Our Body’s Reaction to Food Allergies

Our Body’s Reaction to Food Allergies

True food allergies are not as common as many people believe and do in
fact only affect about 2% of children. However, they are more common
in younger children (affecting about 5-8% of younger children).
Fortunately, most younger children will outgrow these food allergies
by the time that they are three years old.

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Symptoms of a food allergies can often include wheezing and difficulty
in breathing, along with itchy skin rashes, including hives, vomiting,
diarrhea, nausea, abdominal pain and swelling around the mouth and in
the throat (common with nut allergies). These symptoms usually develop
fairly quickly after a child ingests the food that they are allergic
to, often within minutes and within anything up to an hour or so.
Nasal symptoms by themselves, such as congestion or a runny nose, are
usually not caused by food allergies as such.

Symptoms for food allergies can be both mild or very severe, depending
up on how much of the food the child ingested and how allergic they
are to the food. A severe reaction can include anaphylaxis, with
difficulty breathing, swelling in the mouth and throat, decreased
blood pressure, shock and in the more sever cases, even death.

More common than food allergies are intolerances to certain foods,
which can cause vomiting, diarrhoea, spitting up, and skin rashes. An
example of such a reaction occurs in children with lactose
intolerance, which occurs because of a deficiency of the enzyme
lactase, which normally breaks down the sugar lactose in the bosy.
Children without this enzyme or who have a decreased amount of the
enzyme, develop symptoms after drinking lactos…

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…does not improve with these interventions or if they
have had a severe allergic reaction, then they should consider
having them see an allergy specialist for testing to figure out
what foods they are allergic to and to possibly start allergy
injections.

* Children with severe allergic reactions or anaphylaxis should wear
a medical alert bracelet to notify others of their condition and
should carry an epinephrine auto-injector (such as the Epi Pen JR)
to ensure rapid treatment during an allergic reaction.

* Most importantly, learn to read food labels and look for
ingredients that a child may be allergic to and practice strict
avoidance of those foods. If parents don’t know what an ingredient
is, then call the manufacturer before giving it to the child to be
safe. ………………………………