Could my child have a food allergy?
Your child’s just finished dinner and you’ve noticed some swelling around her mouth. It’s quite possible your child is allergic to something she’s just eaten.
Food allergies occur in about one in 20 kids, according to the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA), but in adults this number has dropped to about one in 100.
“The majority of food allergies in children are not severe, and will disappear with time,” ASCIA says, although it does stress that some can be severe causing life-threatening reactions known as anaphylaxis .
How do you recognise a food allergy?
ASCIA admits that the term ‘allergy’ is often misused to describe any adverse reactions to food. There are some fairly immediate reactions – within the first 30 minutes – which could point to an allergy including:
- hives (urticaria)
- swelling around the mouth
Other symptoms are:
- runny or blocked nose
- stomach pains
- diarrhoea (chronic or more acute)
- infantile colic
- failure to thrive in infants
Food intolerances are not allergic reactions and cause a completely different bodily response. Even though the symptoms can be similar (e.g. diarrhoea, vomiting) food intolerance is a ‘chemical’ reaction that some people have after eating or drinking some foods; it is not an immune response. An intolerance is a lot more common than an allergy.
What is an allergy?
Here’s how ASCIA describes allergies: “Underneath the lining of the skin, gut, lungs, nose and eyes are ‘mast’ cells. These are designed to kill worms and parasites.
“Mast cells are like bean bags filled with irritant chemicals including histamine and are armed with proteins called IgE antibodies (often referred to as allergy antibodies), which act to detect allergens in the local environment.”
A person allergic to peanut, for example, will have IgE antibodies capable of recognising the shape of peanut protein (the allergen), in much the same way that a lock recognizes the shape of a key. When this happens, mast cells are triggered to dump their contents (including histamine) into the tissues, causing an allergic reaction.
Food allergies can develop at any time but often show up in a child before the age of five years.
Are food allergies increasing?
Most childcare centres, preschools and schools are now ‘nut-free’ zones. Many parents would have held birthday parties and had kids attend who couldn’t eat eggs, dairy or nuts. It seems every class has a child with a dangerous allergy.
It’s not only anecdotally that the number of kids with food allergies seems to be growing – it’s real. ACSIA says hospital admissions for severe allergic reactions (anaphylaxis) have doubled over the last decade in the US and UK. In Australia, admissions for anaphylaxis due to food allergy in children aged 0 to 4 years are even higher, having increased five-fold over the same period.
According to ASCIA, the reasons for the increasing incidence of food allergies in kids is unclear but it suggests these possible explanations:
- the ‘hygiene hypothesis’ which proposes that less exposure to infections in early childhood is associated with an increased risk of allergy
- delayed introduction of allergenic foods such as egg, peanut or tree nuts
- methods of food processing (e.g. roasted versus boiled peanuts)
- development of allergy to food by skin exposure (e.g. nut oil-based moisturisers)
What to do if you suspect a food allergy
If your child appears to have an allergic reaction or you’re worried your child may have an allergy, ASCIA recommends you start with a visit to your GP who will ask a series of questions in a bid to narrow down what may have caused that reaction.
Skin prick allergy tests or blood tests for allergen specific IgE (commonly referred to as RAST) may be advised to help confirm or exclude potential triggers. Sometimes a temporary elimination diet under close medical and dietetic supervision will be needed, followed by challenges to identify the cause.
The ASCIA does not recommend what it calls “unorthodox” tests for food allergy including cytotoxic food testing, Vega testing, kinesiology, allergy elimination techniques, iridology, pulse testing, Alcat testing, Rinkel's intradermal skin testing, reflexology, hair analysis and IgG food antibody testing.
“These have no scientific basis, are unreliable and have no useful role in the assessment of allergy,” it says.
More articles about allergies and intolerances:
- 10 point allergy action plan
- Allergic reactions
- Allergies and the immune system
- Food allergies
- Food allergies and intolerances
- Food allergy
- Is it an allergy?
- Treating food allergies and intolerances
- Coeliac disease
- Common allergy foods
- Constipation and your kids
- Could my child have a food allergy?
- Can bottle feeding damage your baby's teeth?
- Cow's milk allergy
- Cow's milk intolerance vs lactose intolerance
- Lactose intolerance
- Lactose intolerance in babies
- Lactose intolerance problems
- Managing lactose intolerance
- Milk allergy treatments
- Egg allergy
- Egg allergy myth cracked
- Nut and peanut allergy
- Peanut allergy
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This article was written by Fiona Baker for Kidspot, Australia’s best family health resource. Sources include Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA) and Anaphylaxis Australia.