The Oat Milk Test
Today we deliberately fed Piglet an allergen. Twice. Or at least we think did. One of the things that we found out when we were discovering Piglet’s allergies (another series of posts to come) was that in addition to milk and soya, he seemed to have a reaction to some other substitute milks as well. Specifically oat milk and coconut milk. He’s definitely not allergic to either oats or coconut – he has those all the time! But the milks seemed to cause a similar reaction to cow’s milk and soya. I’ve never understood why, and the scientific side of me can barely believe it, but we just don’t give it to him. Until this morning…
We’ve done fairly well with his allergies recently. He had some soya on holiday in Portugal; the reaction was less severe than perhaps previously experienced. But we’re fairly sure that he’s not struggling with any reactions at the moment. Also, my wife is a teacher and so, while hard at work across most of the summer holidays, she doesn’t go back to work for another week or so. If we were ever going to try Piglet on one of the easier allergies to shake off this was the time to try it.
So when Piglet asked for his milk this morning (if demanding “glass o’milk” as a stand alone sentence can be considered asking!) my wife and I looked at each, grimaced and opened the deliberately planned carton of Oatly Oat Milk. He joyfully drank down his glass and I made him a cup of frothed hot oat milk as well to really slam home the guilt. No signs of any reaction before he headed off to nursery but these things usually take a decent number of hours to start showing up. I expect we’ll know (or hopefully not know) in the middle of the night tonight. I’ll keep you in the loop!
That said, I’m off on a bank holiday stag-do weekend tomorrow. So as much as I’ll miss him, it won’t be me picking up the pieces if he does have an awful weekend as a result. I feel very guilty about this but I did also point it out before we poured the glass this morning and it was agreed it was still the best time to try it. I might put that in writing though before I head off tomorrow morning!
Don’t leave us in suspense Louis! Was there a reaction to the oat milk? Rach x
We’re not 100% sure, Rach, to be honest! He hasn’t had a full on reaction so it hasn’t been a disaster but he’s been a bit out of sorts for the last week and I don’t know if that’s got anything to do with it. We’ll give him a break from it and try again at a later date…
As someone with loads of allergies from a very young age I had trouble spotting which things were causing me to react. I thought I was allergic to potatoes for years because I reacted badly to the sunflower oil most mass produced potato products are fried in.
My family ignored the oil for years because it didn’t seem like an ingredient, something that could be an allergen.
Is there some sort of commonality between the milks? Maybe the Rapeseed Oil? Not sure if there could be trace allergens in the added vitamins, but there could defo be contamination from something that isn’t in the ingredients list.
My point is, even the smallest things like what oil you cook with or which things are stored close together in the fridge can make the difference between a good day and a bad one.
(Sorry if this came off patronising, I’m really just shouting at my past self here as I wish I’d known these things years ago!)
Hi Jenny, thanks for sharing. Definitely not patronising; I very much resonate with your frustration.
I’m sure you’re right; there will be something in one of the non-recognised allergens or in the process that is common between them. What’s funny is that if there is another allergen that is causing it, nothing other than those milks seems to set it off!
I’ve just started a series of blog posts, in fact, that covers the frustrations of these diagnosis issues: What’s that smell Ep1, if you wanted to read it.