Adolescent Food Allergy

Food Intolerance


Most people know someone or have someone in their family who suffer from some sort of allergy. It could be Hives, Hay fever or eczema. These are the more widely known common allergies. Of late though the number of people having adverse reaction to food they have eaten is growing. The most common food allergies are usually a peanut allergy or gluten intolerance or even wheat or yeast intolerance. Also Milk allergy or dairy intolerance can also be common. These allergies can be quite specific which can make them easy to identify. I will elaborate on these common food allergies in later posts.

Severe eczema can be also caused by food allergies. 

Some food allergies are harder to identify. Child food allergies are very common unfortunately  a lot of the time are overlooked or not recognized or not even agreed upon. Through my own experience with my daughter, who had numerous child food allergies I realized that "food intolerance" was a valid illness.

What Is An Allergy


There is much confusion at the present time as to what the word allergy means as the word does not represent the same thing to all Physicians. There are two conflicting definitions of the word allergy. The original definition, simply put was, an adverse reaction to a substance that does not bother the majority of individuals. For instance most people don't react to molds, dust, pets, freshly cut grass or food they may have just eaten.


However in later years allergy was redefined and the scope of what could be called an allergy became much stricter. So at this point allergists accept three basic concepts when it comes to allergy symptoms.


   1. The allergy must affect only specified parts of the body.

   2. The source of an allergy must be due to established and acceptable causes.

   3. An allergy must be scientifically confirmed by certain accepted immunological tests.


Is your child suffering from food intolerance

Symptoms of intolerance in children can be obvious. Food allergies are more common than we think, with all the additives and preservatives in food today it's not surprising that our children suffer from food allergies or food intolerance. Educating your self on the effects of common food allergies like, gluten intolerance, milk allergy or peanut allergy is a step in the right direction.

Gluten intolerance, peanut allergy, yeast intolerance, egg allergy or dairy allergy are the most common, gluten and wheat are in so many things we eat, this makes cutting it out of your child's diet can be quite a daunting effort but the results will be relatively fast. I know with my daughter if she ate even the tiniest piece of bread she would break out in hives with in minutes and within an hour or so her behaviour would also take a turn for the worst. It was the same with dairy and egg white. Dairy caused constipation, excess flem and over tiredness, egg white would cause her skin to break out into very red and sore boils just on contact.

A Quick Word On Hay Fever

This is what a child with food intolerance usually presents as. 

Hay Fever usually means that the nose and eyes are congested. The roof of the mouth and ear canals can become itchy also. If your child shows hay fever symptoms all year round it more than likely that this hay fever can be attributed to a food allergy or other allergen like Mold, dust, or pets.

Signs that your child is suffering from a food intolerance


Constant nose rub
Eye circles
Red ears
Red cheeks
Eye wrinkles
Aggression
Lack of alertness
Mottled tongue

The tell-tale puffy eyes.
The first indicator of food intolerance.

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