Cross Reactions With Other Foods
Children with allergies listed below can react to other foods:
- Cow’s milk allergy: 90% also react with goat’s milk and 40% with soy milk
- Egg: 5% react with chicken
- Peanut: 5% react with other legumes . About 30% also react to tree nuts.
- Tree nut: 40% react with other tree nuts
- Fish: 50% react with other fish. Only 10% also react to shellfish.
- Shellfish: 70% react with other shellfish
- Melon: 90% react with banana and avocado
What Foods Most Often Cause Food Allergy
Approximately 90 percent of all food allergies are caused by the followingeight foods:
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Milk
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Fish
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Shellfish
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.
How Do Food Allergies Affect Digestion
True food allergies are relatively rare, but food sensitivities and celiac disease are on the rise.
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Everyday Health: The rates of food allergies continue to rise. What are the most common food allergies, and how do they affect digestion?
Food allergies are estimated to affect 6 to 8 percent of children in the United States and 3 to 4 percent of adults. Many children who demonstrate allergy to milk protein outgrow them. In adults, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and egg are the most common. Of note, those with peanut and tree nut allergies are unlikely to outgrow them, including the recently increasingly prevalent sesame allergy. Symptoms are usually acute, but can be chronic and include the gamut of allergic responses in the entire body. In the digestive tract, symptoms include nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, odynophagia , diarrhea, or any combination of these symptoms.
Kenneth Brown, MD
More commonly, people have intolerances to foods, rather than allergies. An example of food intolerance is when someone has bloating and diarrhea after consuming lactose. These people have low levels of the enzyme lactase, which prevents the lactose sugar from being broken down.
Lisa Ganjhu, DO
Lisa Pichney, MD
The eight most common food allergens are milk, wheat, soy, shellfish, fish, peanuts, tree nuts, and eggs. Celiac disease involves an allergy or sensitivity to gluten, which is found in wheat. Patients with celiac disease may malabsorb macronutrients and become ill.
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What Steps Do I Need To Take For Signs Or Symptoms Of Anaphylaxis
- Immediately give 1 shot of epinephrine only into the outer thigh muscle.
- Leave the shot in place as directed. Your healthcare provider may recommend you leave it in place for up to 10 seconds before you remove it. This helps make sure all of the epinephrine is delivered.
- even if the shot improved symptoms. Do not drive yourself. Bring the used epinephrine shot with you.
Get To The Hospital If It’s Serious
If you have a severe allergic reactionsee step number one for symptomsthen grab your EpiPen and get yourself to the nearest hospital or urgent care center, Zeitlin advises. You’ll need to “tell the nurse about your allergy and how you were contaminated,” she says, to get the most effective treatment. If you don’t know, you can work with the doctor to determine whether you’ve developed a new allergy and whether you require additional medical tests.
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What Happens If A Test Shows An Allergy
If your child does have an allergy, the allergist will work with you on a plan to keep your child safe. Youll learn how to help your child avoid foods that arent safe. The doctor also will give you a prescription for emergency medicine to keep with your child all the time in case of a severe allergic reaction.
Symptoms Of Food Allergies
- Hives all over and swelling of the face are the most common symptoms. Hives are raised pink bumps with pale centers . They look like bug bites.
- Mouth itching and swelling
- Runny nose and coughing
- Vomiting and diarrhea
- Life-threatening allergic reactions also must have trouble breathing and/or swallowing. The medical name for this is anaphylaxis. Most of these reactions have a sudden onset within 10 to 20 minutes. All occur within 2 hours of eating a certain food. People who have had this carry an emergency kit like an Epi-Pen.
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What Is Food Intolerance
A food intolerance isn’t the same as a food allergy.
People with food intolerance may have symptoms such as diarrhoea, bloating and stomach cramps. This may be caused by difficulties digesting certain substances, such as lactose. However, no allergic reaction takes place.
Important differences between a food allergy and a food intolerance include:
- the symptoms of a food intolerance usually occur several hours after eating the food
- you need to eat a larger amount of food to trigger an intolerance than an allergy
- a food intolerance is never life threatening, unlike an allergy
Read more about food intolerance.
Page last reviewed: 15 April 2019 Next review due: 15 April 2022
What Is The Difference Between Food Allergy And Food Intolerance
Food allergy is sometimes confused with food intolerance. Food allergies involve your immune system and can be life-threatening. An intolerance is when your body has trouble digesting a food. It can make you feel bad, usually with an upset stomach, but it is not life-threatening. The most common intolerance is to lactosewhich is a natural sugar found in milk.
