What is Food Allergy, What are its Symptoms?
While some foods such as cow’s milk, egg whites, hazelnuts, peanuts and walnuts can cause allergies in children due to their structure; Flavoring, coloring, thickening or preservatives added to ready-to-eat foods can also cause an allergic reaction. Reactions to these additives are considered to be the cause of increased food allergies in children.
Allergy symptoms may appear in the first minutes or 1-2 hours after ingestion of the allergen. Rarely, the body can react for up to 72 hours. food allergies; It may present with skin rashes, redness in the anus, bruising on the lips, respiratory distress, asthma-like wheezing or gastrointestinal symptoms.
What Foods Cause the Most Food Allergies?
Cow’s milk allergy is most common in infants. However, this allergy usually disappears on its own at 2-3 years of age. Cow’s milk should not be given to babies before 1 year of age. Remember, mother’s milk is best for your baby.
Egg allergy is common especially in infancy and early childhood. Its effect decreases over the years and disappears completely in adulthood. Eczema or itching, skin and eye lesions are more common in egg allergy than in other food allergies. Egg allergy, which manifests itself with widespread rash, wheezing, vomiting and diarrhea, is considered the most important cause of eczema, especially in infants.
In addition to these, foods such as soy, peanuts, seafood, wheat and other cereals, tahini, sesame, tomatoes, cocoa, strawberries, bananas, oranges, oats, barley, rye are among the foods that cause the most allergies. Strawberries and tomatoes can cause allergy-like reactions because they contain histamine, a chemical substance.
It is necessary to be very careful when starting complementary foods in order to understand whether the baby is allergic to a food. It is important to give less food and to observe the reactions. Mothers should try each food alone for at least 3 days, increase it by spoonfuls every day, try yoghurt, fruit-vegetable purees and cereals little by little before starting complementary foods. In addition to these, it is recommended not to start egg white before the age of 1, and add cheese and then eggs carefully and gradually. Early initiation of complementary foods is also a cause of allergy in itself. For this reason, complementary foods should not be started before the 6th month in babies.