Cons of milk allergy, adopt good habits!
Approximately 2-3% of children under one year are allergic to cow’s milk, but this figure is largely underestimated. Sometimes difficult to diagnose this disorder is the cause of many cases of eczema and gastroesophageal reflux. How to overcome the problem? When should reintroduce milk? Overview.
Allergic problems explode in France. If the egg allergy is the most common, the most common food allergy among children under one year is that cow’s milk.
1. A difficult diagnosis
The problem with milk allergy is that it can have different manifestations, depending on the extent of the disorder. There may be immediate reactions (within two hours after ingestion of milk) with urticaria, projectile vomiting, angioedema and even anaphylactic shock in severe cases. But it may also occur forms delayed (after several hours), with digestive problems (colic, pain.), But also skin and respiratory disorders. Moreover, 40% of cases of gastroesophageal reflux in infants and an important part of eczema are due to the milk allergy.
Today, when a milk allergy is suspected, tools exist to confirm the diagnosis. In most allergies, we look for the presence of specific antibodies (IgE), evidence of immune system dysfunction. It passes through the skin tests (prick test). A blood test for IgE may also be achieved. But the milk, there are often delayed reactions, which do not depend on the same mechanism. In this case, the screening tool is the simplest patch-test: simply a way of blotting paper soaked in milk that is glued to the skin of babies. We leave it 48 hours, and we can verify the presence of a skin reaction.
2. Preventing allergies?
In newborn babies at risk, whose family has a history of allergy (milk or other allergens), it may be useful to prevention, to avoid awareness of the child. Some experts propose to remove peanuts during pregnancy (highly allergenic foods). This measure is not based on sound scientific evidence, but strong presumptions. And then remove the peanuts during pregnancy should not cause a lot of deficiencies. Then, it is advisable to feed the children exclusively breastfed for 4-6 months. In this case, it is again advised the mother to avoid peanuts. But if breastfeeding is not possible, there are a range of hypoallergenic milk can be offered (but they are more expensive and are not reimbursed.). Attention, soy formulas should be avoided in children during the first six months. With regard to dietary diversification, it should not occur before six months of age, and certain foods should not be introduced until some time: not before one year for eggs and fish, and not before 4-5 years for peanuts and nuts (and not cosmetic sweet almond either).
3. How to treat?
The only treatment for milk allergy is the elimination diet. It is based primarily on the use of hydrolyzed milk protein. For what causes the allergic reaction, it is certain milk proteins. But if they are cut into pieces, they become generally harmless. The problem is that these formulas are often very bitter (but the baby drinks them, because it tolerates them better than normal milk!). Therefore, there are also other soluble protein hydrolysates, casein, soy, hydrolyzed collagen (before it was beef, but with mad cow disease, it is pork today). For children who have problems with protein hydrolysates, it must cut them into pieces even smaller: the amino acids.Beware, it often takes some time between the introduction of the system of exclusion and the disappearance of allergic symptoms. The improvement does not happen overnight. It often takes two to three weeks between the formula change and the disappearance of digestive problems.
4. When reintroducing milk?
Good news for all parents of children allergic to milk, it is one of the disorders that usually disappears after the first year of life. It has virtually disappeared in all children before the age of 5 or 6 years. Parents can begin to consider reintroducing milk to nine months or a year. First step: monitoring the level of IgE. This ensures that the risk of allergic reaction is low. Except of course if it is a non IgE, associated with delayed allergy. In this case, the return will be a little blind (the patch-test does not determine the disappearance of the allergy). but under medical supervision: the doctor or nurse puts the milk on the skin, if nothing happens, it puts on the inside of the lip, and if nothing happens, it does taste a dairy product. If the reintroduction did not go well, you can try again three months later. If it goes wrong, we move to a period of six months, and if the result is always negative, it retries every year. Note, sometimes we have delayed reactions: the reintroduction goes well, then after one to two weeks, diarrhea or other manifestations appear. In this case, it will try again later. Similarly, some children will be able to eat yogurt daily. but no more! In this case, they must leave the dairy product until they can eat more.
Tags: Allergy, milk, milk allergy