What do I do if I think my child has a food allergy?
You often hear people talk of their wheat intolerance, peanut allergy or their milk sensitivity, but what does this mean and what do you do if you think your child may have an allergy?
A food allergy is the immune system responding to a food, resulting in inflammation, which causes anything from itchy skin to an anaphylaxis reaction.
It is estimated that around 6–8% of children in the UK currently suffer from food allergies, with this number increasing annually, highlighting the need to be aware of where to go for help, should you need it.
If you suspect your child has an allergy, seek advice from your GP as soon as possible, as they can arrange for you to see a specialist, who can conduct a skin prick or blood test. These tests work by measuring the amount of the antibodies responsible for the adverse reaction, correlating the results with the individual’s symptoms in order to ascertain a diagnosis.
Unfortunately, tests do not always confirm a food allergy, so it is not necessarily straightforward when diagnosing and may require careful examination of the foods eaten and the response they produce.
What is a food intolerance?
Food intolerance is more common than food allergy and not the result of the immune system reacting to certain foods. Those with food allergies cannot usually cope with having any amount of the allergen without it triggering a response, however those with food intolerances find they can often have a certain amount of the food before experiencing symptoms.
Symptoms of food intolerance can vary between individuals as well as the cause, so seeking advice from an expert is essential to ensure the appropriate diagnosis can be reached. A common tool for diagnosing food intolerance is an exclusion diet, whereby certain foods are eliminated and reintroduced, monitoring the effects. This should only be carried out under the guidance of a health professional to ensure the safety of your child.
Alongside any food allergy/intolerance diagnosis procedure you should complete a food diary to record how certain foods made them feel, in order to recognise any patterns that could be used to aid diagnosis. A food diary is very useful when diagnosing a food intolerance due to the sometimes delayed response to certain offending foods.
Food allergies can lead to life threatening symptoms that require an EpiPen, however even though an intolerance to a food would not require this treatment, it could still induce unpleasant symptoms, making the sufferer feel very poorly.
It is also quite possible to be allergic or intolerant to multiple foods, or to be able to eat cooked foods that cannot be tolerated raw. This means the diagnosis of a food intolerance may not mean they will have to avoid certain foods forever.
Coeliac disease
Coeliac disease, which is the result of the body’s inability to digest gluten, is not technically an allergy or intolerance, however requires diagnosis from a health professional as the only treatment for this is a complete avoidance of gluten for life.
So if you suspect your child is suffering from a food allergy, or intolerance, keep a food diary, paying particular attention to what they are eating and drinking, followed by how that appears to make them feel.
By providing your GP or specialist with this information along with any photographs of visible symptoms, such as a rash or inflamed skin, they will have a clearer picture of what is causing it.
How do I make sure my child is getting the right foods if they have to avoid some due to allergies or intolerances?
Don’t panic. It can seem a daunting time when you hear your child has to avoid, or limit their intake of, certain foods, but with the right advice it doesn’t need to be scary. If your child has to avoid milk, for example, there are suitable alternatives that can provide your child with all that they would gain from milk.
So with the right advice, a food allergy or intolerance does not have to mean they miss out on all the food fun, or miss out nutritionally.
Fleur x