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How Is It Treated
The best treatment is to never eat the foods you are allergic to. Learn to read food labels and spot other names for problem foods. For example, milk may be listed as “caseinate,” wheat as “gluten,” and peanuts as “hydrolyzed vegetable protein.” When you eat out or at other people’s houses, ask about the foods you are served.
If you have a history of severe food allergies, your doctor will prescribe epinephrine . An epinephrine shot can slow down or stop an allergic reaction. Your doctor can teach you how to give yourself the shot if you need it.
You can have symptoms again even after you give yourself a shot. So go to the emergency room every time you have a severe reaction. You will need to be watched for several hours after the reaction.
If you have had a serious reaction in the past, your chance of having another one is high. Be prepared.
- Keep epinephrine with you at all times.
- Wear a medical alert bracelet to let others know about your food allergy.
- Check the expiration date on the epinephrine. Replace it as needed.
Issues Mistakenly Linked To Food Allergies
Although some people think certain illnesses can be caused by food allergies, evidence doesn’t back up such claims. Histamines in cheese or red wine, for example, can trigger migraines. But we can’t say that food allergies actually causemigraines. Rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis aren’t made worse by foods. Food allergies don’t cause “allergic tension fatigue syndrome,” where people get tired, nervous, and may have problems concentrating or headaches.
Cerebral allergy is a term that describes when mast cells are supposedly releasing their chemicals in the brain — and nowhere else in the body — causing trouble concentrating and headaches. Most doctors don’t recognize cerebral allergy as a disorder.
Even when their surroundings are very clean, some people have many general complaints like problems concentrating, fatigue, or depression. Environmental illness may be the result of small amounts of allergens or toxins, but not food allergies.
Researchers have found that hyperactivity in children may be related to food additives, but only occasionally and only when the child has had a lot of them. A food allergy won’t directly affect a child’s behavior, although their symptoms might make them cranky and difficult, and allergy medications can make them sleepy.
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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.
When Should You Go To The Hospital For A Food Allergy
An allergic reaction becomes more serious and is considered a medical emergency when any of the signs or symptoms are particularly severe, such as loss of consciousness or difficulty breathing, or if different parts or systems of the body are involved, such as having the combination of hives and vomiting, Dr.
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Stop Eating When Allergy Symptoms Start
If a nefarious peanut makes its way into your supposedly peanut-less pad Thai, stop eating those noodles stat, Zeitlin instructs, and start paying attention to your symptoms. Itchy, scratchy throat, redness, and even slight swelling can be cured with an antihistamine, such as Benadryl or Zyrtec. But if your symptoms worsenthink: you can’t breatheskip immediately to step number five.
Symptoms Of Food Allergy Rash
- Sneezing
- Seeds like sunflower, poppy and sesame
- Meat such as beef, pork, chicken and mutton
- Seeds, often sesame, sunflower, and poppy
- Spices like coriander, mustard and garlic
Besides these common allergenic food items, there are other foods that may trigger allergic reactions on your skin, as stated by Food Allergy Research and Education .
Additionally, if the protein present in a specific food item is similar to that of another food of the same category, it may further trigger an allergic reaction. This is known as cross-reactivity. For example, if you are allergic to cows milk, you may also develop allergies from goats milk as both of them have the same proteins. Similarly, people allergic to latex are likely to be allergic to fruits like kiwi, avocado and banana.
Food allergies are usually diagnosed during early childhood stages. However, different blood and skin tests at later life can also be used to identify allergens causing reactions. Usually, most people outgrow food allergies with age but it can even stay for a lifetime.
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What Are The Symptoms Of Food Allergy
Allergic symptoms may begin within minutes to an hour after ingesting thefood. The following are the most common symptoms of food allergy. However,each child may experience symptoms differently. Symptoms may include:
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Vomiting
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Wheezing
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Lowered blood pressure
According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, itdoes not take much of the food to cause a severe reaction in highlyallergic people. In fact, as little as 1/44,000 of a peanut kernel cancause an allergic reaction for severely allergic individuals.
The symptoms of food allergy may resemble other problems or medicalconditions. Always consult your child’s doctor for a diagnosis.
