Treatments For Children Food Allergies

Imagine parents Carl and Sophie Chuang’s surprise when they found out their 12-month-old daughter was allergic to breast milk. When she was just months old, outbreaks of eczema alerted the doctors that something was up. Later, it was discovered that their daughter was also allergic to raw eggs, cheese and nuts. “She developed rashes and was always scratching,” explains her father. “She can tolerate small amounts of some of these foods, but still, when she puts something in her mouth that she’s allergic to, she can tell and sometimes will throw up.” Children food allergies like this have been on the rise, increasing at least 18% in the last decade. While researchers aren’t sure what causes a food allergy in children, they’re looking at ways to detect this problem early and treat it.

Milk (12%), peanuts (9%), eggs (7%) and shrimp (5%) are the most common food allergies in children. In other cases, kids may be allergic to tree nuts, soy, fish and wheat. Food-related allergy symptoms run the gamut from a mild tingling sensation in the mouth, hives, diarrhea or stomach cramping to more serious vomiting, difficulty breathing and tongue swelling. The National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases states that fatal allergic reactions are extremely rare, with only about 100 deaths per year associated with a food-related emergency. Of all the foods, peanut allergies are probably the most dangerous.

Critics say the only reason why children food allergies have “gone up” in recent years is that the general public is more aware about the possibility of food allergies in kids. They also argue that more and more doctors are using unreliable blood tests, which work better to rule out a food allergy than to provide definitive proof of the allergy. In 2003, a report published in Pediatrics Magazine said that blood allergy tests were only half accurate. In 2007, researchers at the John Hopkins Children’s Center reported that blood allergy tests could both overestimate and underestimate the body’s immune response to an allergen.

Some doctors posit that their recommendations may have inadvertently played a role in children food allergies. The American Academy of Asthma Allergy and Immunology is currently re-evaluating guidelines recommending that eggs, peanuts and shellfish not be introduced to a child’s diet until age 2 or 3. Early exposure to peanuts has shown to decrease the peanut allergy risk in 10,000 British Children (The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunolgoy, 2008).

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