Which allergies affect children the most?
Currently, the frequency of allergy in children has greatly increased due to multiple factors, many of them related to the climate change we are experiencing.
Allergy to dust and humidity have always been the most frequent in childhood, but for some time now we have also observed a significant increase in allergies to cow protein, olive, dog and cat hair and especially food allergies to nuts, which are usually present in a large amount of children’s foods, not in whole form but mixed with many of the food components that we give to children.
How can a child allergy be detected?
Pediatricians are medical professionals who value the clinical manifestations over the complementary tests that we can perform. That is why we often diagnose an allergic problem in children based on their symptoms. This is due to the fact that many times the patient’s immune system is immature and this means that the tests obtained in the laboratory are not conclusive, as it can happen that the same allergic test is positive but performed at another time gives us a negative result.
For this reason we will first observe the symptoms that the child usually presents with an allergy. This can be of various types such as a digestive manifestation with vomiting, diarrhea or constipation, a dermatological manifestation in the form of dermatitis or urticaria or a respiratory manifestation in the form of respiratory distress, cough and bronchospasm.
How are allergies treated?
Allergies have a punctual symptomatic treatment and a long-term preventive treatment. The treatment of the crisis will depend on the clinical manifestation. If, for example, the child has atopic dermatitis, the treatment will be aimed at treating the problem locally by means of corticoid creams in many cases. On the other hand, crises of respiratory manifestation will require the use of bronchodilators such as salbutamol and inhaled anti-inflammatory drugs such as budesonide.
In any case, the best treatment is good prevention and, if we know the cause of the allergy, we should avoid it so that the clinical picture does not develop.
How does allergy evolve with age?
Allergies in children can evolve in many ways. There are primary allergies, for example to cow’s milk protein, which can remain throughout life. Respiratory allergies due to specific inhaled allergens usually have a fairly good prognosis in children, as they usually disappear or improve with time. In addition, nowadays, with the use of preventive medication and especially with the administration of specific allergy vaccines, the evolution over time is usually good. However, there are always exceptions in which, despite all the measures taken, children do not improve and may even worsen in adulthood. In this case it is important to note that the later the onset of allergy, the more likely it is to persist into adulthood.