I'm honestly a bit skeptic even if the results here say otherwise. I don't want to put any child's life in danger.