What is it about ?
Food allergy is a hypersensitivity reaction to certain foods. The body reacts abnormally to certain dietary proteins. He regards them as foreign substances, which he must reject. This type of rejection reaction comes with a series of symptoms.
In infants, the most common cause is (cow’s) milk and, when introducing solid foods, eggs and grains (wheat, barley and rye). In school-aged children allergic to birch pollen, hypersensitivity reactions to fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts and root vegetables are more common.
Food hypersensitivity refers to both food allergy and food intolerance. The underlying mechanisms are different. Food allergy is an abnormal response of the immune system to certain proteins from the diet, which is not the case with food intolerance, which is due to a disorder in the digestion of certain food products. This disorder is caused by a lack of certain substances that play a role in digestion.
What is their frequency?
2 to 7% of children have a food allergy. Half of parents with a baby under 2 think their child has a food allergy. A large number of symptoms, such as poor appetite, vomiting, frequent throwing up, slightly softer stools, etc. are wrongly attributed to a food allergy.
How to recognize them?
A variety of different symptoms can occur, whether immediately after a meal or several hours or even days later:
- skin problems: a rash with itching and red spots, ranging from true hives to the more chronic childhood eczema disorder.
- eyes: itching, tearing, swelling of the eyelids.
- gastrointestinal symptoms: vomiting, diarrhea, stomach ache. Itching in the mouth (the gateway to food!) Is also common.
- Breathing problems: Sneezing, runny nose and wheezing are rather rare and most often due to simultaneous hay fever.
- other signs of illness: incessant crying (“crying babies”), poor sleep, insufficient weight gain.
How is the diagnosis made?
A careful questioning of the mother will already provide a lot of information: what are the symptoms? When did they start? When were the different foods introduced into the diet?
There is no good test for diagnosing cow’s milk allergy in infants. It is usually suspected because the symptoms appear soon after the introduction of cow’s milk in the diet. These symptoms disappear as soon as cow’s milk is replaced by soy milk, for example, but reappear immediately when the child consumes cow’s milk again.
In the case of a very severe allergy, an exposure test may be performed in the hospital. In this context, the baby receives increasing amounts of cow’s milk and his reactions are closely monitored. In older children, skin and blood tests are not very helpful. In this group, the diagnosis is mainly made by means of elimination and exposure tests. It is actually a question of completely eliminating the suspect food from the diet of the child. The reactions are then noted in a logbook. Then the different foods are reintroduced one by one. If the symptoms reappear after the reintroduction of a specific product, it is probably to that food that the child is allergic.
The child will usually be referred to a pediatrician if he has a severe allergy, that is, if he has severe symptoms and / or immediate reactions that could be life threatening.
What can you do ?
Breast milk is and remains the best food for infants! If there are any cases of food allergy in your family, try to breastfeed for as long as possible.
If you suspect that your child has a food allergy, keeping a diary can be of great help to the doctor. Note when the symptoms appear, the exact nature of the symptoms, the time to onset after the meal, … Also note very carefully when you introduce new products into the diet and what the consequences are. Monitor your child’s growth closely, including height and weight.
Once the diagnosis is made, you must adhere to the proposed diet as closely as possible. Up to the age of 2 years, cow’s milk will preferably be replaced by special milks such as soy milk and whey. If that doesn’t work, there are other (more expensive) special milks. In older children, foods that cause an allergy should also be completely banned from the diet. There is no point in giving them in small amounts! It is very difficult to completely avoid certain foods in children. It often happens that the child is exposed to it at a friend’s house or at a party. This is why it helps to have the right medicine on hand. Fortunately, most food allergies go away around school age.
What can your doctor do?
After reading the above, you have already understood that it is the parents who have the most important role to play. It is up to them to keep control over their child’s diet. The doctor will prescribe a medicine that can block the allergic reaction. If your child has serious problems, they will refer you to a pediatrician.
Want to know more?
Source