What Are Children Allergies?
Research shows that every 2 in 5 children suffer from some kind of allergy and your child could be one of them. It is necessary that you understand what child allergies are, how they are caused and how you can treat them.
Unlike other types of allergies, food allergies are quite rare among small children, in fact; only around 5% of children react abnormally to food items. The process of allergic reaction involves these events:
• Body reacts to the specific food item and treats it like a toxin.
• Body’s immune system gets active and starts producing antibodies.
• Antibodies try to protect the body from harmful effects of the substance consumed.
Often people confuse food allergies with food intolerance. You can easily identify the different between the two because during food intolerance, your body organs react to the food substance and it usually affects your abdominal body parts. On the other hand, if you have a food allergy, it will only react to your immune system and will show symptoms through abnormal breathing, swelling of mouth and tongue, headache, nausea, numbness and itching. Allergies tend to disappear as an individual grows; however, some of them stay throughout life such as nut allergies. If not given proper treatment, the symptoms could get worse enough to become a cause of death.
Apart from food allergies, your child could be allergic to dust mites, pet hair, grass and mold. These symptoms usually show symptoms like sneezing, runny noses and red itchy eyes. Insect bites and bee stings can also cause skin allergies accompanied by severe breathing problems.
Not every allergy has the same remedy, which is why you need to get tested by an allergist. These tests help identify the substances that you are allergic to. Resultantly, the doctor will prescribe a course of treatment for your child along with a diet plan to avoid the specific allergen. Blood tests and prick tests are the two main types of laboratory tests which indicate allergies. In a prick test, your skin is lightly pricked and the allergist observes whether or not your skin reacts to a specific food item.
Allergies are not that difficult to treat. You have to help your child improve his/her diet so as to stay away from the allergens. There is a possibility that your child is allergic to dairy products which could be a bit tricky because dairy products contain nutrients which are essential for growth of a child. However, you can switch to substitutes prescribed by the doctor.
Being a parent, you have to save your child from allergic reactions. You have to follow the diet plan being given by the doctor very strictly and you have to make sure your child does not accidentally consume the allergen food item. However, you are not always around and there is a possibility that despite all the preventive measures, the child comes in contact with the allergic substances and starts showing symptoms. In this case, you can give anti-histamine medications to your child. If the symptoms get worse, you should take the child to emergency because the symptoms could be fatal.
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