Food allergies

How do you spot an allergy to a food?

Many children have allergies to particular foods. Although true food allergies only affect 2-5% of children, sometimes a child can have an intolerance for a particular food. The most common causes of food allergies are tree nuts, peanuts, eggs, soy, wheat, milk and peanut butter.

When a child has an allergy to a food, symptoms are usually noticed within an hour or so of eating the food. The most common symptoms are wheezing, skin rashes, vomiting, diarrhea, nausea and abdominal pain. Some chldren will also swelling near their mouth and inside of the throat. Most children have a hard time breathing during an allergic reaction to food.

If your child is highly allergic to the food and/or ate a significant amount of the food in question, a severe allergic reaction is possible. During a severe reaction, anaphylaxis is highly possible. Difficulty breathing, swelling around the mouth and throat and decreased blood pressure are common during a severe reaction. It is also possible for a child to expereince shock and potentially die from a severe food allergy.

If a child is intolerant to a particular food, it can seem like a food allergy. However, a food intolerance does not involve the immune system and is not an actual food allergy. You will probably notice slighter symptoms than a food allergy, such as vomiting, diarrhea, skin rahses and spitting up.

If you have given your child a food and notice any symptoms of a food allergy, you should not give your child any more of that food. Keeping a food diary will help to pinpoint the exact cause of a food allergy. Call your child's doctor for further instructions or proceed to the nearest medical facility if the reaction is severe. ALWAYS read food labels once you know what your child is allergic to. If your child is allergic to milk, you should avoid cheese, buttermilk, ice cream, yogurt, sour cream and any other foods that are made with milk.

When introducing new foods to babies, start with one simple food. Many pediatricians recommend starting with sweet potatoes or bananas. Give the chid one food for an entire week before introducing a new food. This will eliminate any confusion if an allergy were to occur. Research shows that waiting until your child is 6 months old to start solid foods will likely help to decrease the possibility of a developed food allergy. Give your baby rice and oat cereal, rather than wheat cereals to begin with. Do not give your child cow's milk until age one, eggs until they are two years old and peanut butter until age three.

Comments: Food allergies

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happymommybr - 790 days ago.
Trinity: My baby girl has milk allergy and the doctor told me not to consume anything with milk or soy, seems like 60% of kids with milk allergy are also allergic to soy. I had cut everything with milk and soy from my diet (very difficult). Have to read labels at the supermarket before buying my groceries and my milk supplies has lowered to less than half of what it use to be so now I have to supplement with Similac Alimentum and she doesn't really like but. I'll try to breast feed her until she turns 6 months old....2 more to go! Be strong, I know its not easy!!! The doctors have told me that there is a big chance that she will out grow this allergy problem.

peach - 861 days ago.
Does anyone have websites to recommend that have food list ideas for kids with allergies? My son is 14 months old and allergic to: wheat, egg whites, egg yolks, and peanuts. If you have any ideas for food, that would be great, too!

tiffJD - 869 days ago.
tannersmommy-my 3 month old has severe eczema and we do not know what the triggers are...I thought she was too young for be allergy tested. How did they test your son? Was it simply a blood test?

tannersmommy - 870 days ago.
Had my 11 week old allergy tested after since he has been having issues since birth, turns out he is allergic to soy and garlic :(

jeniwalker - 1072 days ago.
Do any of your LO's have a reaction to green grapes? I have tried a few seperate times to give them to her and she always seems to get a really nasty inflamed diaper rash from them. She can eat red grapes and drink white grape juice and not have an issue. Do you ladies have any ideas?

2b - 1188 days ago.
I'm pretty sure Isaac has an allergy to peanut butter...

Tannersmommy - 1221 days ago.
Does anyone know anything about leaky gut syndrome???

Tannersmommy - 1221 days ago.
Does anyone know anything about leaky gut syndrome???

trinity - 1375 days ago.
I am so disappointed! After keeping milk out of my diet for over a month I think my baby has a soy allergy as well. I started drinking soy milk on sat and the last 2 nights she has been waking up coughing and choking. So I think it is triggering reflux issues. I was really hoping to nurse this time as I could not with the others. You would think out of 4 children I would have at least 1 without food allergies :(

tannersmommy - 1376 days ago.
Thank you to all who responded. I just wanted to say that I think I have found my girls problem. She is allergic to rice, tomato, pea's, green beans, peanut, honeydew, canteloupe, chocolate, pineapple, yeast, kiwi and I feel like I'm leaving a few off LOL. Anyways, after eliminating the yeast and a few foods she had been eating that are considered to be moldly foods her rash is finally gone! Whoo hoo happy dance.

