My daughter is already 14 months old and just as I thought we've escaped the curse of food allergies that was imposed by genes and fate on my older son, she breaks out in hives. The culprit? Eggs.

Because of our experience with food allergies with my first-born, we've been extremely careful introducing the top 8 food items that cause allergies into my younger daughter's diet. So far, we know that she's not allergic to milk, fish, wheat and soy and and until recently, she hasn't had the other four common food allergens, except eggs that may be present in pasta, breads and other processed foods. But a sampling of omelette had her getting red around the mouth area and sipping juice a tad bit more frantically. This is the first time this happened, and of course, there's a possibility it was something else altogether. We haven't done any elimination diet or other tests to confirm it, but arrgh, it just makes me so frustrated that she reacted to something. I was hoping she would be spared from food allergies.

Fortunately, a lot of children eventually outgrow egg allergies. So in a sense, I'm thankful it's just eggs (if it is indeed the eggs). But then, there are the toughies still ahead. Will she be allergic to peanuts, tree nuts and shellfish, too? Hopefully not.