Your child says the patches of eczema every time he uses an egg, milk or peanuts. He suffers from a food allergy. What do you do? What to replace these products at risk?
Milan, 10 months, is growing food diversification. Today, he discovered for the first time cod. Except that three hours after the meal, his mother noticed that he has on the body covered with small red patches buttons.
This eczema can be a symptom of a food allergy , a disease that Inserm, affects about 5% of children. A figure that has nearly doubled in twenty years.
The reason? It is to be sought in the decline of breastfeeding and its duration, a belated diversification and heredity. If dad or mom is allergic, the child has in fact 40% risk of becoming homeless, 80% if both parents are.
The fish is not the only food to cause these plates: a European Directive 2005 lists the fourteen food allergens subject to mandatory labeling (gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, peanuts, soybeans, milk, nuts, celery, mustard, sesame, sulfites, lupine, molluscs).
The top three in the child being milk, the egg and peanut.
THE SOLUTION: TOTAL EVICTION!
If your child develops eczema when he consumes these foods, consult your pediatrician.
If necessary, he will refer you to an allergist who, through skin tests can confirm food allergy.
This is positive? So, your child should not be in contact with the allergenic food. This is what the experts call “total eviction.”
But your little one is growing. He needs the nutrients in some of these products to grow well.
To avoid deficiencies, turn to alternative products.
COMPENSATE FOR DEFICIENCIES
In the case of allergy to cow’s milk, for there is no shortage of calcium needed to build its skeleton, use a substitute hydrolyzate, which does not contain the proteins responsible for the body’s reaction.
From 8 or 9 months, calcium supplementation may be prescribed. “If your baby is allergic to fish, it may fail to omega-3, necessary for the proper development of the brain fatty acids. You will make up for this lack by giving him a daily tablespoon of canola oil or walnut “coffee, advises Dr. Patrick Tounian pediatrician nutritionist.
If you are allergic to wheat, better have this traded rich in complex carbohydrates cereal with rice, quinoa, buckwheat and teff.
If reaction to eggs, replace this source of protein from meat, fish or ham.
INCREASE ITS TOLERANCE WITH DESENSITIZATION
Fortunately, most of these allergies disappear spontaneously: that cow’s milk yield at 18 months, the egg to 3 years, and wheat, about one year after the ouster of the total cereal.
If allergies do not disappear at these ages or Eczema Empire, it is possible to use desensitization.
The principle? “Very low doses of food allergens are administered sublingually child and gradually increased so as to accustom the body and raise its threshold of tolerance reactogenicity, says Dr. Tounian.
This technique, called immunotherapy food, takes place first in hospital and then goes home. It takes about six months. ”
* The results show an effective technique in 60-100% of cases against peanut allergy, and 70% against the reactions to eggs.
Tolerance to cow’s milk is ten times greater among children who attended this desensitization.
* Report “Immunotherapy in food allergy,” French Review of Allergy, January 2013.
ANTICIPATE ALLERGY FROM PREGNANCY
More good news: there are cases of allergies in your family; it is possible to anticipate the disease in your children. And it starts from the pregnancy.
“It is advisable for the mother to eat everything, says Dr. Tounian. This first contact in utero with possible allergens helps the body gently used small these food products. ”
Once the baby is born, allergists recommend 4 months of exclusive breastfeeding provides immunity that would have a protective effect against the symptoms of allergy such as eczema.
Another tip: start food diversification to 4 months.
“The introduction of eggs, fish and exotic fruits in infancy allows children to gain a better risk tolerance to these products, especially at this age the amounts are much lower than when these commodities are discovered at 8 or 9 months, “provides specialist.
To do this, do not give your child one of these foods at once, and at the slightest skin reaction, see his pediatrician.
BEWARE OF FALSE ALLERGIES!
Some foods (strawberries, tomatoes, pineapple or chocolate) and some cheeses (Roquefort and Brie) can cause patches of eczema symptoms suggestive of food allergy.
But it is a false allergy: they contain histamine, which can trigger in some sensitive children cutaneous manifestations near the allergic reaction.
Symptoms disappear within a few hours without a trace. Needless to deprive your child of these foods, just reduce consumption to no longer reappear these cutaneous manifestations.
