Excessive reactions to food allergies in children can lead to misdiagnosis

Children eating food - by pixabay.com

Food allergies are dangerous, and allergies can lead to limited child feeding and endless nightmares for parents.

"Food allergies can isolate children," says pediatric allergy expert John Lee, director of the Food Allergy Program at Children's Hospital Boston.

"A parent says that the child is forced to sit alone during lunchtime and the child is sometimes annoyed that the parents feel they can not tour the family or even have dinner at the restaurant," he added.

Although food allergies do occur, most allergies appear not because of the child's immune system, but from tests used for diagnosis.

Inaccurate tests can cause malnutrition

Research shows that many doctors have the wrong test for the diagnosis of food allergy in children.

According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases report (NIAID), over-reliance on tests may lead to false results and a false food allergy diagnosis as well.

Mistakes of diagnosis can also exacerbate health effects, including growth-induced disorders and malnutrition due to dietary constraints, says David Stukus of Children's Hospital in Columbia.

This condition can actually cause a child to really experience allergies in the future.

"This is the cause," he added.

"This is really a long-term consequence of what we're worried about in childhood and development," added Andrew Bird, director of the Food Allergy Center at Dallas Children's Health and associate professor at Southwest UT Medical Center.

According to David Fleischer, an assistant professor in Jewish National Health, a blood test can give you the idea that you have food allergies, but "does not mean you are actually allergic."

Also read : 8 Causes Of Allergic Cough In Children And Toddlers

"The only true test is whether you can eat the food," he explained.

Clinical, allergic and pediatric immunologist Dr. Amir Hamzah Abdul Latiff believes that the more important thing is to gather detailed information about what to eat, touched, and where the child is going.

However, most allergist specialists recommend a combination of blood tests, skin tests, food, and history to achieve the true diagnosis.

Early exposure to allergens can lower the risk of allergies

Nicholas Christakis, a professor at Harvard Medical School, believes that "overreaction" to allergies can lead to false positive results. "You should be able to distinguish between epidemic diagnosis and allergy epidemics," he said.

"There are some children suffering from severe allergies, and should be taken seriously," he added, "but the wrong response is feeding the epidemic."

Many pediatricians and general practitioners are unaware of this pattern of tests, and the director of Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy Research at Stanford University, Kari Nadeau, and other researchers are looking for a better and easier method of use.

"In terms of diagnosis, we have been in the same place for about 20 years," Nadeau said.

A study called Learning Early About Peanut Allergy (LEAP) revealed that exposing young children to small amounts of nuts can greatly reduce the incidence of allergies.

For initiation of early desensitization, Scott H. Sicherer, professor of pediatrics, allergy, and immunology at the Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinari, stated that doctors should advise parents to introduce various types of food from a young age and "dirty play-dirt."

Educating parents about hygienic hypotheses and supporting early exposure to different allergens can be the best allergy protection for children.

Also read : The 3 Most Frequent Objects Trigger Allergies In Children