I didn’t expect baby A to have egg allergy as I have fed him hard boiled egg white at 7 months old and he was ok.

However when I fed again at 9 months old, this time hard boiled egg white and egg yolk, he had an allergy reaction. Almost immediately, his mouth area started to have rashes, which spread to the whole face and whole body.

I kept feeding him with water hopefully to flush the system while applying some mild steroid cream on the rashes. It was a Sunday and the nearby PD clinics were not opened. I monitored him closely while tying him with my baby carrier to prevent him from scratching himself. Thankfully the rashes subsided after 2 hours and he was back to his usual cheerful self.

During the routine polyclinic checkup, the nurse referred us to KK Hospital as she said baby might not be able to take the 1 year MMR vaccination as the vaccine is made from egg proteins.

We did some allergy prick test at KKH and he was found to be allergic to cow’s milk and egg. It is indeed very weird as he had formula milk derived from cow’s milk before! Anyway, KKH said that it is ok to take MMR as they are not made from egg’s proteins and even the doctor at KKH was puzzled why polyclinics always refer babies with egg allergy to them for the MMR despite telling them it is ok.

Sorry that I digress so much from the egg muffin. To cut the story short, 80% of babies outgrow egg allergy and if babies can tolerate baked eggs, they have higher chance to outgrow egg allergy. So as a kiasi and kiasu mum, I followed the nurse’s instructions and faithfully feed him baked egg products.

This is the baked egg muffin recipe I used, modified from the one given by KKH.

Ingredients:

• 80g self-raising flour
• 20g unsalted butter (if baby is allergic to milk, replace with Nuttelex)
• 80g banana or apple puree (apple sauce)
• 2 large eggs (about 65g each)
• Muffin cups (60x44mm) or muffin baking tin

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 180degrees C for 5 min
2. Combine apple sauce, butter and eggs in a mixing bowl
3. Fold in the flour (I used thermomix and combined step 2 and 3 into one step. Speed 5 for 10 seconds)
4. Divide the batter equally between 6 muffin cases and bake for 25 to 30 min. Bake immediately. Once ready, a metal skewer shoud come out clean when inserted into the muffin.
5. Leave to cool and keep in an airtight container. Can be stored for 3 months in freezer and 5 days in fridge.

To DIY apple sauce/ apple puree,

• peel apple skin off and cut apple into chunks
• steam apple for 10 min. Retain steaming water.
• blend apple with steaming water and add more water if needed to achieve desired consistency.

Important Note!

Before the introduction of baked egg products,

• ensure that the child is well
• not on oral antihistamine for 1 week
• choose a day where you have the time to observe the child for several hours in case of allergic attack
• examine child for pre-existing rashes
• do not introduce other new foods while introducing baked egg products.

The first time I fed him with baked egg muffin, I gave one small pinch and waited about 15 min before giving more spoons of muffins to ensure that he is not having allergic reaction. Once cleared, continue with baked egg products 3 times a week to maintain their tolerance to baked egg.

This muffin is also a very good baby led weaning recipe as baby A can self-feed pretty well with this!