Food Allergy Symptoms

Child food allergies are not as common as most people think. It is true though that they are even less common in older children.  Most of the time these allergies are soft, and will be a thing of the past once the child grows up.

Symptoms of A Child Food Allergy

The symptoms of child food allergy will vary in timing and severity.  The most common ones include:

• respiratory problems
• wheezing
• rashes, hives
• diarrhea
• vomiting
• stomach pain
• swelling in the lips, mouth and throat

In kids, the symptoms appear mostly after minutes of ingesting the “trigger” food, although the reactions can appear after 1-2 hours.

When the reaction is severe, it can cause a condition called anaphylaxis… a sudden decrease of the blood pressure that can cause shock and even death.

What to Do When Your Child is Allergic to Food

The most important step is avoiding the food that triggers the reaction.  If you are unsure, there are tests aimed at help you determining the problem food.  In case your child has severe <food allergy symptoms such as breathing problems, you should call 911 immediately, specially if he/she is a young kid.

It is important to know that even if the kid hasn’t shown allergic reactions to a food before, it can still have an allergy later.  So parents, please don’t discard a food because the kid has eaten it before.

Prevent Child Food Allergy

Food allergy can be prevented to some extent, by first determining if your kid has a high risk of developing it.  You should talk with a doctor about this.

On the other hand, the best way to prevent food allergies on children is by breastfeeding them.  Breastfeeding has a lot of benefits for the children, especially when it comes to strengthening the immune system.

Food allergy is a condition that affects millions of people around the world. It causes allergic reaction when you ingest a certain type of food (the specific food varies among different people) and can be fatal when sever symptoms such as anaphylaxis appear.  Many people then try to seek for a food allergy cure, but is there such thing?

Food Allergy Can’t Be Cured

It’s sad to say, but it is the truth: There is currently no such thing as a food allergy cure. This is a condition that will stay with you the rest of your life, so be prepared to make some changes in your lifestyle.

This allergy can be treated though, primarily trough avoidance. This means that will have to stop eating the foods that are causing your allergic reaction. This can be done at first with a “low allergen exclusion diet”, a special type of diet aimed at restricting the common allergy-triggering foods.
 
Once you determine the trigger or triggers, it is time to fully stop eating them. This is an important step; in fact it is the only step that will assure you don’t have allergic reactions in the future.

So, as you see there is no current food allergy cure out there. It is possible that you live free of allergic reactions but only if you ban foods from your diet forever. Although it may be hard at the beginning, over time you’ll find it easier and easier, and the best of all is that you’ll stay away from severe symptoms, and possibly death.

You can find more about the food allergy symptoms, treatments and the diets in the articles on this site. Feel free to browse them and or give us your suggestions.

A food allergy diet can have two objectives: Either to help you avoiding the food that triggers the allergy, or to help you determine the food that is causing the allergy in the first place.

Low Allergen Food Allergy Diet

This is an exclusion diet. This means that it is an attempt to exclude most foods that are known to cause allergic reactions.  It does so without restricting your diet in an excessive way, it also restricts processed foods which may contain trigger foods in their composition.

The diet’s food restrictions include: yeast, eggs, milk and diary products, artificial sweeteners, margarine, coffee, tea, alcohol, chocolate, vinegar, sugar, syrup, jelly, salty snacks, wheat, oats, rye, corn, barley, food additives, coffee substitutes, smokes foods, salted foods, carbonated drinks, fizzy drinks, fermented products and citrus fruits.
 
For the majority of people this means getting rid of food that they have been accustomed to eating all their lives.  Entering a food allergy diet is a major lifestyle change.  As with any other type of diets, it is great if you follow some tips, like staying full by eating various meals a day and keeping a diet diary.

After a few days of following the diet, you may find that the reactions are starting to disappear, once they are gone, you can reintroduce food and observe if it produces any reaction.  If nothing is observed you can again eat that specific food, but if any reaction appears, it will be strictly banned from your diet.

This may sound like a slow process but it is the best way to determine any allergy and avoid the risks of severe food allergy symptoms.