If you have information about goat allergies, please let me know.
Here are some products made from goat or goat's milk.
These cheeses are made from goat's milk. Chevre is a generic term for goat's
cheese. The most popular shape is a log, but there are also
round patties, log-shapes, drum-shapes, pyramids, round loaves,
long loaves. Their textures vary from soft, but firm like cream cheese
to extremely hard. Here are three common varieties. Reader Meg has contributed a much more complete list of goat and sheep milk cheeses.
I was very grateful to find your site, my 3 year old boy tried a bit of goats cheese (his sister likes to eat it like it's an apple!), his face swelled immediately as did his tongue and eyes, we called an ambulance immediately and spent a few hours at the hospital watching his face change shape... today we received the results from a trip to the paediatric immunologist and she advised us that she has been an immunologist for over 30 years and has never ever seen levels like the ones recorded from my little boy's blood test (>100). She went on to say that it is probably an Australasian record and maybe even a world record... not sure it is one to be proud of!
I have been trawling the internet looking for information and am very grateful for your website, I would never have thought of wool and goats in a petting a zoo. After the reaction he had and apparently all subsequent reactions get worse I do not think we want to try it out!
The poor little thing is also allergic to red meat, pork, eggs and dairy. We now have to eliminate all of these from his diet for 12 months and then back to the immunologist, though I don't think he will ever be able to have goats cheese... Thank you!
Have just found and read your web page on goat allergy. Thank you for showing me I am not mad :) I have always had reactions to some wools but have never considered which animal the wool came from. I just knew that some wools were horrible and itchy and some were OK
Recently we have had a change from cows milk (which I love) to the 'more healthy' goats milk. Well my mouth developed a waxy feel, then my tongue turned sore and swollen and the roof of my mouth is also sore (feels like it has been burnt). I have also felt itchy on my skin but with no sign of hives. Since I stopped having goats milk the reaction is beginning to die down but is still sore.
I wondered if I could be allergic to goats milk but having not had a reaction to cows milk was told 'no, not possible'. Your website shows it IS possible and I am not alone in this. Thank you again.
I am allergic to Goat's and Sheep's Milk (but not Cow's Milk!) and this is confirmed by allergy testing. So having done some research and in the process I found your site, and I was intrigued. I have been told for years that it's impossible to be allergic to Goat's Milk and not Cow's Milk and thought I was the only one breaking the "allergy rules!" Nice to know I'm not alone! However, your list of Goat and Sheep Milk cheeses is a little limited for my taste.
I have never reacted to a Goat or sheep as an animal, however I have not yet been tested and it has been some time since I have been exposed. I also may have recently had a reaction to a wool sweater, but it could have been a laundry detergent as I am sensitive to many detergents, dyes and fragrances. Nevertheless, I have a very strong reaction to the milk and cheese. Most recently, my sister was holding my niece and eating a Greek Salad with Feta cheese on it. She then asked me to hold the baby at which point I broke out in hives and quickly had sinus symptoms, red eyes and a scratchy throat. Even this miniscule amount that was not visible to the naked eye caused a reaction, and I felt absolutely awful for a full week. Also recently, I was holding my friends' infant son and he spat up a little on my hand. My hand swelled up instantly and it turns out the starter for his homemade infant formula is made from Goat's Milk! So you can see why I am so cautious and have such an extensive list at the ready!
Thanks for keeping your site running, it's so important to know you're not alone when you discover such an unusual allergy!
AF writes: I have a severe allergy to goats and goats products. I discovered this through regularly travelling to Turkey. I was fine eating feta cheese for several holidays it was when I returned home and purchased a hat, which at the time I didn't realise contained some sort of goat wool and I reacted, quite mildly compared to how I react now. It then went to a pizza i'd bought in a supermarket which had feta on it, I soon reacted to that.
On my next trip to Turkey I ate my favourite three-cheese pizza and reacted, this time a little worse than before. I started with itchy hands, then my eyes, my skin becoming very hot, red and incredibly itchy and then the swelling, my eyes, hands, nose and lips. As soon as I returned I made an appointment at the doctors and was referred to an immunologist who has adamant I could not possibly be allergic to goats and came up with some long winded excuse as to why my body was creating this reaction.
So after this I went straight to the supermarket, purchased some feta and ate it, within ten minutes I was having an horrific reaction. The next day I called the immunologist and explained what had happened and he asked for the ingredients and asked me to return with samples of goats cheese so they could test me. We did that and of course it came back that I was in fact allergic to goats. The doctor was amazed, he'd never come across such an allergy before. Each reaction I had was becoming worse, I was avoiding goats products at all costs but as I do spend a lot of time in Turkey it's impossible to always know what I am eating. On my most recent visit in April I inadvertently caused a reaction by eating cheese cake, it had not ocurred to me that it contained goats milk/cream. Within about an hour I was having the worst reaction to say I had bearly had a tea-spoon full of it. This time my chest tightened and my throat began to close, eventually I was able to vomit which seemed to stop the reaction getting worse but I remained swollen for at least a further twenty four hours.