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CHILDREN AND FOOD ALLERGIES

Parents have to be extremely alert to identify food allergies in children, and take suitable precautions to protect them. Lisa Cronin how difficult it can be to deal with food allergies in children. Her 7 year old daughter Samantha first developed a food allergy when she was only 1 month old. Lisa was nursing and supplementing with dairy based formula. “I noticed that she was developing some kind of eczema. At that time I was just really unfamiliar with any type of food allergy in children.”

As an infant, Samantha suffered for months with eczema, but at 7 months her pediatrician suggested soy milk. It did the trick and the eczema cleared up. But just a few months later, Lisa discovered that Samantha was allergic to milk. “I had given her a piece of cereal dipped in skim milk, and she got little red bumps all over that looked like small hives,” says Lisa.

Parents have to be extremely alert to identify food allergies in children, and take suitable precautions to protect them. Lisa Cronin knows how difficult it can be to deal with food allergies in children. Her 7 year old daughter Samantha first developed a food allergy when she was only 1 month old. Lisa was nursing and supplementing with dairy based formula. “I noticed that she was developing some kind of eczema. At that time I was just really unfamiliar with any type of food allergy in children.”

As an infant, Samantha suffered for months with eczema, but at 7 months her pediatrician suggested soy milk. It did the trick and the eczema cleared up. But just a few months later, Lisa discovered that Samantha was allergic to milk. “I had given her a piece of cereal dipped in skim milk, and she got little red bumps all over that looked like small hives,” says Lisa.

Like Lisa, many new parents will experiment and try to introduce table foods to expand their child’s diet, unaware of the problem of child food allergies. The fact is that, if given before the age of one, some foods can cause serious, even fatal reactions.

“The first sign of food allergy in a child is usually eczema which is a dry, itchy, scaly skin condition. The clear signs are really itching and dryness and redness of the skin. You can develop more severe manifestations all the way to anaphylaxis which could include wheezing, and even cardiovascular collapse,” explains Dr. Samuel Grubman of St. Vincent’s Hospital.

Citrus fruits, strawberries and chocolate should be avoided to prevent the development of food allergies in children. “There are certain foods that are not recommended for the first year of life, like eggs, fish, shellfish, nuts and peanuts.” says Dr. Grubman.

However, if an infant is at high risk, particularly if they are born to parents who suffer from food allergies or if their siblings are allergic, eggs should be not introduced until after age two and fish, shellfish and nuts should not be introduced until after age three.

Lisa learned this lesson about children and food allergies, but she learnt it the hard way. Her younger son Hunter was just over a year when she discovered he too had food allergies. Sesame ignited a terrible reaction in little Hunter.

“I was eating hummus. I thought that would be a good healthy snack for him so I gave him some on my finger. He started getting blotchy red and his eyes got hives up here, and he was just itching and itching. I looked at him and I realized he was having a severe allergic reaction.”

Child food allergies are the result of the fact that children’s developing bodies cannot efficiently process and break down food the way an adult’s system can. “It has to do with the fact that infants are born with a more permeable, less mature gastrointestinal tract, as well as a less mature immune system. And because of the increased permeability of the gastrointestinal track to various foods, infants are more likely to develop allergic reactivity to the proteins in those foods if they are introduced to then at an earlier age,” explains Dr. Grubman who emphasizes that all parents of children with food allergies must always read food labels and learn how to identify specific ingredients on labels.

Lisa and her children now avoid all dairy, eggs, nuts and sesame. Samantha carries an EpiPen in the event of an allergic reaction. As a family, Lisa says they’re comfortable with their diets and know their precautions are protecting her children from food allergies.

If ever in doubt about any food call your pediatrician, in New York or any other city, before giving your child the food product in question.

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