Food Allergies That Develop During Adulthood Or Persist Into Adulthood Are Likely To Be Lifelong Allergies Said Deepti Khatuja Clinical Nutritionist
A food allergy is a condition in which consumption of a certain food item can trigger an unusual immune response, caused by immunoglobulin E antibody wherein the bodys immune system mistakenly treats proteins found in food as a threat. While food allergies are quite common, they can also be life threatening when these involve respiratory and/or cardiovascular distress. Although it is possible for any food to cause an allergy, there are some common ones like shellfish and nut allergies in adults, and milk, eggs, fish, peanuts and other nuts in children.
Food allergies are mostly developed during childhood but can develop at any age in life. Food allergies that develop during adulthood, or persist into adulthood, are likely to be lifelong allergies, said Deepti Khatuja, head clinical nutritionist at Fortis Memorial Institute, Gurgaon.
Symptoms of food allergy
Khatuja notes the following as common symptoms of a food allergy:
- an itchy sensation inside the mouth, throat or ears
- a raised itchy red rash
- swelling of the face, around the eyes, lips, tongue and roof of the mouth
Difference between food allergy and intolerance
Is it possible to outgrow a food allergy?
Factors that make it more likely that a food allergy will persist includes having a larger SPT , wheal size or higher food-specific IgE level, having other comorbid allergic diseases, having more severe symptoms on ingestion, said Khatuja.
Growing Out Of Childhood Allergies
The likelihood that your child will grow out of his or her food allergy depends on the kind of allergy and the age of the child. The younger your child is, the better the chances that the allergy will go away. Children under the age of five have digestive and immune systems that are developing rapidly. This means that the immune response that causes a food allergy can often be lost. Older children are less likely to grow out of their allergies, but food allergies in children do sometimes disappear in adolescence. Once we reach adulthood, a food allergy is almost certainly permanent.
How Do You Know If Youre Growing Out Of An Allergy
You know that saying, dont try this at home? that rings true with testing to see if youre growing out of an allergy. Dont be tempted to just try a little bit to see how your body responds.
You should never experiment with any of this at home. It’s just not safe, warns Prof. Mills, before adding: One of the things that we know with food allergy, is that many people who have a severe reaction as adults, may not have had any history or had any warning sign or a bad reaction before, so if you think you’ve got a food allergy, I would not try the food at home – you really need to get properly assessed by an allergist.
Prof. Santos agrees, highlighting how important controlled conditions and medical supervision are in determining if you no longer have an allergy to food: In clinic, we monitor the development of tolerance with the support of the same allergy tests that we use to confirm the diagnosis of food allergy. A decrease in the IgE levels specific for that food is often an indication that the allergy may be resolving.
You May Like: Can Allergies Mimic Flu Symptoms
Managing Food Allergies In Children
Theres no cure for food allergies yet, but many children grow out of them. You can also take some steps to make it easier for you and your child to live with food allergies.
Avoid the food Its important for your child to avoid the food. This can be challenging, particularly as eating even tiny amounts can cause an allergic reaction. Your child also needs to avoid foods and cutlery that could have been in contact with the food theyre allergic to.
You can do 2 important things to help your child avoid the food:
- Read and make sure you understand all food labels. Be aware that some allergenic foods have different names for example, cows milk protein might be called whey or casein. But by law 10 allergens must be plainly stated on food labels cows milk, soy, egg, wheat, peanut, tree nuts, sesame, fish, shellfish and lupin.
- Be careful when you eat out. Ask what ingredients each dish includes, how it was prepared, whether it has touched any other foods, and whether theres any risk of cross-contamination. Most restaurants are happy to tell you, but they might not know about the ingredients in some foods like sauces. Its best to avoid buffets and bain-maries because its very possible that ingredients have been transferred from one dish to another.
Have an action plan Talk to your doctor about an ASCIA action plan. This will help you recognise and treat symptoms if your child eats something that causes an allergic reaction.
What Allergies Can You Grow Out Of
The good news is, lots of people grow out of their food allergies, but it really does depend on what youre allergic to. Prof. Santos says: Cow’s milk, egg, wheat and soya allergies are frequently outgrown whereas peanut, tree nut, sesame, fish and shellfish allergies tend to be more persistent with a large proportion being lifelong.
Prof. Mills adds: IgE mediated allergies to milk and egg are common in infants and young children. But blessedly, they grow out of it. So, it’s almost like a different sort of allergy which they get when they’re very young and as their immune system and their bodies mature, they grow out of.
To be IgE mediated allergy to cow’s milk is very unusual. We ran a birth cohort study across Europe with many thousands of children enrolled and when we did the school age follow-up there wasn’t a single cow’s milk allergic child left. But we had about one and a half percent when they were babies.
