Child Food Allergy Recipes Food Cooking International Guide
Child Food Allergy Confirmed With A Medical Diagnosis
By Julia Taylor-Fernandez
It was once presumed that the only way to treat a child food
allergy was to avoid any contact with that food for the rest of
one’s life. For people who test positive for allergies to dairy,
milk, chicken, pork, rice, oat, barley, eggs, beans and wheat,
this diagnosis can seem like a death sentence.
However, a new approach is being advocated in many allergy clinics
across America. Some patients respond to a food challenge, which
incrementally increases the patient’s dosage of the allergen until
tolerance is achieved.
"I thought it was pretty entertaining," admits fifteen-year-old
Alex Simko of Geneva, Illinois, who was able to eat eggs after
12 years of believing she had an egg allergy. Now she can finally
eat donuts again!
Food Allergies In Babies
What about food allergies in babies? When four week old Grayson
Grebe got eczema on his cheeks, his mother began to worry. Two
months later, he was diagnosed with every food allergy in the
book, including wheat, dairy, egg, bean, oat, rice, barley, chicken,
pork, corn and peanut.
His mother stopped eating these foods, but her baby’s condition
did not improve. By 10 months, the doctors had cut out fruits
and vegetables and put Grayson on a special hypo-allergenic formula.
Gradually Exposed To Small Amounts Of Food
His eczema was so severe he needed to wear special mittens, long-sleeved
shirts and long pants to prevent him from scratching. Once treated
at the National Jewish Health center that specializes in allergies
and respiratory diseases, doctors gave Grayson food challenges
-- gradually exposing him to small doses of the foods he was supposedly
allergic to. "We came home with 12 foods he could eat,"
Amy Grebe recalls. "It’s made so much difference in our lives."
The only way to truly tell if a child food allergy is present
is to give the child the suspected food and wait for a reaction.
Naturally, many parents are hesitant to have their child ingest
what could be a fatal dose of food that results in anaphylactic
shock.
Medical Testing In A Clinical Setting
Sometimes doctors will recommend a skin prick test or giving
the child a very, very small dose of the suspected allergen in
a clinical setting. For instance, a child with a suspected allergy
to peanuts may be asked to try one-tenth of the amount of peanut
protein found in the average nut.
Gradually, that amount can be increased to see where the tolerance
threshold lies. Some kids will continue having allergies for the
rest of their lives, while others may simply overcome their hypersensitivity.
Overused And Misinterpreted
More often than not, a child food allergy is little more than
an overreaction. "I see it all the time. A family goes in
for one thing and comes back with a laundry list of foods they
are supposedly allergic to," says Jodi Stokes, who runs a
support group for allergic families in Charlotte, North Carolina.
"I tell them to go to a board-certified allergist who knows
how to interpret these tests." Robert Wood, the director
of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology at John Hopkins, believes
that blood tests for kids with food allergies are being possibly
overused and definitely misinterpreted.
"A lot of these kids truly have food allergies, just not
to all the foods that they are being told they have allergies
to," he explains. It’s easy to dismiss allergies on foods
kids have been eating for years.
Please Note: All information given
on this site is for information purposes and is not to replace
any medical opinion or medical diagnosis or any other medical
expert, as individual circumstances may vary. Please see your
medical doctor, before any action is taken to alleviate symptoms.
About the Author:
Julia Taylor-Fernandez has written a number of articles on food,
cooking and dieting including General
Nutrition, Salad
Dressings, Low
Carb Cheese Cake, Teen
Weight Loss, Low
Carb Dinners, Health
Food Store, Organic
Baby Food.
Keep a lookout for more of her articles on this website.
Did You Know?
What are allergies?
Allergies occur when your immune system has
a very strong reaction to a certain substance, food or chemical.
Usually most allergies are not harmful but there are some that
can prove life threatening without the proper medical help.
Your body attacks these allergens in such
an over exaggerated way that it can lead to physical symptoms
such as vomiting, hives, itching and even stomach cramps. There
are numerous allergens present in any environment outside of a
hermetically sealed room. So you have to know what your allergies
are so you can avoid them.
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