Dr Rodney Ford's Allergies / Food Intolerance eClinic

Pets, House Dust Mites and Pollens cause a lot of people a lot of trouble (you need to Log-in to access these documents).  It is a good idea to get tests done for this type of allergy.

• Dust mites
• Pets (cats, dogs, horses, rabbits, feathers, etc)
• Pollens (grass, trees, flowers)
• Moulds, fungus
  

Diagnosis

Tests to find out what specific allergens are causing the problem are:

• Skin Prick Test
• Blood tests for specific IgE allergens (RAST/ EAST tests)

Common inhalant allergens to test for:

• Rye grass  (and other prominent grasses in your local area)
• Birch Pollen (and other prominent trees and shrubs in your local area)
• Cat fur & dog hair ((and other animal that you suspect in your local area)
• Moulds

You should ask your own health professional about the most common allergens in your area. In general, the bigger the size of the result, the more likely it is to contribute to symptoms.

What to do?

Inhalant allergy persists for years.  So it is important to reduce the impact on you as much as you can.  Avoidance strategies are available for dust-mite and pets.

Pollens from grasses and trees are not so easy to manage. So think ahead – if you going to a high allergen zone, then take an antihistamine or an allergy preventer prior.

Symptoms

The symptoms of asthma (cough and wheeze) and hayfever (sneezing, runny nose, itchy eyes) usually indicate an inhalant allergy.   Also: hives/urticaria, sore throat, eczema.

Breastfeeding is the corner stone of child nutrition

Relief from colic has been observed in breast fed infants whose mothers have been put onto a diet free of both cow's milk and dairy products.  The baby’s colic was found to return when the mother began eating dairy products again.  These initial studies were done in 1978 by Jacobsson and Lindberg.  These were “open” studies (mothers knew whether or not they were drinking cows’ milk) which showed that a third of colicky babies responded to their mothers going off dairy.

Colic is caused by cow's milk  in 1-in-4 babies

This work was subsequently strongly criticized, and so they repeated their research by doing “double blind” studies (they gave the mothers “disguised” drinks so that they did not know which days they were drinking cows’ milk).  The mothers then observed the symptoms in their babies.  By doing this more rigorous study, they confirmed their observations: that the colicky babies responded to dairy products.  However, this time around they found that a quarter (25%: one in four) of colicky babies got better when their mother went on a dairy free diet.

These colic symptoms are often caused by gastric reflux - GORD

Cow’s milk is a very common trigger for baby eczema.  Cow’s milk is one of the first food proteins to which most children are exposed either in a formula or through the mother’s breast milk.

Children who are allergic to cow’s milk will often be allergic to other foods, especially eggs and peanuts.  For those children who are allergic to cow’s milk, it is important to find them a safe alternative drink.  There are a number of choices depending on the age of the child.

Milk can cause a host of problems

Almost any symptoms can be caused by milk.  This is why milk allergy/ intolerance is so hard to pin down.  It tends to be the last thing that your doctor will think about (instead of the first).

Symptoms include

• Eczema
• Other rashes
• Diarrhoea
• Constipation
• Blood in stool
• Gastric reflux
• Runny nose
• Asthma
• Glue ear
• Headaches
• Mood changes
• Irritability
• Behaviour disturbance

The eClinic can help you a lot more to work this out.