About eight percent of American children suffer from a food allergy, and the number is growing - especially peanut allergies. The most common food allergens are the proteins in cow’s milk, eggs, peanuts, wheat, soy, fish, shellfish and tree nuts. Some kids are allergic to more than one food. While most allergies are manageable, there are about 200 deaths each year in the United States from anaphylactic reactions to foods.
Symptoms
The most common allergic skin reaction to a food is hives: red, very itchy, swollen areas of the skin that appear suddenly and disappear quickly. Other common symptoms are eczema, asthma, and gastrointestinal symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea.
In severe cases, a food allergy can cause a systemic, life-threatening reaction called anaphylaxis.
Diagnosis
The main problem with diagnosing a food allergy is that allergy tests are not always accurate and are difficult to interpret. A positive result only suggests - but does not confirm - that the person is allergic to the food. A person can test positive for an allergy to a certain food and yet eat that food with no problems whatsoever. So you need to be careful not to limit your child’s diet more than is absolutely necessary.
Prevention
The best way to avoid food allergies is to breastfeed exclusively for at least the first six months and then continue to breastfeed until your child is at least 12 months old. It’s best if the mother avoids peanuts and tree nuts while breastfeeding. Do not introduce solid foods to your infant until she is at least six months old, and then start with an iron-fortified rice cereal. Avoid cow’s milk and dairy products until your child is 12 months old, egg whites until she’s 2 years old, and peanuts, tree nuts and fish until she’s 3 years old.
Growing out of food allergies
Children do grow out of food allergies - mostly cow’s milk and eggs. But if your child is allergic to peanuts or to fish, he is less likely to outgrow the allergy. In addition, the more serious the allergic reaction is, the less likely it is that your child will outgrow it.
Food Labeling
One of the biggest challenges for parents to kids who suffer from a food allergy used to be reading food labels. For example, if your child is allergic to milk, he will be allergic to milk products too, which include, among other ingredients, casein, whey, and curds.
Federal law now requires food manufacturers to clearly list the 8 most common potential allergens on the nutrition label, so avoiding allergy-causing foods should now be easier. Unfortunately, there’s always some risk: a product has been recently recalled because the manufacturer had failed to list milk as one of the ingredients.
Photo credit: slopjop
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2 Responses
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Hi Vered - I wish I had known this earlier. I started feeding Joshua solids when he was around 3 months - as recommended in the books given out by the NHS in the UK, at the time. He has had asthma and eczema since he was v young. I know he has allergic to some animals but I still don’t know what other allergies he has.
He did have testing but the doctor took off home to India for 3 months after the tests and she didn’t turn up for her appointment that she’d scheduled on her return.
I know we’re lucky that we have free healthcare in the UK (well not totally free as we pay a huge amount of national insurance contributions to pay for it.) But it really sucks sometimes. And I looked into private care policies but the hospitals they sent to you, if you got ill were not good ones and not even handy for home.
His recent bout of exczema is now clearing up with some cream from the doctors but I would really love to know what is causing it. He eats most of the stuff you listed, so maybe I need to eliminate one thing at a time from his diet, to see what is causing the problem.
Hi Cath, eliminating one thing at a time is probably a good idea. My older daughter suffers from mild eczema - I know how annoying it can be.
Re health care, Obama seems to be intent on providing universal health care in the U.S. too. But I think people don’t realize it’s very costly in terms of health taxation, and that the coverage is often very basic so people still need to purchase private health insurance.