robinmonique88 - 1411 days ago.
luvbeingamom--thanks for the info. the formula he was on before we changed it had him pooping seven to eight times a day and gave him a wicked diaper rash. poor guy. Since he has been on Similac Soy Isomil..he poops maybe twice a day...so, so far so good. although his poop is very green..like army green which is a little unvernving. but other than that he seems to be feeling sooo much better!

luvbeingamom - 1414 days ago.
Robin - My first son was allergic to dairy (VERY allergic). I had to stop breast feeding when he was a month old and put him on soy formula. I wasn't sure of the issue at the time, but he was vomiting (not spitting up) and had traces of blood in his stool. He was not able to tolerate dairy until he was 2 and half years old. Thank goodness he grew out of it. the soy formula did him wonders. But please know, that soy formula can be constipating. If you find this to be a problem put 1/2 to 1 tsp of karo syrup into the bottle once or twice a day. It will help loosen things up. Good luck! Hope the new formula works, give it at least 2 weeks to make a good judgement to see if it is working :-)

robinmonique88 - 1414 days ago.
ok guys ..helllp! my son is a month old yesterday and about three days ago I noticed blood in his stool. mucousy blood, so we took him to the doc who later referred him to childrens medical. after some testing..and results, concluded that everything internally was fine, so the doc suggested switching to soy based formula. We started him on Simial Isomil Soy Advanced. Has anyone else used this, or even had a problem like this?

Beautiful Bre - 1423 days ago.
tannersmommy- my little boy had a horrible rash when he was like 8 months old and the only thing that made it go away was called butt balm. only my dr could prescribe it but his rash went away within like 2 days! and his was bleeding and horrible too. i dont know much about the food allergy part but maybe getting the rash to go away would be nice.

tannersmommy - 1423 days ago.
HELP - I need ideas. My 14 month old has had diaper rash for months, sometimes it gets so bad that it bleeds. It started so long ago I can't even remember when (maybe when she was about 6 months old). I BF her until she weaned herself at 12 or 13 months. I have had her allergy tested and found out she is allergic to tomato, peanut and rice. She tested negative to peas and green beans but upon feeding them to her she breaks out in a worse diaper rash that bleeds, so I have ommited those from her diet. I have tried every disposable diaper available including the pricy Huggies pure and natural and the chlorine free diapers. She has also worn cloth diapers for a month or so. I use a diaper rash cream called triple paste (recommended by the peditrician) and have also tried using tons of other creams including desitin regular and creamy, aquaphor, eucerin cream and vaseline. I use aveeno baby wash and Aveeno lotion that says it is for eczema. I have applied hydrocortizone cream and that seems to help at first then after a day or two of the rash going from flaming red to pink it comes back twice as bad and bleeds. I have also tried an antifungal cream and that did nothing. I think it maybe eczema and not really a diaper rash as it seems to itch her, she sticks her hands or a toy down there while I am changing her and kind of touches. I've also noticed her rubbing her diaper sometimes while she is playing. She had bad eczema around her mouth that went away after I stopped feeding her tomato products. She also had eczema spots on her legs that cleared up after I stopped feeding her pea's and green beans. She also has a very fine rash on her arms, hands, legs and feet that seems to come and go. Also I wash everything in a free and clear detergent and use the pampers sensitive skin wipes. I have tried to eliminate things from her diet to see if it makes a differene, but I guess I haven't tried eliminating the right food yet because it's still there. I am currently eliminating bananas and dairy. The dairy is really hard! The only thing I can think to do is go back to the allergist and have more of the skin prick tests done. If it helps I also have a four year old who is allergic to peanut, tree nut and chicken. If anyone can think of any new ideas for me to try please post to my page (I'm not on here as much as I was while being preggo's) Thank you in advance.

clarkie3 - 1585 days ago.
Thanks for the responses on the Soy Milk ladies. I asked my doctor and she said the medical community believes both types of formula to be safe, based on their research. I do find the soy constipating though, so I might try that suggestion about the karo syrup!

