The younger the child, the more sensitive and tender he is. This means that the risk of allergies is highest in newborns, but persists throughout childhood. The likelihood of an allergic reaction is especially high if you need to transfer the newborn to a special diet. In recent years, allergy to formula milk has become more common. The reasons for this have not yet been clarified, so it remains only to be careful, monitor the he alth of children and take the necessary measures at the first manifestations of food intolerance.
Food Allergy: A Danger in Everyday Life
In order not to miss the beginning of an allergic reaction, you need to carefully monitor the condition of the child. The most dangerous period is the beginning of the use of a new product. Intolerance can occur even when choosing the most seemingly common and safe options - the same "Nutrilon hypoallergenic" (1st of the most popular types of baby food), as you know, can provoke allergies in some cases.
How is the allergy to the mixture manifested
Manifestations of intolerance:
- incorrect functioning of the gastrointestinal tract;
- skin rashes;
- breathing problems.
The first is colic, belching, diarrhea and gas. Such an allergy to the mixture in a newborn is very common and requires a change in nutrition to another, softer and safer one. On the skin, an allergic reaction is more often manifested by rashes on the part of the head covered with hair, face, legs, arms.
This is important
Often, signs of allergy are confused with manifestations of ordinary poisoning. This is also due to the fact that the symptoms are similar, expressed primarily by severe pain in the abdomen. If a child is allergic to the mixture, it must be de alt with differently than with poisoning. However, the most effective and fastest result can be achieved if you urgently get an appointment with a pediatrician. Self-treatment of young children at home is prohibited, as the condition of the crumbs can only worsen.
Often, intolerance to special baby food is explained by a genetic predisposition. To identify this factor, you need to visit a doctor, take tests. In addition, the doctor draws up a general picture, collects information about diseases in the family, which helps to draw an accurate conclusion. As a rule, a specialist gives recommendations on the choice of nutrition, focusing on the composition of milk mixtures, tells which components to avoid.
Don't panic
Often, young parents panic as soon as an incomprehensible pimple or a tiny reddish speck appears on the baby. However, it so happened, this panic is often accompanied byattempts to consult with relatives and friends, but not with doctors. Unfortunately, the townsfolk know very little about diathesis, allergies in babies to formula, so they can start treating the baby for diseases that he does not have at all.
Someone goes the other way: not understanding what is happening with the child, they just leave everything to chance, hoping that "it will pass by itself." Both approaches are categorically wrong. If the child has already begun to have an allergy to the mixture, it is important to quickly eliminate the provoking factor (nutrition component).
Allergy: how to fight?
Already at the first appointment, the doctor can determine which mixtures are allergic and which are safe. The doctor focuses on the general picture of intolerance, information about similar situations in the family, as well as data on how the baby eats at home.
Allergy treatment is two steps:
- allergen detection;
- removing the allergen from the diet.
Is it obvious?
It is believed that the use of special mixtures is almost 100% protective against allergies. A good example is Nutrilon Hypoallergenic-1. But doctors know for sure: even when choosing a special diet, intolerance may occur. The fact is that the children's body can not cope with a variety of products. Even something that is non-allergenic by default can provoke a negative reaction in a particular case.
Cow's milk and its derivatives are considered the most dangerous. But in fact, allergies candevelop even on the milk of his own mother.
Allergy in babies to formula
Food intolerance is much more common than an allergy to mother's milk. Its manifestations are varied. Some babies get eczema, others get pimples. The cause of the disease does not always lie in complementary foods, therefore, at the first signs of a baby’s he alth problems, you need to show the pediatrician in order to determine the problem accurately. The doctor will choose the treatment method and give recommendations on the diet for the newborn.
Various milk formulas (including the very popular Baby-1 mixture) are widely distributed these days, there are practically no families where such complementary foods would not be used. This affects the frequency of allergic cases, which has become even higher in recent years. The allergy in infants to the mixture is explained by the content of animal milk components, intolerable to young children with a too delicate digestive tract.
Allergies: prevent and fight
Can allergies be avoided by using only the popular "Baby 1" mixture or the "Nutrilon" mentioned above? It is believed that only those complementary foods that contain a hydrolyzer can be really effective. It is also recommended to take hypoallergenic products to minimize the risk of intolerance to the components of the mixture.
