What Causes An Allergy
An allergy is caused by the immune system fighting substances in the environment that it should see as harmless, known as allergens.
These innocent substances become targets, leading to allergic reactions.
Symptoms range from skin redness, hives and swelling to – in the most severe cases – vomiting, diarrhoea, difficulty breathing and anaphylactic shock.
Some of the most common foods for children to be allergic to are:
Systematic Reviews And Meta
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses have become increasingly important for addressing a variety of questions in health care and disease prevalence. International guidelines have evolved over the past decade to improve the quality of systematic reviews, such as the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses . More recently the PRISMA-P contains a checklist of 17 items considered to be essential and lists minimal components of a systematic review or meta-analysis protocol . Relatively few systematic reviews in the literature have incorporated all aspects of the PRISMA-P checklist. In this report, systematic reviews have been assessed based on the PRISMA checklist.
Based on a meta-analysis by Rona and systematic reviews by the RAND Corporation and Zuidmeer , the NIAID/NIH-sponsored Guidelines reported that the prevalence of food allergy in the United States and several European countries was 12 to 13 percent by self-report, but only 3 percent when confirmed by laboratory studies and DBPCOFCs. As depicted in , several foods were analyzed individually, with marked differences dependent upon the stringency of the diagnostic criteria used. In general, the food challenge-proven prevalence of food allergy appears to be about one-quarter to one-third the rate of self-reported food allergy by questionnaire.
Fact #: All Food Allergic Children Should Carry Epinephrine
Antihistamines can be used to relieve mild allergy symptoms, such as a skin rash or a one-time episode of GI symptoms. However, if a child is having anaphylaxis or difficulty breathing the child needs an injection of epinephrine.
A delay in treatment can be life-threatening, so its important children with food allergies have an emergency plan, have an epinephrine injector on hand and know how to use it. It is important to have 2 injectors with the child and not split a 2 pack up, as some children will need the second dose. After using epinephrine or if youre with a child and they dont have an injector call 9-1-1 immediately.
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Allergy Treatment In Arlington
If your child is suffering from allergies, please come in and see us at Urgentology Care. Our compassionate and knowledgeable medical team will evaluate and treat your allergy symptoms right away. Please note, if they are experiencing any symptoms of anaphylaxis, call 911 immediately and administer their EpiPen straight away.
For more information about our allergy care services in Arlington, call us today at 799-7273.
Categories
Peanut Allergy In Children
Less than two percent of children in the U.S. have a peanut allergy. The New England Journal of Medicine published a study in 2016 indicating that feeding peanuts and other allergy-inducing foods to babies is more likely to protect them than to cause problems.
Feeding peanuts to a young child doesnt guarantee they wont develop a peanut allergy, but it does decrease the risk. There is a seven-fold increase in the risk of developing peanut allergy if a parent or sibling has peanut allergy, says Carr. There is a 64% risk that a child will develop peanut allergy if his or her twin sibling also has a peanut allergy, he adds.
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Know The Difference: Food Allergy Vs Food Sensitivity Or Intolerance
Be aware that a food allergy is different from a food sensitivity or intolerance. Your child might feel bloated or gassy after having a milk product, but that could be a sign of an intolerance to lactose.
An allergic reaction is an immune system response to a particular food protein. This response would be stronger including hives, difficulty breathing, bad gut pain, vomiting and, in the most severe cases, could be life-threatening.
What Is A Food Intolerance
People often confuse food allergies with food intolerance. The symptoms of food intolerance can include burping, indigestion, gas, loose stools, headaches, nervousness, or a feeling of being “flushed.” But food intolerance:
- doesn’t involve the immune system
- can happen because a person can’t digest a substance, such as lactose
- can be unpleasant but is rarely dangerous
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How Common Are Seasonal Allergies
- In 2018, approximately 24 million people in the U.S. were diagnosed with seasonal allergic rhinitis . This equals around 8% of adults and 7% of children.1,7
- Seasonal allergic rhinitis is an allergic reaction to pollen from trees, grasses, and weeds. This type of rhinitis occurs mainly in the spring and fall when pollen from trees, grasses, and weeds are in the air.
- In 2018, white children were more likely to have hay fever than Black children.7
- The same triggers for indoor/outdoor allergies also often cause eye allergies.
What Are The Chances My Child Will Have A Food Allergy
About 4 to 6 percent of all children have a food allergy. If a parent has seasonal allergies, asthma or eczema, their kids are at greater risk for any allergic disease. If one of your children has a food allergy, it increases the chances your other children will also be allergic. If this applies to your family, talk to your pediatrician about introducing foods to a new baby.
The good news is that most children will outgrow their food allergy. Approximately 85 percent of allergies to cows milk, soy, egg and wheat will resolve by the time the child is 3 years old however, one study reports it may take until 6 or 8 years old.
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Pediatric Food Allergy Statistics
Food allergies may be more common than you think, making it important to monitor your childs symptoms and reactions to food triggers.
