Milk allergy

Content:

Milk allergy

Milk allergy is the most common type of food allergies. Most of all, infants are susceptible to it, which for this reason becomes a natural breastfeeding contraindicated. After all, mom's milk contains the same set of proteins as cow's. Unfortunately, in this case, the kids have to translate into artificial mixtures. 15% of these children persistent allergy to this product persists for a lifetime.

Causes of Milk Allergies

There are several reasons why patients do not tolerate milk:

hypersensitivity to the proteins contained in it;
poor lactose tolerance;
genetic predisposition;
failure to follow proper diet by nursing mothers.

The most common allergies cause proteins contained in milk - casein and whey protein. Some patients react painfully to one of them, some to a few. Casein is found in all types of milk, cottage cheese and cheese. Whey proteins tend to break down when boiled, so many allergies that do not tolerate raw milk, calmly use boiled or cottage cheese products.

Some patients suffer from intolerance to milk sugar (lactose), which is broken down in the body into glucose and galactose with the help of a special enzyme lactase. Its lack or complete absence and cause an allergic reaction to milk. This phenomenon occurs in 15% of Europeans.

Allergies to breast milk in infants can be triggered by frequent intake of cow's milk by the mother during pregnancy. This is because casein is able to penetrate the placental barrier into the bloodstream of the unborn child.

Incorrect diet of a nursing mother can also cause allergic reactions. Chocolate, nuts, citrus, which a woman consumed during lactation, contribute to the development of allergies to breast milk in a child.

An important factor is also heredity. If at least one of the parents suffered from intolerance to milk and dairy products, then the probability of manifestation of this pathology in a child is much higher than in other children.

Symptoms of Milk Allergies

Milk allergy rarely causes severe reactions such as angioedema or anaphylactic shock. More often it is manifested by diarrhea, rash, skin itch. In this case, the reaction of the body to all types of animal milk will be the same, because the content of milk proteins and lactose in the milk of different animals is about the same.

The manifestations of milk allergy in children and adults are somewhat different. Gastrointestinal symptoms in combination with skin rashes are more typical for children:

loose stools;
frequent regurgitation after feeding;
skin rashes;
increased gas formation;
reduction in weight gain;
capriciousness;
nasal congestion.

At the same time, adults with allergies have:

urticaria ;
pruritus;
skin rashes;
labored breathing;
swelling of mucous membranes;
inflammation of the eyelids and redness of the eyes.

These symptoms appear immediately after milk or dairy products are fed into the diet.

Diagnosis and treatment of milk allergy

In the presence of the described symptoms diagnosis is carried out by the method of exclusion. For some time, the patient refuses all dairy products and notes changes in his condition. Then he returns the milk to his diet again and again records the changes that have occurred. If the symptoms return, then milk allergy is present.

The determination of the level of class E immunoglobulins in the blood helps to establish the diagnosis more accurately.

In most children, by the age of 6, signs of allergy gradually decrease and disappear on their own. Adults have to replace milk and its products with analogues of plant origin. This type of allergy does not require special treatment.

When dealing with allergic reactions in infants, the first thing to do is to correct the diet of the mothers who feed them. If the problem persists and after this, the children are transferred to hypoallergenic non-dairy mixes.

| 19 December 2014 | | 250 | Allergology