FAQ/Allergy

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Allergy | Intolerance

Allergy questions

Food allergy affects 1 in 5

Food Allergy/ food intolerance is found in about 1 in 5 children.
The problem is that most symptoms are “just put up with”.
All sorts of symptoms can be caused by a food allergy

Symptoms include:

Eczema
Urticaria (wheals, welts)
Poor health
Runny nose and cough
Diarrhoea/constipation
Tummy pains
Irritability
Gastric reflux
Headaches
Behaviour disturbance
ADHD
Autism

There are two main types of food reaction, classified by the timing of the symptoms:
QUICK onset reactions and SLOW onset reactions.

House dust mites

House dust mites are especially found in your bedding - in pillows and mattresses

Breast feeding

Breastfeeding is the corner stone of child nutrition

It is crucial that parents are given appropriate information and opportunities to help make a decision for breastfeeding in the antenatal period. The word "choice" should be abandoned.

Breastfeeding versus artificial feeding (otherwise known as cows milk formula) are not equal choices. A feeding "decision" needs to be made by the parents on relevant and practical information. Although there may be similarities between breastmilk and artificial feeding in terms of calorie, mineral and vitamin content, there are a large number of other benefits for breastmilk and many other detrimental effects of cows milk. Therefore, a decision is required, not a choice.

Once the decision to breastfeed has been made, the mother will require further information and practical help to initiate and then continue with breastfeeding. Intensive help and support may be needed in the first few weeks of breastfeeding.

Information of the dollar savings of breastfeeding is helpful.

However, if a decision for artificial bottle feeding has been made, the mother needs help and support with her choice. There are many excellent formula feeds available to choose from. Your baby may need a specialised formula - see link to special formulas.

Recommendation: Plan to breastfeed your child past 6 months if you can. Up to 12 months is good. But sometimes very allergic babies need to be weaned early onto special milk formulas.

Cow's milk colic and reflux

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 allergy symptoms

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