All About Baked Milk

It’s time to celebrate! For the first time since embarking on this food allergy journey, we’re adding a food back rather than taking more away! We’ve been slowly increasing the amount of baked milk muffin our kid eats over the past few months and a couple of weeks ago, she finally passed the baked milk food challenge eating an entire muffin made with 1/6  cup of real, true, cow's milk. Since milk was the first thing she had anaphylaxis to, this is a huge deal for our family.

But what exactly is baked milk? It’s not just pouring milk into a casserole dish and baking it (yummy, a pot of warm milk!). It’s baked goods with milk in them (with very specific restrictions, of course). It can include:

• Store bought foods that have cow’s milk listed as the third ingredient or lower in the ingredients list
• Home baked recipes that have less than 1/6 a cup of milk per serving
• They must be cooked thoroughly
• The milk must be cooked in a wheat (or wheat alternative mix)- like breads, crackers, cookies, cakes, and muffins

It does not include: 

• Pancakes, waffles
• Pudding, custards, and other milk products that are "cooked"
• Chocolate chips with milk in them even if you bake them
• Any cheese flavoring added after the cracker is baked (oh Goldfish, why do you have to look so tasty, but still be off limits?)

AND you have to account for any other allergies you have which can be pretty limiting.

But why can she tolerate milk in a muffin now but not cheese?

Well, when milk is baked in the oven, it denatures the milk protein, or changes it shape, making it less likely for the body to recognize it as dairy milk. By changing the shape, the body’s milk IgE doesn’t necessarily recognize the milk protein as milk protein and no allergic reaction is triggered.

Ways to denature a protein: heat, acid, or having a toddler help with laundry

Okay, so pancakes have milk that are exposed to heat, why aren't they safe?

I couldn’t get a super clear answer, but from reading a few studies, it seems like it’s not just the heat that denatures the protein, it’s the time that the milk is exposed to the heat. Higher heat AND longer exposure to that heat increase the number of milk proteins that are denatured. Delicious pancakes and waffles that cook quickly are out, but quick breads, muffins, cupcakes, and cakes that bake for longer should all be okay.

In reality, this didn’t really open a door to new a lot of new food; more of a tiny window that will hopefully, in the future, lead to growing out her milk allergy. Because if she can tolerate baked milk, there’s a good chance (cross our fingers, knock on wood, say a short prayer) she will eventually tolerate all kinds of dairy. Only muffins now but maybe yogurt and ice cream and pudding and custard and cheese and icing and birthday cakes and whipped cream in the future! So, cheers to tricking her little body into learning that dairy is safe! One tiny, very specific, baked muffin bite at a time.