CHILDREN’S ALLERGIES: FOODS AS ALLERGENS
Knowledge about food allergy is as old as history; the ancient Egyptians, the Chinese, the Jews, and the Greeks all demonstrated an instinctive understanding of these allergies. However, allergy to food was studied scientifically for the first time only fifty years ago by Schloss who observed that:(a) a boy had epidermoids-animal hair and scales from dogs, cats, horses, goats, rabbits, birds, sheep, rats and mice, roaches, silkworms dyes cosmetics insecticides poison ivy plant hives after eating eggs, almonds, and oatmeal; (b) the same boy had an inflammation in his skin when injected with extracts of those foods; (c) the boy manifested either an immediate reaction to a food (which showed itself a few minutes after eating it) or a delayed reaction (which showed itself hours or days after eating it). Schloss concluded that in immediate reactions to foods the allergen is the whole food, while in delayed reactions it is one of the broken down products of the food absorbed during digestion. He advised avoidance of complicated foods which might be incompletely digested and absorbed as such by the immature intestines of a baby.
The symptoms of food allergy are hives, nose stuffiness, asthma, eczema, vomiting, diarrhea, gas, or migraine headaches. We know through experience that fish, shellfish, berries, nuts, and chocolate frequently cause hives, while cereals, milk, egg, or meat more often cause nose stuffiness and asthma.
A food allergy is usually diagnosed clinically with a diet diary, an elimination diet, or a provocative diet. Skin testing has little value in diagnosing food allergy.
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