mummychell - 1595 days ago.
my baby girl was born 6 weeks permature and was in special care 3 weeks i was beatfeeding nd expressing for her but whe she came home i had to give up breastfeed due to my health being poor, she switched to sma formula and became very unsettled, she screamed all the time, was very sick and suffered severe constiption i tried her on a soya milk as my son was cows milk intollerant, after seeing my health visior she advised me not to use soya milk because of the hormones it contains and got us to see the doctor my little girl was put on pepti-junior as a trial for 1 month and was a little more settled aftera month she went back on the rgular formula and returned to the being sick, constipation, screaming all the time developed severe nappy rash and excema she saw the consultant at the hospital and was given a different milk to try called nutramigin it has the lactose and soya removed and wow she is like a different baby she sleeps better now, rarely crys,has no problem going to the toilet she has been on it 3 weeks now

luvbeingamom - 1609 days ago.
The difference between soy formula and lactose free is the lactose free is still dairy based, where as the soy formula does not contain any dairy at all. Lactose free can be used for babies that are intolerant to dairy but NOT allergic. Soy based is for babies that are allergic to dairy. My older son was allergic to dairy and couldn't have anything with dairy in it. Including any food/beverage item that had whey or cassianate in it. He would break out into hives and vomit from any dairy (including lactose free) until he was 2 and half when he finally completely grew out of the allergy (thank goodness). Also, when i question the difference between the formula's, My ped told me soy is generally better for you babies than dairy based b/c most babies have a difficult time digesting dairy exp at such a young age, before their digestive systems are completely developed (which happens around 4 to 6 mo). The only prob with soy is sometimes it can be a bitmore constipating for yoru baby, but to help with that issue my doc suggested adding a 1/2 to 1 tsp of karo syrup to the bottle once or twice a day as needed. It worked great for us! Good Luck and sorry about the allergy. They can be a pain!

clarkie3 - 1609 days ago.
My daughter seems to be allergic to the regular cow's milk based formula (HIVES!!!)...so I've started her on Nestle Alsoy, a Soy based formula. (and her hives have cleared up).... My friend told me that Soy based formula is not that good for your baby, and she uses one that is 'lactose free' So my question is; what's the difference? What is wrong with Soy based formula? thanks!

razzle - 1619 days ago.
My son Lucas has been sick all day every day since i stopped bf at 3 months. I was always told that seeing as he has excellent weight gain and seemed happy he would probably stop after being weaned. Well he never did and also was really unsettled sleeping, had awful toilet habits sorry TMI lol but also his chest sounded really nasty too. I changed his milk to soya about a month back but got no change, so finally i spoke to new doctor who listed all the symptoms he has and said this means he has probably got a milk allergy, even soya. He was prescribed a special milk, Finally 7 months after it all began he sleeps (amazinng!!) doesn't bring up everything all over his clothes and is way happier for it. I just cant believe it took so long and so much stress for us both with the not sleeping and constant mess.

dawnispregz - 1619 days ago.
So a month had gone by and the little man is perfect on heinz nurture soy milk! hes thriving beautifully, and hes keeping it down with very very little spit ups now - we can have a couple of feeds a day and nothing comes back which is great. His nappies are as they should be and normal- (although really really smell as its soya!!) its about £10 a 900g tub which is expensive but luckily we can get it on prescription, so a tip to anyone on soya milk get to the docs because you can get it for free!!!Bonus!!!

clarkie3 - 1619 days ago.
Uhoh, she has HIVES. 6 months old, and she's been on formula for a few weeks now. We've been slow to introduce solids to her, and I can't think of any that would be causing the reaction except her formula? I just started yesterday on Nestle Alsoy, ladies any advise? Is there a better one on the market?

Bri - 1621 days ago.
julia - Eggs are a common allergy but 'most' babies get over it by 1. They say yokes are ok after 9 months and whites after a year. I tried yokes at 10months and my son threw it up too. I think age isn't a magical number. Some babies accept things at different ages. If your baby can't handle it now then maybe in a month or two try again. It typically does go away though.

dawnispregz - 1648 days ago.
The lil one has been on Heinz nurture Soy milk now for two days and HES KEEPING IT DOWN!!!!!!!Whooooo. Its not all perfect as he still has lactose from his original feeds in his stomach but hes doing sooo much better. Thanks for the advice x x

luvbeingamom - 1649 days ago.
i am sorry dawn. I do know exactly how you feel. That was definately something i wanted to do too. I am very thankful that i was able to do it the second time around, but i still get choked up thinking about not being able to do it for my older son. I hope the soy works for you. Good Luck!