The War Within – The Truth About Food Allergies

My daughter made a simple request for her 10th birthday – to bring in Dunkin' Hines triple chocolate brownies to share with her class. What more could a busy mom ask for? Easy to prepare, quick to cook and “homemade” all from one little box. But what about the kids in the class with food allergies? Her best friend in that class was deathly allergic to egg-whites. My daughter's friend had grown accustomed to bringing in herown “safe” snack to have during birthday celebrations but my daughter was determined to find a snack the entire class could enjoy – as long as it involved chocolate brownies. The information on the box and company web site yielded little useful information but the child's mother had discovered through trial and error that the same brownies could be made with egg yolks alone. I never imagined the solution would be so simple.

Food allergies were rather uncommon when we were kids. The prevalence of food allergies today is becoming so great that schools and summer camps are now have peanut free tables and ask families to send in only store bought treats. Over-reaction? Hardly. It only takes trace amounts of some of these foods to produce a severe, even life-threatening, reaction. The sad reality is that even if our children don't have food allergies, they likely play with kids who do. This places the burden on all of us to have some awareness of what to do and when to call for help. To borrow from the sports world, the best defense is a good offense.

There is a great difference between food intolerance and food allergy. What most people call an allergy is really an unpleasant digestive complaint: gas, bloating, stomachache, even vomiting or diarrhea. An allergy is present when your body actually attacks the food and triggers such a huge immune reaction that antibodies and other chemicals released to attack the food actually harm our bodies. The range of symptoms caused by this battle is enormous: eczema, tingling in the mouth, swelling of the mouth or throat, trouble breathing, hives, vomited, abdominal pain, diarrhea, or even shock – a sudden drop in blood pressure leading to loss of consciousness and possibly death. This last reaction is called anaphylaxis and accounts for 30,000 trips to emergency rooms each year with 150-200 deaths a year. These severe allergic reactions require immediate medical treatment with antihistamines, epinephrine and steroids to avoid a catastrophe.

The major allergic foods in the United States are milk, fish, eggs, wheat, tree nuts, peanuts, soybeans and shellfish. Allergies to tree nuts, fish and shrimp are life-long but kids usually out grow allergies to most other foods. Early introduction of foods during infancy and relatives with food allergies can increase a child's chance of developing a food allergy. For this reason, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that high risk infants not be introduced solid foods until 6 months of life, dairy at 1 year of age, eggs at 2 years of age, and peanuts/nuts/fish at 3 years of age. Breast feeding for the first 6 months of life is also thought to ward off or delay the development of food allergies as well as having nursing mom's not eat highly allergenic foods, such as with milk products and peanuts.

And, as our world becomes more antiseptic and germ-free, our immune systems actually start reacting to other stimuli that they used to ignore when busy battling infections. Attending daycare and coming from a large family helps to decrease a child's chance of developing food allergies. Just goes to show how delicate the immune system is – too much exposure at the wrong time increases food allergies but increased immune stimulation in general seems protective.

Food allergies are scary because they usually can't be predicted but once diagnosed are slowly becoming easier to manage thanks to improved awareness and better FDA requirements for food labeling. Unfortunately, not all ingredients can be identified in all foods. And, many foods contain traces of allergenic foods due to the cooking process. For example, nut-free cookies and granola bars may be cooked on cookie sheets that were used to cook nut-containing products. That trace amount of nut is enough to cause a severe allergic reaction in a person allergic to nuts.

For more information refer to the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network, www.foodallergy.org, American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, www.aaaai.org, and the American Academy of Pediatrics, www.aap.org.

Our bodies are primed to react to its environment and food is a large part of that. All we can do is help our children make thoughtful choices, resist the temptation to push their palates to match our adult tastes, and be prepared just in case their little immune systems start to struggle. Bon Appetite!

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