Background: Cow’s milk is the most common childhood food allergen. Oral immunotherapy (OIT) with raw milk may act as an active interventional therapy, however, adverse reactions are common.
Objective: The aim of this multicenter study is to examine if cow's milk allergic patients can incorporated baked milk products into their diets.
Patients and methods: Eligible subjects were aged 1 to 18 years, had positive SPT or detectable serum milk-specific IgE, and had a history of an allergic reaction to milk within 6 months before study entry. Exclusion criteria include a negative SPT or undetectable milk-specific IgE level; a history of anaphylaxis requiring ICU; unstable asthma; eosinophilic gastroenteropathy; a recent reaction (within 6 months) to a baked milk product; pregnancy.
Results: Until now 34 patients were recruited including 22 males and 12 females in an average age of 4.9 years (range 1.2 – 8.5). Eight of them (24%) were allergic to other foods (sesame, eggs, peanuts, nuts) and 18/34 (53%) had other allergic diseases including AD – 8, AR – 7, Asthma – 5. Family history of atopy was positive in 14 (41%) patients.
29\34 (85%) of our patients completed the ingestion of the baked milk product and successfully incorporate it into their diet
Conclusions: OIT with baked milk is well tolerated in most of our patients. Moreover, it is a safer, more convenient, less-costly, and less labor-intensive form of OIT, and therefore makes it a reasonable approach to most milk allergic patients.
