Food allergy is especially frequent in childhood and can affect more than 5% of children. Milk and egg are the foods that most frequently cause food allergy in children under five years of age. Fortunately, more than 80% of these children manage to spontaneously overcome these allergies within the first six years. However, in those children in whom these food allergies persist, the likelihood of them disappearing over the years decreases markedly. As a result, these children will maintain this allergy, and the risks it entails, for many years or throughout their lives.
Until recently, the only possible measure was to strictly avoid the intake of the harmful foods, as well as those containing them, even in small quantities. This makes it necessary to follow a restrictive diet, as well as to check the composition of all foods consumed to avoid errors, which in many patients can have serious consequences.
We currently have a treatment alternative that consists of increasing weekly the quantities of the food to which the patient is allergic. Each dose increase is carried out in a health center and then the same amount is taken at the patient’s home.
In a variable period of time that usually ranges from 3 to 6 months, in more than 80 – 90% of the cases, tolerance to the amounts of the food usually ingested by any non-allergic person (e.g. 200 ml of milk or an egg) is achieved. In this way, it is possible to normalize their diet and avoid the risk of serious reactions (anaphylaxis) caused by errors in food intake or possible contamination during handling.