Tolerance to Cow's Milk Allergy

I just read a brief news item this morning about tolerating cow's milk . . . this brought back childhood memories of my father . . . I remember he always used canned evaporated milk on his oatmeal and only occasionally had fresh milk after he had heated it thoroughly. I recalled asking 'why' . . . he had simply said, "that's how my 'tummy' likes it." As I get older myself, there are these little things which remind me of my parents' wisdom.

O.K., back to the news item . . .

According to a report in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 75 percent of children with cow's milk allergy will be able to tolerate it if the milk is heated extensively. Dr. Anna Nowak-Wegrzyn from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and her colleagues say that children with persistent milk allergy produce antibodies that react against specific milk proteins that their immune system recognizes as foreign.

Children who have outgrown their milk allergies still have milk-specific antibodies, but the specific milk proteins that trigger this reaction can almost entirely be destroyed through exposure to high temperatures. The researchers therefore reasoned that children with milk allergy might tolerate milk if it were extensively heated.