The incidence of childhood food allergy is around 6-8 per cent, in children below 3 years of age. Within this, the number of allergy patients with cows' milk protein is particularly high, about 3 percent. It often causes allergic complaints to eggs, soybeans, wheat, peanuts too. Food allergy can also cause symptoms on the skin, gastrointestinal tract and respiratory tract.
Eczema and abdominal pain
Allergic symptoms caused by food are most commonly found on the skin, causing the cause of eczema in infants and toddlers in nearly 30 percent of all cases of food allergy. Another common symptom is gastrointestinal complaints: children with spastic abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, loss of appetite, and stopping of weight gain, says Polgár Marianne, the Gastroenterologist at the Buda Allergy Center.
In addition to reflux, milk allergy can often be seen as a co-illness, but in infants and toddlers the food may also cause respiratory symptoms.
Anaphylaxis is the most severe form of food allergy, which can be caused mainly by the consumption of milk, eggs, peanuts and fish, in sensitive patients. The treatment of rapidly developing life-threatening conditions necessitates urgent care in all cases.
Tests and Diet
In the case of allergic allergy symptoms, the first step of the study is a detailed anamnesis, ie the patient's interview. In children, parents should consider whether the family has had a history of allergic disease, what foods the child consumes when the symptoms first appeared.
The identification of allergens in children under the age of 2 is mainly done by blood tests, usually a prick test is used at a later age, but food elimination is an essential part of the diagnosis of allergy - explains the chief physician. The essence of this is by checking out certain foods, by dieting, to see if the symptoms continue to occur. The diagnosis of allergy is justified by the return of the abnormal foods to the disease symptoms again.
Treatment of food allergy
The overwhelming majority of allergic allergies appearing in childhood are abolished by children aged 3-4 years and the child develops the disease. During this time, the most important thing is to keep the right diet, avoiding the allergen, which usually alone causes symptoms. Antihistamines and steroids are mainly used for acute seizures and severe clinical symptoms.
(Source: marmalade.co.hu; orientpress | Image: pixabay.com)