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Food allergies in children
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Food allergies in children as well as adults have a long history. As early as the 2nd century AD, one of the founders of medicine, the ancient philosopher and physician Claudius Galen described cases of food allergy and called these phenomena idiosyncrasy. The methods of treatment have since changed dramatically, but the reasons have remained the same. This is an aggressive response of the immune system to the invasion of the food allergen. A more concrete and statistically confirmed explanation appeared much later, as well as the identification of provokers of allergic food reactions.
Read also: Food allergy in adults
Food allergy in children, unfortunately, is still very common and is rarely diagnosed in time. To allergologists, patients often turn when the allergy, including food, becomes acute, threatening, and therefore becomes polymorphous - affects multiple systems and organs. Perhaps, this is the reason for the general tendency of allergy development all over the world. Regardless of the efforts of medical luminaries, the allergy continues to amaze a growing number of people, among whom the leading place is occupied by children. Due to the fact that the children's organism forms protective functions gradually, children are particularly vulnerable from one to three years old.
Any atypical reactions to products are conventionally divided into non-toxic and obviously toxic. Non-toxic does not mean non-hazardous, these reactions directly depend on the mechanisms of development and can be immune and not relevant to the immune system, for example, in the case of fermentopathy (enzyme deficiency). In general, the food allergies are characterized by clinical signs of damage to the digestive system, skin, respiratory and nervous systems.
[How is food allergy manifested in children?
Any product that a person consumes can become an allergen, especially for a small child. What are the clinical manifestations of food intolerance, and how to recognize them? The manifestation of symptoms can be obvious and hidden, slow.
Food allergy in children with obvious symptoms:
- Gastrointestinal symptoms in children are provoked by cow's milk, soy products, fish, eggs, legumes and citrus. Often allergens intersect, such an allergy is called cross. Symptoms - vomiting, upset of the chair, enteritis, colic in the epigastric region.
- Dermal signs of food allergies - urticaria (urticaria) right up to Quincke's edema, eczema, hemorrhagic vasculitis (inflammation of the walls of blood vessels), diathesis.
- Respiratory manifestations - allergic rhinitis, coughing and sneezing, atypical for ARVI, bronchial asthma.
- Symptoms on the part of the circulatory system are anaphylactic shock (rarely, no more than 3%).
Food allergy in children, manifested by controversial symptoms:
- Colitis ulcerative;
- Nephropathology;
- Violation of urination, enuresis;
- Inflammation of the joints, arthritis;
- Interstitial pneumonia (viral, bacterial etiology);
- Thrombocytopenia;
- Hyperkinetic disorders.
How is food allergy diagnosed in children?
In all cases of controversial symptoms, additional diagnosis should be made and the development of the disease should be avoided with similar allergy manifestations. Food allergy in children is diagnosed in complex. The first stage - a conversation with parents and a history of anamnesis, including hereditary. It is possible that the child suffers from food allergy due to genetic predisposition. Obligatory will be the condition of keeping a food diary - a food diary. It will take from two weeks to a month. Parents for a certain time - usually two weeks - should carry on a so-called food diary. In the diary entries are made about the menu, diet and the child's reaction to food. In parallel, laboratory tests will be assigned, this may be an immunological analysis of blood serum or a skin test. Skin test is not performed in children under five years of age. The type and specificity of the tests is determined by the allergist depending on the individual characteristics of the child and the clinical manifestations of the allergy.
Food allergy in children and diet therapy
Therapy of food allergies is, first of all, the identification of products, on which a reaction arises, excluding it from the menu and adherence to a special diet. Even for newborns who are on artificial feeding, the modern food industry today can offer hypoallergenic mixtures that are absolutely safe for the body. For older children, the choice of dietary products is much broader and stop allergies with the help of literate, reasonable nutrition is quite real.