You May Like: How To Stop Sneezing From Allergies Home Remedies
Treatment For Food Allergy
There is no medication to prevent food allergy. The goal of treatment is toavoid the foods that cause the symptoms. After seeing your child’s doctorand finding foods to which your child is allergic, it is very important toavoid these foods and other similar foods in that food group. If you arebreastfeeding your child, it is important to avoid foods in your diet towhich your child is allergic. Small amounts of the food allergen may betransmitted to your child through your breast milk and cause a reaction.
It is also important to give vitamins and minerals to your child if he orshe is unable to eat certain foods. Discuss this with your child’s doctor.
For children who have had a severe food reaction, your child’s health careprovider may prescribe an emergency kit that contains epinephrine, whichhelps stop the symptoms of severe reactions. Consult your child’s doctorfor further information.
Some children, under the direction of his or her health care provider, maybe given certain foods again after three to six months to see if he or shehas outgrown the allergy. Many allergies may be short-term in children andthe food may be tolerated after the age of 3 or 4.
How Do You Know If You Have One
Sometimes it’s easy to figure out that a kid has a food allergy. They might get hives or have other problems after eating it. But other times, what’s causing the problem is more of a mystery. Most foods have more than one ingredient, so if a kid has shrimp with peanut sauce, what’s causing the allergy the peanut sauce or the shrimp?
Many people react to a food but are not actually allergic. For example, people with lactose intolerance get belly pain and diarrhea from milk and other dairy products. That doesn’t mean they’re allergic to milk. They don’t feel good after drinking milk because their bodies can’t properly break down the sugars found in milk.
Don’t Miss: When Do Fall Allergies Start
Treatment Of Food Allergies
Food allergy treatments depend upon the type of food to which the patient is allergic and the degree to which he or she is allergic. Individuals who are seriously allergic to a certain food might not benefit from any food allergy treatments at all.
Allergy shots are not used to treat food allergies. On the other hand, allergy shots are great at helping with nasal allergies like hayfever, including itchy and watery eyes, asthma control and even eczema.
How To Reduce Childrens Risk Of Food Allergies
You can take some simple steps that might help reduce your childs risk of developing food allergies.
Eat a well-balanced and nutritious diet while pregnant or breastfeeding When youre pregnant or breastfeeding, its important to eat a wide variety of healthy foods including fruit, vegies, grains, protein and dairy or calcium-enriched products.
Avoiding foods that commonly cause allergies for example, eggs and peanuts while youre pregnant or breastfeeding wont reduce the risk of your baby developing allergies. In fact, avoiding too many foods can be dangerous, because your baby wont get important nutrients.
BreastfeedBreastmilk is best, so its recommended that you exclusively breastfeed your baby until its time to introduce solid foods at around 6 months old. Its best to keep breastfeeding until your baby is at least 12 months old, if you can.
Talk to a doctor or nurse about infant formula For parents bottle-feeding with infant formula, theres no evidence that giving babies hydrolysed infant formula or partially hydrolysed infant formula instead of standard cows milk formula prevents allergies. But some evidence suggests that these formulas might help to manage cows milk allergy.
If youre not sure what formula is best for your baby, talk to your child and family health nurse, GP or paediatrician.
These foods include well-cooked egg, wheat , peanut butter, tree nut paste , soy products , sesame, shellfish and other seafood.
Also Check: How To Test For Meat Allergy
Can Children Outgrow Food Allergies
Many children with food allergies do eventually outgrow their food allergies later in life.
When someone outgrows a food allergy, they become fully tolerant to the food that they used to be allergic to. The food no longer causes them to develop any symptoms of an allergic reaction when they consume it, even if they eat a full serving of the food.
But some children dont outgrow their food allergies, and endup with lifelong allergies to a food or foods.
Can You Develop Food Allergies As An Adult
One of the best parts of transitioning from adolescence to adulthood is knowing yourself better. Youre more familiar with your personal preferences, the demands of life, and your own body. At least, thats the ideal scenario. But food allergies can throw you for a loop when they develop later in life.
At Advanced Allergy & Asthma in Ogden, Utah, our dedicated team is here to help you get the allergy diagnosis and treatment you need to feel comfortable and safe in your body again.
You May Like: Can A Gluten Allergy Cause Hair Loss
Food Allergies In Children
No parent wants to see their child suffer. Since fatal and near-fatal food allergy reactions can occur at school or other places outside the home, parents of a child with food allergies need to make sure that their childs school has a written emergency action plan. The plan should provide instructions on preventing, recognizing and managing food allergies and should be available in the school and during activities such as sporting events and field trips. If your child has been prescribed an auto-injector, be sure that you and those responsible for supervising your child understand how to use it.
