The most common meals and snacks that are popular with kids would usually contain milk, butter or cheese so since my son outgrew his milk allergies, preparing meals for him has been a lot easier. He still has other food allergies to deal with, but with milk off the list, it has considerably widened our food choices. Cheese, yoghurt, pizza, mac-and-cheese, potatoes and sour cream, butter cookies... suddenly, there was a whole range of foods that were open to us.

It is true that most kids outgrow their milk allergies at some point in their lives. Still, a large percentage, about 20% never does. Mike Cohen is one of those.

Can you imagine being milk allergic for life? People think milk allergies are less important, less serious than peanut allergies, which people are more aware of. I know a lot of people, who, despite my repeated explanation, do not really understand the difference between milk allergies and lactose intolerance, for example. The reality is, dairy allergies are just as challenging, if not more, than peanut allergies.

"One of the huge frustrations for parents of milk-allergic children is that they will typically find that someone with peanut allergy gets lots of respect and lots of precautions taken and the same respect is almost impossible to get for milk allergy," Wood says. Examples of precautions are cleaning school lunch tables well or placing children with peanut butter at a separate table. "Whatever precautions need to be in place for something like peanut allergy, need to be in place for milk allergy as well," says Wood.

Photo: National Dairy Council