What are allergies?
When a parent comes to the office with his child, the first thing he asks is what is an allergy, and it is something very simple to explain: they are substances that are totally harmless for the majority of the population, but which, in certain children, who are more sensitive, provoke reactions, antibodies, against that substance. This causes reactions such as asthma, rhinitis or skin problems in the child.
Which allergens affect children most severely?
Allergens will depend somewhat on the age of the child. For example, in infants, it is mainly food, the main one being cow’s milk. Then we also have other food allergens that are often caused by the very early introduction of them. Parents should be guided by their pediatrician in the introduction of food. There are foods, such as nuts or strawberries, that can cause allergic reactions. When the child is older, we get into different problems such as house dust mites, pollens or molds, which cause different allergic reactions in the child such as asthma or rhinitis.
How do we know if a child suffers from allergies or if it is just a cold?
This is the million dollar question and the one that people who come to the office always ask. It is relatively easy. The catarrhal symptoms of a child are always in the winter season, it is a child who has a cough, sneezing and fever or febrile fever, and the duration of the process is usually very short: a few days because they are always caused by viral symptoms. The allergic problem presents coughing, sneezing, itchy nose, watery eyes and are usually more in times of pollen, spring times.
How is an allergy diagnosed?
Well, we do it with two different methods, a very easy one which is the one we usually do in the office with children, it is called prick test, and it consists of applying a series of drops with different substances that we suspect that the child is allergic to on his little arm and with a small prick, which does not even make blood, it is scratched on the child’s skin, we wait a few minutes and after that time we can see if there is a reaction or not. The second test is the one we do through the child’s blood and it is called specific I.G.E., and the procedure is the same: we ask for a specific I.G.E. for house dust mites, for cow’s milk proteins or to those substances that we think the child may be allergic to, and we analyze it.
Is a child with allergic parents more predisposed to suffer allergies?
Yes, they are. When we have two parents who are allergic, the possibility that their child will also be allergic is between 50 and 80%. If only one of the parents is allergic, the predisposition drops to between 20 and 40%. But it should be borne in mind that up to 15% of children suffer from allergies without their parents being allergic.
Is there a specific treatment to combat them?
Yes, we do have treatment and the children are cured. The treatment will be different depending on what the child has. For example, if it is a child who is allergic to cow’s milk, we use an exclusion diet and a hydrolyzed product such as Nutramigen LGG, which is a highly hydrolyzed milk, and the child’s problem usually disappears within a year. If the allergy is from house dust mites or some pollen or some mold, then the treatment is different. One can use, for example, immunotherapy, what people commonly call allergy shots, which consist of a little prick in the arm or drops under the tongue that are taken every day. Lately, for pollen allergies, some pills have come out that make the patient’s allergy disappear. Thank God with any of these treatments the allergy is cured definitively.