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Baby food allergies compared to food intolerance
Allergies and the 4 day rule
Determining whether your young child has a food allergy can be a difficult thing to do. It often takes some time for parents to even begin to suspect that their child may be experiencing an allergy. To make the situation more complicated, many parents are not aware that their child while appearing to suffer from what they assume is an allergy may actually have what is called a food intolerance, also called a food reaction. These conditions may sometimes appear similar but they are not.
Allergic reactions
These conditions are quite different and are caused by different reactions within the body.
When the body has an allergic reaction what happens is the body is mistaking a food for a harmful agent of some sort. It reacts because it thinks the food is a dangerous invader. The reaction you see is caused by the body releasing antibodies that are called immunoglobulin E (IgE). This IgE causes the body to release chemicals called histamines. As the histamines are released, the body begins reacting by producing a variety of symptoms including itchy eyes, a runny nose, a skin rash and in severe cases even anaphylaxis.
Food Intolerance and Food reactions
What is different about either a food reaction or food intolerance is that they do not involve the immune system as in an allergy. Also unique is that a food that causes such a reaction may be tolerated very easily at other times. A good example of this commonly occurs with citrus fruits. Infants may react to the high acidity of citrus and be intolerant to the fruit. However the infant won’t react with an immune response but rather with a gastrointestinal or even dermatological response. Infants below the age of one often experience rashes near the mouth or bottom, or they may have tummy cramps.
When the child is older, it may have no reaction to citrus at all.
Lactose intolerance is another common example of food intolerance. This is typically experienced by people who lack a specific enzyme that aides in the digestion of sugar (lactose) in dairy products.
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