Hypoallergenic products contain a special protein. It provokes allergies much less frequently than conventional complementary foods, but an intolerance reaction is still possible. Doctors recommend buying treatment options whenever possible - they are in abundancepresented in pharmacies. Reliable, proven manufacturers should be preferred, although their products are significantly more expensive.
Special Options
If infants are allergic to formula even when choosing a special diet, you should switch to the so-called adapted products. The most demanded in our time sour-milk complementary foods. However, even they may develop intolerance. It can be avoided if complementary foods are introduced into the diet carefully, little by little, under the supervision of a pediatrician.
Hydrolyzed Blend is one of the fairly safe speci alty food options. An allergy to it is also possible, since cow protein is present in the diet. When it is split, a stable compound is obtained, due to which the product is stored for a rather long time, but becomes a source of allergies.
Lactose: Eliminate completely
Parents tired of fighting dairy intolerance can try to switch their baby to a lactose-free diet. But even here there are dangers. An allergy to such complementary foods is not caused by difficulties with the processing of the gastrointestinal tract of milk proteins, but by the rejection of other components. It is almost impossible to predict which ones exactly.
How common is an allergy to baby food completely devoid of dairy components? Quite rare, but it is impossible to guarantee its absence. Much depends on the individual characteristics of the child's body and the genetic predisposition to allergic reactions.
Dairymilk-free formula
If the doctor has determined that the cause of intolerance lies in the milk protein, this is not a reason to refuse complementary foods. It is enough to exclude animal products (milk) from the child's diet. Special mixtures based on soy protein come to the rescue. Its structure is different from products of animal origin, making the component easier to digest even at the most tender age.
At the same time, you need to understand that the soy mixture does not have a high level of adaptation, which means that it cannot be used all the time. Usually the doctor makes the choice in favor of such complementary foods, he also prescribes the frequency of use and the duration of the course. You need to understand that an allergy to soy protein is also possible. The frequency of its manifestation is quite high - up to 15% of all cases of use of complementary foods.
Cumulative allergy
Such an allergy develops with prolonged use of baby food with components intolerable to the baby. Even with the exclusion of the elements provoking the reaction from the baby's diet, the manifestations of the disorder remain for another week or two. However, they will gradually fade away, and in a few weeks the child will be he althy again, and his skin will be beautiful and clear.
Mixes: No allergies
I would like to believe that there is such a formula for feeding babies, to which an allergic reaction is impossible in principle. Unfortunately, so far our industry has not been able to produce such baby food. Various options for specialized productsdiffer from each other in the likelihood of developing an allergic reaction, but no manufacturer can guarantee the absolute safety of their product.
What to do?
If it is known that the family has already had cases of intolerance to cow's milk, it makes sense to choose an infant formula that does not contain this component. An effective substitute would be amino acid baby food that lacks protein.
When choosing a formula to feed your baby, it is important to consult a doctor. You need to understand that experimentation is unacceptable, because the body of a small child is delicate, subject to the negative influence of external factors and faces a lot of stress every day. It is unacceptable to try different options, faced with one or another allergy. Instead, they first undergo a diagnosis by the attending physician, visit an allergist, a gastroenterologist, and, based on their findings, make a decision in favor of a particular product.
It's not that simple
Often young, inexperienced doctors, and with them even more inexperienced young parents, do not know that the cause of allergies lies not only in protein intolerance. In some cases, such a reaction develops because the child, along with complementary foods, eats mother's milk, and the allergen enters the woman's breast milk from the mother's food.
In some cases, the reason lies not at all in the components of which the mixture is made, but in the amount of baby food fed to the child. Other parents feed the baby until hewill stop on its own. This leads to the fact that the internal systems cannot cope with the volume of incoming artificial products, which provokes allergies.
What to do?
Pay attention to the packaging of the selected baby formula. Here it is necessary to indicate to what extent the products can be used for food, guidelines are given - the age, weight of the child. Exceeding these standards is unacceptable, even if the baby cries and asks to eat more.
Often the digestive system of a small child is able to digest the artificial products that come with the nutrient mixture, but only on condition that its volume is small. This means that compliance with established standards eliminates the risk of developing allergies. If a negative reaction occurs, you can further reduce portions of complementary foods.
