Allergies to various substances is getting more and more common for various reasons including ‘Hygiene Hypothesis’ (Google it). Some families are prone to have allergies and these people are known as ‘ATOPIC’. They are more likely to have allergies, asthma, eczema, hay fever, allergic rhinitis etc. These are all related conditions.
Most children grow out of allergies to food like milk and egg, while some allergies like nut allergy are more likely to stay. Milk allergy usually gets better between 1-2 years of age, egg allergy is variable and so is fish / shrimp. Children have a 20% chance of growing out of nut allergy.The treatment usually involves, avoiding the ‘allergen’, emollients, steroid creams, antihistaminics etc. There have been trials going on for ‘Immunotherapy’, to challenge the body with very small doses to develop ‘Tolerance’. It’s availability is limited at the moment.
Diagnosis of allergies should be done by a specialist and diet modified only after discussion with a dietician. Mothers on dairy free diet should consider taking extra Calcium and Vitamin D. The Cow’s milk free formulas usually have adequate supplements. There are some extremely useful websites for patients and even Health Professionals containing useful videos, leaflets etc. like
https://www.allergyuk.org/
http://www.itchysneezywheezy.co.uk/
http://www.eczema.org/
