This is the reply I received from Allergy NZ:

Dear Tara,


Here are the infant feeding guidelines from the Australasian Society of Clinical Allergy and Immunology http://www.allergy.org.au/content/view/350/287/


Also, think the general feeding guidelines for any infant is not to feed them whole egg eg scrambled egg until they are one. Baked egg is okay because the protein is cooked and changed - and you are not eating it in the same quantities.


I would actually insist on having skin prick test carried out - it could well be that your son has outgrown his allergy. Milk tends to be outgrown within the first couple of years.

 So really I'm still not sure what to do.

Sorry haven't read all the replies so hope I'm not repeating anything...

 My older 2 have no allergies whatsoever, no eczema either.  Then Jett came along.  Was pretty much born with mild eczema.  At 6 months I tried him with the watties baby custard - plain.  The ingrediants said it had full cream milk (no egg).  He only took a couple of mouthfuls but was not interersted in it so I didn't force it.  Just as well.  His eczema started to flare up and he started getting hive type splotches all over, and his chin went bright red and his bottom lip went white.  I knew he was reacting to it.  So I called healthline and told them what happened.  He was fine in himself though and the nurse could hear his happy sounds so said to keep an eye on him.  It settled by itself after about 20 mins so I then avoided dairy products in his diet til he was a year old.

I know they say you should avoid egg whites (there's a protein in it that children can react to??) til child is 1 yr old.  So I didn't give Jett egg as a whole (but didn't avoid food that had egg in it).  At 14 months I thought it would be safe to try Jett with egg.  I gave him a poached egg for breakfast.  He loved it!!  I then went to put him down for his morning nap and he wasn't settling.  I went to have a nap myself and thought I'd let him settle himself to sleep.  After him being quiet for 1/2 an hour I heard him grizzling again, and I had a bad feeling - mother's instinct for sure!  Knowing I'd given him whole sole egg for breakfast and him not being settled I knew I should check on him  Sure enough I got a huge fright when I walked into his room.  His eyes had puffed up, as had his ears.  His eczema flared up crazy too he was so aggitated and scratching like mad.  I hadn't showered or dressed so grabbed Jett, told Gia to get in the car, rang Dh while I was getting dressed and told him to meet me at the Dr's surgery.  I took him straight down to the Dr and ran inside to reception and almost burst out crying showing the receptionist my poor boy and said I think he's reacted to egg.  They took me straight into a room and a nurse and Dr came in right away and started giving him steriods and antihistemine.  He was grizzling away and his eyelids looked like they were going to pop they were soo swollen he could hardly see out them.  Dh arrived and then we were told to go up to the hospital for monitoring for the day.

So.. that's my experience with introducing my 3rd child to egg.  Seriously, scariest day of my life!  It took ALL day for his eye-lids to come down from the swelling.  The hospital dr's said it was a mild reaction being that his mouth didn't swell up.

I say, being that C had ezcema and you taking wheat and dairy out of your diet has improve things for Cooper, I would avoid egg white as much as possible to allow him to hopefully grow out of any allergies he might have.

Jett was tested for egg allergy and he's a level 2 (low).  He can have food still with egg in it (i.e. baking) but we obviously don't feed him pavola, poached, boiled, fried or scrambled egg.

The nurse at Plunket Line was really good, she suggested waiting until 12 months but not going crazy with avoiding products that have egg in them IYGWIM. But, she said she wasn't 100% sure on it so gave me the number for Allergy NZ, so I have left a message with them.

The Plunket nurse said it would be a whole heap easier if DS had been allergy tested though so at least we knew what we were dealing with.

ETA - will update when I hear back from Allergy NZ.

Ok thanks ladies. I might give Plunketline a call just to be sure.

T-Rex - Our doctor referred us at the beginning of May and we were seen mid-July. I got a letter in the post about 6 weeks after the referral with the appointment time.

When can we offer it? DS is 7 1/2 months.
I was given a custard recipe which has egg in it, I thought DS might have fun playing with that. And things like french toast, scrambled eggs etc.

What about with allergies/intolerances?? Is it just a history or egg allergies where we need to be extra vigilant about introducing it or is it any allergy? We have no family history of any allergies but I have cut wheat (for ezcema) and dairy (for reflux) out of my diet and these seem to have helped him a lot. But we haven't had any testing done so not sure if these are allergies or intolerances or what?