Food allergy in infancy and children: state of the art
Dannaeus, A.
Annals of Allergy 59(5 Pt 2): 124-126
1987
ISSN/ISBN: 0003-4738 PMID: 3318577 Document Number: 302468
Several adverse reactions to foods in infancy are harmless. Such signs as perioral rash, undigested vegetables in the stools, and red buttocks are also common in healthy infants. However, special attention should be paid to infants of families with allergic disease. During the first months of life diarrhoea, colics and skin rashes can be due to an early onset of food allergy to basic foods. The allergist will have to deal with 2 groups of patients. First, infants with an extreme pre-disposition to allergy who develop a broad food allergy will often require a very limited diet. Those infants often have eczema as well as gastrointestinal disturbances and respiratory signs. They seem to react to a great variety of foods often even in trace amounts. At times a foodstuff will provoke a reaction on one occasion but not on another. The allergist will also meet children with chronic signs of eczema and asthma without any obvious allergy or sensitivity to foods. Suspicious of allergy, anxious parents may give these children very restricted diets for long periods. Such restrictions may entail a risk of nutritional deficiencies. It is an important task for the allergist to exclude the existence of such suspected sensitivities. For this purpose a very restricted diet, a "basic diet" for a limited period (10 days), is very useful. After a 10-day diet consisting of potato, rice, meat, water and salt it is possible to detect any dietetic factors involved. If there is no improvement parents should feel calmed that they will not have to worry about the diet any further. However, if there is a convincing relief of signs during the diet, the child should be admitted to hospital for systematic provocations which would be objectively interpreted.