Treatment Of Food Allergy

There is also a remedy to deal specifically with food allergy. The drugs are used for the treatment of symptoms (attack).

Three methods are generally employed in the management of food allergies:

1 - Remove and avoid specific allergens.
Complete exclusion of the offending food is the only proven way management currently available. It is extremely important to provide the patient and family guidelines to avoid further contact with the food trigger. The patient's attention should be checking the labels on packaged foods in order to identify names related to the food that triggers the allergy. For example, the presence of butter serum, or lactalbumin caseinate points to the presence of cow's milk.

2 - Drug treatment.The mast cell stabilizers and antihistamines have no role in the armamentarium against gastrointestinal manifestations of food allergy. In exceptional cases, the use of corticosteroids may be needed. Recently topical medicines (fluticasone and montelukast) have been used. For patients with anaphylaxis, or with respiratory or cardiovascular symptoms, epinephrine is the substance of choice for the management of severe reactions caused by immediate-type food allergies and anaphylaxis.

3 - Preventive measures.The increasing incidence of allergic diseases in industrialized countries has been attributed to lack of exposure to microbial infections early in life, or so-called "hygiene hypothesis".

Just as in other diseases, the genetic and environmental factors influence the manifestation of food allergy

Genetic influences The male children seem at greater risk of atopic disease. The risk of allergy in a sibling of an affected person is approximately 10 times higher than in the general population.

The infants called "risk free" (no family history) have a residual allergic risk of 15%.

Infants with "intermediate risk" (with parent / sibling atopic), a risk of developing allergies 20-40%
Infants of "high risk" (with atopy in both parents or a history of allergy), a risk of developing allergies 50-80%.
Calculations based on these data show identical absolute numbers of infants with and without risk of allergy (11/100) that may develop allergies.

Raising doubts: The allergy prevention programs should be directed to the population of newborns in general or should be targeted only to infants at risk?

Environmental Influences The risk of food allergy suffers the same influence of environmental factors that act in atopic disease in children examined for respiratory disease. Factors include the protective effect of breastfeeding and the harmful effect of exposure to cigarette smoke.

Among the environmental factors include the quality of maternal diet during pregnancy , age at which solid foods were introduced and food allergens, exposure to pollutants, cesarean delivery, maternal age, etc...

Microbial agents may also have an important effect on atopic sensitization and tolerance induction. The use of probiotics (bacteria added to foods "lactobacilli") demonstrated reducing allergic disease, long term.

Primary prevention Blocks immunologic sensitization to foods, mainly due to IgE antibodies. Apparently there is a critical period before and shortly after birth during which a child who is genetically programmed and prone to atopy is at high risk of awareness. The challenge is to promptly identify infants at risk and establish preventive measures that are realistic and acceptable.

Secondary prevention It is intended already sensitized individuals in order to suppress the expression of the disease after sensitization.

Tertiary prevention It is proposed to limit symptoms and additional problems in individuals already suffering from chronic allergy. Tertiary prevention is the treatment stage in which they attempt to avoid recurrence of symptoms and susceptibility to other potential antigenic proteins.

Symptomatic treatment and replacement The substitution of food for its equivalent is of paramount importance especially in growing patients. The multidisciplinary involvement becomes relevant in pediatric situations. Building on the treatment of "crisis" in order to minimize the suffering, to shorten the recovery and better understand the causes of the resurgence of symptoms.

What to do should it occur to accidental ingestion of food (allergen)? Individuals with serious food allergy (anaphylactic reaction) should have identified this condition, so that medical care should be taken immediately, an additional measure is handy adrenaline with instructions. The mild reactions resolve spontaneously or respond to antihistamines (allergy).

The patient has a reaction to certain food may one day return to ingest it? Yes Approximately 85% of children lose their sensitivity to most foods (eggs, cow's milk, wheat and soybeans) between 3-5 years old.

Is there any way to prevent food allergy? It is action needed in children at risk: promoting breastfeeding in the first year of life, late introduction of solid foods potentially provocative allergy, after 6 months, cow's milk after 1 year of age, eggs at 2 years and peanuts nuts and fish only after the 3rd year of life.