^ Let me try to answer your concerns regarding your niece:
A. Eats egg yolks like crazy
Actually, egg yolk is not very allergenic. It is the egg white that is more allergenic than egg yolk and chicken combined. That is why it is not advisable to introduce egg white before 2 years of age. Egg yolk can be introduced as early as 10 months of age.
B. She is ok but she has sneezing fits each morning when she wakes up and is fine through out the day
She sneezes in the morning because that is probably the time when her allergens are most predominant. Usually those who have allergic attacks at night time or early morning is allergic to house dust mite.
It goes away through out the day because the presence of allergens diminish.
If it is occurring daily, then her symptoms are already persistent and warrants an Allergy consult for identification of Allergens/triggers and allergy management.
c. Can it lead to Asthma?
With the information you gave, yes, it can lead to asthma if her allergic rhinitis and skin asthma are not well controlled. We call this the Allergic march.
d. Complications of Allergic rhinitis
In reality, there are more patients with Allergic rhinitis compared to patients with asthma. However, most patients ignore Allergic rhinitis since they say it is just "sipon" and consult only when complications arise as a result of persistent or poorly treated Allergic rhinitis.
These are the complications of Allergic rhinitis:
1. Frequent ear infections
2. Frequent allergic conjunctivitis or allergic sore eyes
3. Frequent tonsillitis with persistent enlargement of the tonsils due to post nasal drip and may lead to sleep apnea later on
4. Frequent sinusitis
5. Asthma
Allergic rhinitis and asthma are lifelong diseases, but the symptoms can be controlled with proper patient education, treatment and identification/avoidance of triggers.
Oh and by the way, yesterday, July 8 was the celebration of the National Allergy Day.