Learn the important statistics on pediatric food allergies below:
- According to Food Allergy Research & Education, 5.6 million children under age 18 have food allergies thats one in 13 children or roughly two in every classroom.
- Children with a food allergy are two to four times as likely to have other allergic conditions, such as asthma or eczema.
- Every three minutes, a food allergy reaction sends someone to the emergency room.
- According to the CDC, the prevalence of food allergy in children increased by 50 percent between 1997 and 2011.
- 90% of food allergies occur to the same eight foods: peanuts, eggs, cow’s milk, tree nuts, soy, shellfish, fish, and wheat. Fish, shellfish, tree nuts, and peanuts are typically the most severe.
- About 40 percent of children with food allergies are allergic to more than one food item.
- Allergies to milk, egg, wheat, and soy often resolve in childhood.
- Allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish are generally lifelong.
Allergy Epidemic: Up To 10% Of Children Have Food Intolerances Where Did They Come From
Food allergies are becoming increasingly common, in children and in adults. Yet its surprisingly difficult to get a handle on even the basics. The United States Department of Agriculture estimates about 2 percent of adults and 4 to 8 percent of children suffer from food allergies, but some scientists think the number is as high as 10 percent across the board, around 33 million people in the US. Some have even described food allergies as an epidemic.
Here are what scientists are thinking most about when it comes to food allergies:
As sanitation and cleanliness have improved, food allergy rates have increased. The thinking is that with fewer germs and parasites to counteract, the immune system starts to turn against harmless things like allergens.
Our guidelines suggested initially that kids should avoid food allergens early in life, said Douglas Mack, an assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at McMaster University. But this thinking may have been wrong, and it may have even backfired. It could explain why allergy rates have risen so much in the past 30 years compared to the decades prior.
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Milk And Soy Allergies:
Allergies to milk and soy are usually seen in infants and young children. Often, these symptoms are unlike the symptoms of other allergies, but, rather, may include the following:
- blood in your child’s stool
Often, your child’s physician will change your baby’s formula to a soy formula or breast milk if it is thought he/she is allergic to milk. If your child has problems with soy formula, your child’s physician might change him/her to an easily digested hypoallergenic formula.
The symptoms of a milk or soy allergy may resemble other problems or medical conditions. Always consult your child’s physician for a diagnosis.
Treatment For Food Allergies:
There is no medication to prevent food allergy. The goal of treatment is to avoid the foods that cause the symptoms. After seeing your child’s physician and finding which foods your child is allergic to, it is very important to avoid these foods and other similar foods in that food group. If you are breastfeeding your child, it is important to avoid foods in your diet that your child is allergic to. Small amounts of the food allergen may be transmitted 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/she is unable to eat certain foods. Discuss this with your child’s physician.
For children who have had a severe food reaction, your child’s physician may prescribe an emergency kit that contains epinephrine, which helps stop the symptoms of severe reactions. Consult your child’s physician for further information.
Some children, under the direction of his/her physician, may be given certain foods again after one year to see if he/she has outgrown the allergy. Many allergies may be short-term in children and the food may be tolerated after the age of 3 or 4.
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Nearly 8% Of Us Children Have Food Allergies Study Finds
Related tags:Allergies, sesame, Cspi
The study’s results, published in the peer-reviewed journal Pediatrics, were based on a survey administered to US households between 2015 and 2016, obtaining parent-proxy responses for 38,408 children.
Researchers noted a discrepancy between its findings that 7.6% of US children have a serious food allergy and the 11.4% figure reported by parents, which included non-convincing symptoms of food allergies.
“This discrepancy underscores the importance of improving patient access to physicians trained in the accurate diagnosis of food allergy to prevent placing families under the social, emotional, and economic burden of unnecessarily avoiding foods to which they are not truly allergic. Reactions to food may actually be intolerances or oral allergy syndrome, which are difficult for parents to decipher on their own,” researchers noted.
The most common food allergies in the US included peanut , followed by allergy to milk , shellfish , tree nut , egg , fin fish , wheat and soy . Sesame was the ninth most common food allergen affecting about 150,000 children.
“Knowing this, it is essential that these children are prepared with an action plan and an epinephrine auto-injector. Only 40% of these children had a current prescription for one,” said lead author Ruchi Gupta, MD, MPH, and professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
“There are now two kids with food allergies in every elementary school classroom.”
Can Children Outgrow Food Allergies
It is possible, and somewhat common, for children to outgrow their food allergies at some point.
