Multiple Food Allergies in Babies
Food allergy is a common condition in babies. The immune system perceives a harmless food as harmful, causing an allergic reaction. The immune system wages war against this substance and produces antibodies. This situation causes food allergies. Many foods can cause allergies in babies. However, there are 8 main foods that commonly cause food allergies in babies. These foods; eggs, milk, soy, hazelnuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish and wheat. While some of these common foods that cause food allergies in babies disappear with age, others cause lifelong allergic reactions.
Some babies may also develop allergic reactions to more than one food. Some studies have shown that people who are allergic to one food may have an allergic predisposition to another food. Symptoms of multiple food allergy include; Conditions such as eczema, skin rash, hives or urticaria, reflux or spitting up, vomiting, constipation, diarrhea, nausea, irritability, blood or mucus in the stool, nutritional problems, growth problem or failure to thrive, wheezing, and in rare cases anaphylaxis. One or more of these symptoms may develop in your baby. While these symptoms may be mild, they can sometimes reach very serious levels.
Multiple Food Allergy Treatment in Babies
In order to determine the foods that cause food allergies in babies, the allergist must perform a series of tests or applications. With the skin test, a very small amount of the potentially allergenic food is placed under your baby's skin and it is observed how your baby reacts to that substance. If there is redness or swelling at the application site, it means that your baby is allergic to that food. If there are no symptoms in the application area, the test can be repeated with another food. Your allergist may also try different tests and methods to find the allergen. Finding the allergen is very important for treatment. Once your allergist finds the allergen causing the allergic reaction, controlling and managing multiple food allergies will become much easier. The most important treatment method for food allergy is to stay away from the allergen. For example, if your baby has a milk allergy, you should eliminate all milk and milk-containing products from his/her diet. The most effective way to prevent an allergic reaction is to exclude the allergen from your life.
Nutrition in Babies with Multiple Food Allergies
Parents need to be extremely careful about the nutrition of babies with multiple food allergies. In babies with multiple food allergies, after finding the food that causes the allergy, these foods should be removed from the diet. In order to proceed with nutrition correctly, all allergy sources must be learned. For babies who have multiple food allergies and need additional food, you can give your baby the food recommended by your allergist. You may have doubts about which foods contain certain allergens. For this reason, a nutrition program with an allergy dietitian will enable you to take more confident steps in managing your baby's allergies. Your baby may be allergic to milk or eggs. The dietitian or allergist will inform you about the proteins you can get from these foods and the alternative foods you can get benefits from. In order for your baby's development to be healthy and to prevent allergic reactions, you should definitely get support from our experts regarding nutrition.
How should mothers of babies with multiple food allergies be fed?
Multiple food allergy is a condition that can occur in the first months of infancy. Multiple food allergies may also occur during exclusive breastfeeding. Proteins passed from breast milk to the baby cause allergies. In this case, the breastfeeding mother should pay attention to her nutrition. It is very important for the mother to exclude from her diet the foods to which her baby develops an allergy, in preventing an allergic reaction. For example; If your baby is allergic to eggs, you should not consume eggs or any food made using eggs. Most packaged foods contain eggs. The contents of packaged foods consumed should be read. Any food that is suspected to contain allergenic foods should not be eaten. It is very important for mothers to get support from an allergy dietitian when they need to go on a diet. You may not have precise information about which foods contain some allergens. Your dietitian will inform you about foods that contain allergens. You can easily control your baby's multiple food allergies with a good feeding program.
