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Home › Articles › Nutrition and Health › When Food Bites Back

When Food Bites Back

Is It a Food Allergy?

By Laurie Dove

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"The allergic reactions usually occur within a couple of hours of eating the offending food and can be of the nuisance variety -- fussiness and discomfort -- to severe," he says.

However, finding the offending food supply isn't as difficult as once thought, says Jones, because only eight foods account for 90 percent of allergic reactions.

He has found that most of his patients have had reactions to peanuts, followed by other types of nuts, like walnuts and pecans. Others have been allergic to fish, shellfish, eggs, milk, soy and wheat.

child eatingTo make his diagnosis for any of the hundreds of his young emergency room patients with suspected food allergies, Jones helps parents recall the child's eating habits and diet.

"I ask them if there have been any new foods eaten recently," he says. "That can be one of the best ways of figuring out what is causing the problem."

If the source of the allergic reaction cannot be determined, Jones often advises parents to take their toddler to an allergist for specialized testing. An allergy evaluation can include a physical exam, medical history and a series of allergy tests. Parents often are asked to keep a detailed list of what their child eats, or even to have them stop eating certain foods.

Once parents know the exact ingredient to be avoided, they should continue to ask questions of their child's physician. It is possible for a child to be allergic to peanuts, for example, but not to a food containing peanut oil.

The biggest culprit for food allergies in toddlers appears to be peanuts. Once considered a life-long allergy, a recent study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology found that the majority of toddlers with peanut allergies outgrew them. Of those who didn't, the severity of reaction dramatically decreased with age.


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