- Peanut allergy: Resolves in 20% of cases by age 5, and 16-30% by adulthoods
- Cows milk allergy: Resolves in 42% of children by age 8, in 64% of cases by age 12, and 79% by age 16
- Soy allergy: Resolves in 45% of cases by age 6, and 69% by age 10
- Egg allergy: Resolves in 12% of cases by age 6, in 37% of cases by age 10, and 68% by age 16
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Treatment For Food Allergies
Historically, the only management of food allergies was to avoid the food and carry an epinephrine injector. However, more treatments are available today, including oral immunotherapy , which was recently proved effective in a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine
In OIT, the child is fed an increasing amount of the allergy-inducing food , with the goal being to increase the amount of that allergen that triggers a reaction, Carr says. By decreasing your childs sensitivity to allergy-causing foods through OIT, any accidental exposure they have to the allergen will produce fewer and less severe symptoms. , While OIT has been linked to long-term remission of food allergies, there is no guarantee of a cure. Not all children are candidates for OIT. To qualify for OIT, a child must have a documented allergy to a certain food. This can be confirmed with a positive skin test or a positive blood test. Your childs allergist may recommend OIT take place over several months in order to achieve the maintenance dose, or a level ingested that doesnt trigger an allergic reaction
There are inherent risks with OIT, since the child is being exposed to their allergy-inducing food. OIT should only be performed by a pediatric allergist in a clinical setting.
The standard of care for food allergies remains avoiding the triggering food and carrying an epinephrine auto-injector in the event of an accidental exposure.
Related Topics
What Are The Symptoms Of Food Allergies
Allergic symptoms may begin within minutes to an hour after ingesting the food. The following are the most common symptoms of food allergy. However, each child may experience symptoms differently. Symptoms may include:
- itching or swelling of the lips, tongue, or mouth
- itching or tightness in the throat
- difficulty breathing
- lowered blood pressure
According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, it does not take much of the food to cause a severe reaction in highly allergic people. In fact, as little as 1/44,000 of a peanut kernel can cause an allergic reaction for severely allergic individuals.
The symptoms of food allergy may resemble other problems or medical conditions. Always consult your child’s physician for a diagnosis.
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The Most Common Allergies Among Adults
Of all survey respondents, even among those who reported symptoms that seemed consistent with a food allergy, specialists had only diagnosed allergies in around half of them.
Also, among people with clinically diagnosed food allergies, under 25 percent held a prescription for epinephrine, which people use to treat severe allergic reactions.
Another interesting finding of the study is that almost half of the adults with food allergies had developed at least one of their allergies in adulthood.
We were surprised to find that adult-onset food allergies were so common. More research is needed to understand why this is occurring and how we might prevent it, says Dr. Gupta.
When they looked at the specifics of food allergies among U.S. adults, the researchers found that the most common ones were:
What Is Food Allergy
A food allergy is an abnormal response of the body to a certain food. It is important to know that this is different than a food intolerance, which does not affect the immune system, although some of the same symptoms may be present.
What causes food allergy? Before having a food allergy reaction, a sensitive child must have been exposed to the food at least once before, or could also be sensitized through breast milk. It is the second time your child eats the food that the allergic symptoms happen. At that time, when IgE antibodies react with the food, histamines are released, which can cause your child to experience hives, asthma, itching in the mouth, trouble breathing, stomach pains, vomiting, and/or diarrhea.
What is the difference between food allergy and food intolerance? Food allergy causes an immune system response, causing symptoms in your child that range from uncomfortable to life-threatening. Food intolerance does not affect the immune system, although some symptoms may be the same as in food allergy.
What foods most often cause food allergy? Approximately 90 percent of all food allergies are caused by the following eight foods:
What are the symptoms of food allergy? Allergic symptoms may begin within minutes to an hour after ingesting the food. The following are the most common symptoms of food allergy. However, each child may experience symptoms differently. Symptoms may include:
- Blood in your child’s stool
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Food Allergies On The Rise
The fact is food allergies are more prevalent than they were just a few decades ago. One in 13 children now have food allergies, which is equivalent to two students per class. The most common food allergies are milk, egg, peanut, tree nuts, soy, wheat, fish and shellfish. Sesame is an emerging allergy.
So why are children getting more food allergies? There are a couple reasons. First, what we eat has dramatically changed. We now have a more industrialized diet, in which foods are being modified for factory farming, processing and mass distribution. Were also too clean. We sanitize everything – our hands, our homes and our work environment. Food allergies are developed when the bodys immune system thinks a certain food is harmful and the person becomes sick whenever the food is eaten. Basically, our immune system is fighting things it doesnt need to fight.
Studies In The United States
Virtually no studies have been conducted evaluating the prevalence of food-induced anaphylaxis in the United States. Recently Wood et al. conducted two nationwide, cross-sectional random-digit-dial surveys: a public survey that included unselected adults and a patient survey that collected information from household members who reported a reaction to medications, foods, insect stings, or latex and idiopathic reactions in the previous 10 years . The public survey included 1,000 adults from which it was estimated that 5.1 percent and 1.6 percent had probable and very likely anaphylaxis, respectively. In the patient survey 344 of 1,059 respondents reported a history of anaphylaxis 31 percent of these reactions were to foods, most commonly peanuts, tree nuts, and shellfish. Even though children were included in the patient survey, it had a significant bias toward an older population . This age bias likely misrepresented the relative proportion of anaphylaxis triggers in the overall U.S. population, probably underestimating foods and overestimating medications. As with similar such surveys, both studies were limited by recall bias of interviewees, potential bias caused by using only a landline sample, and high rates of nonparticipation that could potentially result in further selection bias.
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