Are allergies inherited?

I’m not a doctor or medical specialist to say for sure, but my own personal opinion is that some allergies are inherited.  But having said that, I also tend to feel that some of the allergens are coming from how our food is being processed now with lots of additives, hormones, antibiotics and chemicals, and our bodies don’t know how to process them.

Both my husband and I have milk allergies now, but back when our little boy was severely allergic to milk, we were both doing okay with dairy products.  Was it lying dormant in our bodies and not manifesting itself then, or did we just develop the allergy in recent years?

However, now our son has a cute little girl that when she was about 6 months old she broke out in hives when she had a milk based formula.  So they kept her off all dairy just in case.  She just turned 1 and the doctor said she could be allergy tested now.  So last week she was tested, and even having the milk diluted for the allergy skin test, she had a severe reaction.

I’m so sad that she has to go through the same things her dad did, but I also feel that dairy isn’t really that great for any of us anyways.  Sure it’s a pain to figure out alternatives, but once you have those figured out you can do it.  I want to share a few ideas.

First:  For severe allergies be sure and get an epi-pen (there are generic brands now by other names).  Severe allergies can sometimes turn into anaphylatic shock, so you want to be prepared at all times.  Have a few on hand to keep in different places.  You’re childs diaper bag or back-pack, your purse, emergency kit, etc.

Second: Get a medical alert bracelet or necklace.  On the back you can have them engrave what your childs allergies are.  Wearing the bracelet or necklace also helps alert and remind everyone to help protect the child/person from their allergens.  There are several options out there, but we used https://www.medicalert.org/.  

Third: Study out all products and derivitives of the allergen.  Because we’re talking about dairy today, I’m going to share other names and hidden dairy derivitives to watch for.

Click here to read and download the PDF file: Dairy Allergens

I hope this will be helpful.  I’ll be posting more information on food allergies and other helpful ideas soon.