Helping Your Family Cope With Food Allergies Children
Do you suspect your child has food allergies? Even if you have your child tested by a doctor you may find those tests are not fully reliable when it comes to diagnosing food allergies children. Of course, allergy tests can give you a good indication and can help identify specific allergens.
Plus some doctors regard tests as absolute, they cover everything that could be an allergen and if there is no reaction, your child is not allergic. But Type III allergies cannot be found with any type of laboratory testing, only by diet modification.
When you are dealing with food allergies children, you’ll find that dietary modification is the best form of treatment. You may be able to stop allergy symptoms by switching brands or avoiding a particular food. Other food allergies will require major dietary alterations. This is true for foods like wheat and dairy that are common ingredients in many food dishes.
You might even have to give up some of your family’s favorite meals because of the allergy. However, there are many websites out there that have recipes that take food allergies into account.
Be prepared for your child to have difficulty adjusting to a change of diet. Kids and adults alike take comfort in certain foods and miss not being able to eat them. Making drastic changes overnight might cause a few temper tantrums but remember you are doing it for the health of your child.
If your child is old enough to understand, you can try explaining the basics of food allergies to your child. This works well with children who realize that they shouldn’t feel so tired or ill all the time, usually by age 8 or 9.
Another way to make it easier for your child to make dietary changes is to make the changes gradually. Slowly phase out the foods your child is allergic to and replace them with alternatives. This works well with small children. For example, if your child has a dairy allergy, replace the afternoon yogurt snack with a banana. Instead of giving him cow’s milk, let him drink rice milk or soy milk instead. This will reduce the amount of allergens you child consumes and he might not even notice the changes. Of course, if your child has severe allergies, you may not be able to take the gradual change approach.
You don’t want to change just your child’s diet because that can make your child resent the rest of the family who can eat junk food. Using our dairy allergy example again, you can substitute rice or almond milk in recipes and make 2 small batches of certain foods, one with cheese the other without cheese.
Treating food allergies children can be difficult. Making yourself aware of the common symptoms of food allergies would be a great help.
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