How Do You Know If Know If You Have A Food Intolerance
The simplest way to know if you have a food intolerance is by looking for cues in your body. If you are intolerant to any food, your body is likely sending you clues and symptoms that you may not have been paying attention to.
Or things that are so strange that you would have never attributed them to being from a food.
There are so many things that we think of when we think of symptoms of dealing with food related issues, but there are some things that pop up that are so strange or so unexpected to be related to your diet that might surprise you.
One story I have of strange food intolerance symptoms, but not knowing how to identify what caused them is when I was gluten and dairy-free for about a year and a half. Even though I wasnt eating gluten or dairy, I was still having extreme brain fog and fatigue all the time.
Even though I felt a lot BETTER overall, I still felt like I needed to take a nap in the middle of the day. No matter how much exercise I had, the supplements I took, or the joy in my life I still wanted to just lay down and close my eyes sometimes for no real reason.
It got to be a big burden when I was driving or having a nice day out doing whatever couples with no kids do. I cant remember that anymore , but I do remember how much time we had to just have fun!
The results from this food sensitivity test came back, and I found out I was intolerant to eggs. Eggs!! Not gluten not dairy but EGGS!
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What Causes Food Allergy
Before having a food allergy reaction, a sensitive child must have beenexposed to the food at least once before, or could also be sensitizedthrough breast milk. It is the second time your child eats the food thatthe allergic symptoms happen. At that time, when IgE antibodies react withthe food, histamines are released, which can cause your child to experiencehives, asthma, itching in the mouth, trouble breathing, stomach pains,vomiting, and/or diarrhea.
Breastfeeding With Food Allergies
Few things are as terrifying as an infant allergic reaction. It can come in the form of a rash, chronic diarrhea , anaphylaxis, and more. Food sensitivities can appear as early as the first few weeks of life. Such a young age, combined with these severe symptoms, can leave parents desperate for answers. I was in this situation three years ago, bawling in the hospital stairwell after doctors told me that my daughter was in so much pain because of my breast milk.
We discovered that my 3-week-old had severe food sensitivities. Since traditional allergy testing is ineffective for children that young, we were informed that it was best to eliminate all allergens from her diet. We were strongly encouraged to end our breastfeeding journey and replace it with an amino acid formula that smelled like sweaty gym socks and cost $50 a CAN.
I wanted so badly to continue breastfeeding my daughter. The doctors stated that I could do so but would have to remove all allergens from my diet for at least two weeks before I could feed her. According to them, that was the amount of time it would take for the food proteins to leave my breast milk. During those two weeks, we fed her the formula while I pumped around the clock. Finally, two weeks passed, and we were incredibly lucky that the transition back to breastfeeding was smooth .
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A Note About Food Allergic Reactions And Children
Many people wonder about the differences between food allergy reactions in children vs. adults.
Food allergy rash is one of the most common food allergy symptoms in children and adults. The way it appears in every age group is also largely the same. In fact, food allergies generally cause the same set of symptoms in children as they do in adults.
But even though food allergies cause similar symptoms across all age groups, the most common types of food allergies are different in children vs. adults.
In young children , cows milk, egg, and peanut allergies are the most common food allergies. According to one study by Dr. Ruchi Gupta, these three foods are responsible for around 80% of food allergies in young children.
In addition to milk, egg, and peanut allergies, tree nut allergies are also very common in children age 14 and under.
Out of these four food types, peanut and tree nut allergies are most responsible for severe reactions in children, but any food has the potential to cause a severe reaction.
In contrast, the most common food allergy in adults is shellfish allergy, which is largely an adult allergy. Finned fish allergies are another common adult allergy — and finned fish allergies also tend to develop in adulthood.
Check out our previous article for more on food allergies in children vs. adults.
Oas And Nose Allergies Can Be Linked
- Over 50% of people who are allergic to pollen also have OAS. This means 10% of all people.
- Ragweed pollen allergy can cross-react with all melons. Also, sometimes with bananas and tomatoes.
- Birch pollen allergy can cross-react with raw potatoes, carrots, celery and apples.
- Grass pollen allergy can cross-react with tomato and kiwi.
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What Is A Food Allergy
A food allergy is an immune system reaction to a food. A food allergen is an ingredient or chemical in a food that causes your immune system to react. Allergic reactions happen when your immune system fights too strongly against an allergen and causes you to get sick. Allergic reactions can happen within minutes to several hours after you eat, touch, or smell the food. You can also have a second reaction up to 8 hours later.
