Children Food Allergies Recipes Food Cooking International Guide

Children Food Allergies Require Early Detection And Treatment

By Julia Taylor-Fernandez

Imagine parents Carl and Sophie Chuang’s surprise when they found out their 12-month-old daughter was allergic to breast milk. When she was just months old, outbreaks of eczema alerted the doctors that something was up.

Later, it was discovered that their daughter was also allergic to raw eggs, cheese and nuts. "She developed rashes and was always scratching," explains her father. "She can tolerate small amounts of some of these foods, but still, when she puts something in her mouth that she’s allergic to, she can tell and sometimes will throw up."

Children food allergies like this have been on the rise, increasing at least 18% in the last decade. While researchers aren’t sure what causes a food allergy in children, they’re looking at ways to detect this problem early and treat it.

The Most Common Food Allergies In Children

Milk (12%), peanuts (9%), eggs (7%) and shrimp (5%) are the most common food allergies in children. In other cases, kids may be allergic to tree nuts, soy, fish and wheat.

Food-related allergy symptoms run the gamut from a mild tingling sensation in the mouth, hives, diarrhea or stomach cramping to more serious vomiting, difficulty breathing and tongue swelling.

Fatal Allergic Reactions Are Rare

The National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases states that fatal allergic reactions are extremely rare, with only about 100 deaths per year associated with a food-related emergency. Of all the foods, peanut allergies are probably the most dangerous.

Unfortunately, testing children food allergies with blood tests simply is not a reliable measure. "The only true test of whether you’re allergic to a food or not is whether you can eat it and not react to it," explains Dr. David Fleischer, assistant professor of pediatrics at the National Jewish Health.

Food Challenging Tests

He said that one blood test indicated a young boy had to be placed on a feeding tube because he expressed allergy symptoms to literally every food. Through food challenging tests, during which they asked the child to eat certain foods under doctor supervision, they were able to reintroduce 20 foods to his diet, so far.

"People should be aware that food allergies may really be increasing," said Amy Branum of the National Center for Health Statistics. "If small children have symptoms when they eat a particular food, have that child checked out, particularly if they have co-occurring conditions like asthma and eczema."

False Positives

She recommends talking with a primary care physician and having the doctor run a few tests to see whether there is a food intolerance or a food allergy. However, Dr. Nicholas A. Christakis of the Harvard Medical School argues that this "overreaction" to children food allergies is causing more false positives and paranoia than anything else.

"If the kid has been doing fine, I would advise parents not to get allergy testing, because the results are more likely to be false positives than true positives," Dr. Christakis explained.

Please Note: All information given on this site is for general information and is not to replace any medical opinion or medical diagnosis or any other medical expert, as individual circumstances may vary. Please see a 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?

Can child food allergies ever be grown out of?
Most child food allergies do fade as the child grows up. It is estimated that only 1-3% of adults actually have a food allergy. But it is interesting to know that 5-8% of children have a food allergy.

This does lend credence to the fact that most children will outgrow their allergies to certain foods. But you have to be careful about what foods you reintroduce to your child.

If they have had a severe anaphylactic reaction to nuts, then you may want to be very cautious about giving them anything with nuts when they are older. The allergy could still be present and it could be life threatening.

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