When my daughter Akari was 5 months old I gave her cheese and got the shock of my life. At the instant cheese touched her tongue, rashes appeared all over her body and she was crying in pain.

I rushed to the nearest hospital and found out through a series of blood tests performed on her that she is allergic to milk and eggs and ALL their by-products. Since she was born, I had been breastfeeding fully so had been eating nutritious foods that comprised mainly of dairy and poultry products. Now every thing fell into place like a jigsaw puzzle: her terrible cries at night, the rashes on her neck and forehead (that I thought to be blisters caused by sweat only), and the uncomfortable feeling she had every after breastfeeding session was all because of the allergy. She was itching all over but her tiny little hands could not reach anywhere. What a pity!

She was allergic to milk and eggs and should not be given any of these and since I was breastfeeding without any restrictions, I should not introduce allergens to her body by giving her mother’s milk with these allergy-triggering substances. Simply put, I should stop drinking milk, and any beverages with milk in it. I should stop eating ice cream, cakes, cookies with milk and eggs on it (all cookies have at least one of these two!), shove away my sunny-side up every morning, cheese, butter, pizza (because it has cheese on it), most breads. I made this sacrifice just so I can continue to breastfeed. I shunned all eggs in my system, replaced milk with soya (it was yuck at first but eventually became acceptable later, I had no choice), no ice cream for me, and no breads for more than a year. I baked breads using soya and margarine instead of milk and butter. She has not tasted any ready-made food or Gerber available in supermarkets, I prepared all her food from scratch. I had to be more creative and experimental with my cooking to balance her nutritional intake.

If you’ll ask me if it was hard to make such sacrifice, my answer is a big resounding YES. It is a lot harder than becoming a vegetarian in one night. Also, since she is allergic to milk and eggs and her allergy factor is so high, we were advised to take away chicken (parent of the egg, ha ha) and beef (source of milk). All we (me and her) can have are fish, pork and all vegetables or fruits.

Every day I would pray she would be well just like the other normal kids and be able to taste foods forbidden to her. I was in denial. She was eating three meals a day at 12 months and I wanted so much to share the joys of eating anything. So I bought a bagel one day, which contained milk but with no eggs. She was surprised and happy at the new-found treasure but the moment the bagel touched her lips and her chin, red rashes appeared again and I have to rub on her medication. I never repeated the same experiment again.

Being a chocolate lover that I am, it was very difficult to give up the soothing, melting sweet chocolatey feel inside my mouth. Just the thought of it would surge my longing and would stress me out. I gave in and ate 2 small chunks and left the rest to fate. Right after, my daughter was itching all over before she could even burp after breastfeeding.

Now, 4 years after that diagnosis, my darling daughter can take chicken and beef without problem. It is always a delight to see her eat chicken teriyaki or beef stew for dinner.

She can eat breads that contain milk and even gulped down one cone of ice cream last weekend. It was like a whole new world of food to her. For the first time in her life, she ate chocolates and ice cream. She was so happy that she asked for more! Her face lit up as if saying, where were these good stuff before??

Her allergy factor to milk decreased greatly that she can take almost every thing with it with exceptions to direct milk itself. Her allergy to eggs has yet to improve but I am beginning to see hope, maybe within another year, she can have her sunny side up too and finally she can blow the candles on her birthday cake and then eat some.

I am thankful that almost 4 years after the allergy diagnosis, my daughter can take milk and milk products and some products with egg. That she can finally have a birthday where she can eat her cake.