In November 2013, President Barack Obama signed into law the School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act , which encourages states to adopt laws requiring schools to have epinephrine auto-injectors on hand. As of late 2014, dozens of states had passed laws that either require schools to have a supply of epinephrine auto-injectors for general use or allow school districts the option of providing a supply of epinephrine. Many of these laws are new, and it is uncertain how well they are being implemented. As a result, ACAAI still recommends that providers caring for food-allergic children in states with such laws maintain at least two units of epinephrine per allergic child attending the school.
What Will The Doctor Do
If you think you may be allergic to a food, let your parents know. They will take you to the doctor to get it checked out.
If your doctor thinks you might have a food allergy, you’ll probably go see a doctor who specializes in allergies, called an allergist.This doctor will ask you about past reactions and how long it takes between eating the food and getting the symptom .
The allergist might want to do a skin test. This is a way of seeing how your body reacts to a very small amount of the food that is giving you trouble. The allergist will use a liquid extract of the food and, possibly, other common allergy-causing foods to see if you react to any of them. The doctor will make a little scratch on your skin and drop a little of the liquid on the scratched area. Different extracts will go on the different scratches so the doctor can see how your skin reacts to each one. If you get a reddish, raised spot, you might be allergic to that food or substance.
Some doctors may also take a blood sample and send it to a lab for testing.
Even though the doctor tests for food allergies by exposing you to a very small amount of the food, you should not try this at home! The best place for an allergy test is at the doctor’s office, where the staff is specially trained and could give you medicine right away if you had a serious reaction.
You May Like: How To Make Allergies Go Away Fast
How You Can Eliminate A Food Allergy
Apple Podcasts | | Stitcher | Spotify
Its not completely clear how, but scientists think a combination of factors, from genetics to the environment, play a role in children developing allergies to food such as peanuts, milk or shellfish. Many children will outgrow their food allergies. But for those who dont, physicians have figured out a way to harness the bodys immune response to eliminate allergic reactions to food. Eli Silver, MD, a pediatric allergy and immunology specialist at UH Rainbow Babies & Childrens Hospital, explains.
What Foods Most Often Cause Food Allergy
Approximately 90 percent of all food allergies are caused by the followingeight foods:
Eggs, milk, and peanuts are the most common causes of food allergies inchildren, with wheat, soy, and tree nuts also included. Peanuts, tree nuts,fish, and shellfish commonly cause the most severe reactions. Nearly 5percent of children under the age of five years have food allergies. From1997 to 2007, the prevalence of reported food allergy increased 18 percentamong children under age 18 years. Although most children “outgrow” theirallergies, allergy to peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish may belifelong.
Recommended Reading: Can You Take Allergy Medicine With Cough Syrup
The Emergence Of Allergies
You can develop an allergy at any point in your life. Most people develop allergies during their childhood or young adult years, but you can develop them later in life, too. Seasonal allergies may develop as you age because you have an increased amount of exposure to environmental allergens, such as pollen.
You may outgrow allergies. Some experts believe that tolerance to allergens may develop as a person is exposed to very low levels of the allergen over time. This is similar to the way vaccines work to immunize you against certain bacteria and viruses, or the way allergy shots work to decrease a persons allergic response to a particular allergen.
Lee Ann Shore, who had allergies for a long time, reports that she experienced the onset of allergies while going through puberty, but that her symptoms decreased with time. Her doctors couldnt explain why.
I never had anaphylactic reactions. The worst I would have would be some throat itching and sneezing. The issues just decreased over the years, says Shore.
She reports that she still experiences mild symptoms, but theyre not as bad as they were during her teen years.
If you have an allergy, your doctor will provide you with a proper treatment plan. Treatments for allergies differ depending on the allergy and severity and may include:
- emergency epinephrine
What’s A Food Allergy Reaction Like
If a kid with peanut allergy would have eaten that peanut-topped brownie, here’s what would happen. Antibodies to something in the food would the body to release chemicals into the bloodstream. One of these chemicals is histamine .
This then causes symptoms that affect a person’s eyes, nose, throat, respiratory system, skin, and digestive system. A person with a food allergy could have a mild reaction or it could be more severe. An allergic reaction could happen right away or a few hours after the person eats it.
Some of the first signs that a person may be having an allergic reaction could be a runny nose, an itchy skin rash such as hives, or a tingling in the tongue or lips. Other signs include:
- tightness in the throat
In the most serious cases, a food allergy can cause anaphylaxis . This is a sudden, severe allergic reaction in which several problems happen all at once. It can involve the skin, breathing, digestion, the heart, and blood vessels. A person’s blood pressure can drop, breathing tubes can narrow, and the tongue can swell.
People at risk for this kind of a reaction have to be very careful and need a plan for handling emergencies, when they might need to get special medicine to stop these symptoms from getting worse.
Many kids outgrow allergies to milk and eggs as they grow older. But severe allergies to foods like peanuts, some kinds of fish, and shrimp often last a lifetime.
Read Also: Does Allergies Cause Asthma Symptoms
