Food Allergies: A General Overview
Understanding Food Allergies, Treatment/Prevention and Symptoms
A brief overview to help in the understanding of food allergies, symptoms of food allergies, avoidance and reactions.
It can be a harrowing experience for any parent to see a child exhibit an allergic reaction, not only because so many times the cause is unknown, but so is the severity of the reaction. Often times with a food allergy, mild symptoms begin to show in early childhood, even infancy, and it may take years to understand the source. Other times a first reaction is immediate and severe, the cause blatantly obvious. Either way, food allergies take understanding and an active approach in keeping the sufferer safe, along with diligence and awareness.
The most common foods which cause allergies are tree nuts (cashews, almonds, walnuts, pecans, etc.) peanuts, shellfish, milk, wheat and soy products. However, any food has the capability to trigger a reaction in an individual, such as peaches, avocados, chocolate and miso. Some of these food allergies are easier to outgrow than others, like milk and wheat, while some may continue to be a lifelong problem. If a reaction occurs, it is necessary to think back on the new foods recently eaten.
Reading labels and understanding ingredients is crucial for managing food allergies. This year, the FDA began mandating that all food labels highlight in the ingredient list the common foods to cause reactions. Also, following the ingredient list, these foods are listed again in a separate block if the product contains any, as well if it is made in a plant which also processes the high allergen foods. This is essential as well because foods can become cross contaminated if the same machinery or processing tools are shared with other foods.
Allergists say the best treatment is avoidance of all foods that contain the allergen. Reading labels and asking in restaurants is key to avoidance. But a reaction unfortunately is still possible. If one does occur, an antihistamine, like Benadryl should be used immediately and/or a prescribed Epipen should be administered, depending on the severity of the reaction.
Symptoms can include a wide variety of symptoms, mild to severe, including an itchy mouth to an anaphylactic reaction (where breathing becomes difficult due to swelling airways). Hives, nausea, dizziness, vomiting, and swelling can also occur. Professionals advise when in doubt, use the Epipen. It must be followed by a hospital visit, but is a safe, life saving treatment. The frightening thing about food allergy reactions is that they may become more severe the more reactions one has, and each reaction is unpredictable. For instance, if a previous reaction was a mild case of hives, anaphylaxis is still a possibility for a subsequent reaction.
Allergists also recommend allergy testing, and this can be done in a few different ways, including scratch tests where a tiny amount of the allergen is put directly into the skin in a controlled environment or a blood test. Some doctors do recommend repeating the procedure every few years. Some believe in alternative practices to eliminate the allergy all together, and this topic will be addressed in an upcoming article.
