The sugar group is too diverse to combine all its elements into a common allergen, so the expression "allergic to sugar" is imprecise and cannot exist as a diagnosis.
Truth and myth
Can you be allergic to sugar? Allergy is the response of the immune system to the penetration of substances that it perceives as hostile agents. At the same time, the body's protective functions are synthesized by special cells - antibodies that interact with foreign elements and excite a reaction familiar to everyone by common allergic symptoms. Not any substance can provoke the process of secretion of antibodies, but only a protein compound. So, this element is not in the group of pure sugars, and the carbohydrate present there is not able to activate the protective reactions of the immune system.
However, the substances of the pure group have nothing to do with store-bought sweets, including lump sugar. The product that enters the stores goes through many stages of purification, undergoes exposure to preservatives, fragrances, coloring pigments responsible for the “whiteness” of the product. All of these can lead to sugar intolerance andcause symptoms up to anaphylactic shock.
So can there be an allergy to sugar in the true sense of the word? A true allergy, the culprit of which can be ordinary sweet sand or lump sugar, is a very rare phenomenon that occurs due to a lack of the sucrose enzyme. It can be congenital, acquired or transient.
Causes of an allergic reaction
Intolerance, or an allergy to sugar, in a child occurs when the baby's body fails to synthesize or disrupt certain enzymes. The rejection of sugars can be congenital pathological in nature or be the result of a past disease. Nearly half of sugar allergies in newborns are genetically inherited from immediate family members.
Congenital allergy refers to manifestations of a primary nature and is detected at an early age of the baby - even before the age of one. This type of intolerance does not include a transient rejection of sugars in the first few months after the birth of a child, unless symptoms persist for more than five days.
The causes of sugar intolerance are:
- presence of helminthic invasions in the body;
- treatment with antibiotics, especially if therapy continued for long courses;
- impaired intestinal motility or inflammatory processes in the digestive tract in a chronic course.
The last point of the cause of sugar intolerance,if it does not belong to anomalies in the development of the body, it is more often observed in adult children of preschool and school age.
Reaction to milk sugar
Protein is the main component of a dairy product that enters the baby's body in large volumes every day. At the frequency with which breastfeeding usually occurs, this substance is simply not able to be excreted from the body, because it forms accumulations in the digestive tract.
This is the norm when the baby's body produces all the necessary enzymes for protein breakdown, but it also happens that the child's body can not cope. The fermentation process that has begun when sugar elements get intensified, there are signs that are often mistaken for an "allergy" to sugar in a child with HS - abdominal colic, gas formation, regurgitation.
Another reason is the absence or decrease in the activity of a special enzyme responsible for the absorption of lactose - lactase. The sugars contained in milk enter the intestines without prior splitting into the simplest elements, one of which is lactase, and already in the stomach begin to change under the influence of acidic flora. The child shows anxiety immediately after feeding - a strong, sour eructation appears, diarrhea opens. One of the complications of not accepting milk sugar can be a delay in the physical development of the baby.
Types of skin reaction
"Allergy" to sugar in a child can be recognized by the main sign,accompanying almost all manifestations of the reaction to sweets - a rash that forms fusions up to several centimeters or scattered throughout the body in the form of separate points. As a rule, the child begins to actively scratch the body, so some areas covered with a rash quickly turn into wounds.
Not always "allergy" to sugar manifests itself as an immediate response of the child's body to irritation. Less often, the reaction develops in a gradual order, with increasing symptoms. Therefore, two forms of intolerance are distinguished:
- immediate - that is, giving out a complete clinical picture already in the first hours after eating prohibited foods;
- delayed - drop-down for several days.
When the reaction is delayed, it is important to differentiate sugar intolerance from allergies to other food and non-food irritants.
Clinical picture of skin reaction
According to the complexity of manifestations, sugar intolerance is divided into the following symptoms, visible on the skin:
- simple rash presenting as isolated pinpoints or localized fusions (with or without itching);
- urticaria - can be of several types according to the nature of the rash, but invariably accompanied by swelling, severe itching;
- Quincke's edema is one of the most critical course of an allergic reaction, characterized by extensive swelling of the facial area and in the genital area, shortness of breath, redness of the skin;
- anaphylactic shock - extreme, pre-lethal formmanifestations of an allergy in which a person faints and dies in the absence of medical care.
According to the signs of sugar intolerance, a decision is made on emergency measures and the required conditions for their provision.
Diagnosis
In a newborn child, an allergy to sugar can receive preliminary confirmation from the words of the mother, who calls the doctor such characteristic signs of the clinical picture as frequent loose stools, profuse regurgitation, symptoms of an acute abdomen. However, to clarify and isolate the allergen, certain tests will be needed, which include:
- allergen elimination method (transferring a child to lactose-free formulas);
- skin test (introducing an allergy agent into the body through a small scratch on the child's forearm);
- blood test for IgE antibodies;
- stool study.
For children who can control their exhaled air (usually from the age of 3), they measure the concentration of hydrogen particles on exhalation - a test carried out in two stages - before taking lactose and after drinking a small amount of milk.
Medicated treatment
Allergy to cane sugar or sugar beet components, differentiated from lactose intolerance, is treated with antihistamines while avoiding products that provoke an immune response. The course of treatment with drugs such as Suprastin, Zodak, Kzisal is designed for two weeks of continuous medication. ATThe treatment regimen for sugar allergy in a child also includes the use of enterosorbents to cleanse the intestines of decay products and toxins released into the body: activated black or white coal, Laktofiltrum, Smekta.
Lactose rejection, anti-allergy remedies cannot be eliminated, therefore, most often they simply refuse food products that require the functioning of a defective enzyme.
Treatment with diet
Children's diets are difficult to regulate in such a way that they do not get lactose or other simple sugar components that a baby can develop an allergy to. If the detected problem lies in sucrose, then the baby needs to be breastfed for the entire first year of life, and at the start of complementary foods, analyze the composition of each jar of the finished product.
Children over infancy are given a diet:
- excluded from the diet: viscous cereals, potatoes, corn, kissels and any products that use large amounts of starch as a thickener;
- included in the diet without fail: lean soups, crumbly cereals, fatty vegetable oils;
- preference is given to all citrus fruits, fresh herbs, spinach, cherries and all berries and fruits where fructose is the natural sweetener;
- Recommended to take vitamin C daily.
Because the treatment of sugar allergy is narrowly focused, only one allergen is eliminated from the diet. food restrictions,administered for lactose intolerance will not affect patients with a reaction to sucrose, and vice versa.
Correction of milk sugar allergy in breastfeeding
In cases where it is a question of breastfeeding, the refusal of which will affect the he alth of the baby, the child is prescribed the lactase enzyme in the form of separate preparations. The powders are dissolved in a single serving of expressed breast milk and given to the baby according to the feeding schedule.
Many mothers justifiably do not want to deny their baby physiological feeding, which has a positive effect on the mental state of the newborn, so they dilute the lactase enzyme in a small amount of expressed milk. First, when feeding, the child is given fermented food, then - until the nutritional rate is replenished - they are applied to the breast.
An alternative to sugar for allergies - fructose
Is it right to use sweeteners and are they harmful? To add food to children, nutritionists recommend using only sweeteners of natural origin - they are completely absorbed into the intestinal walls, do not disturb peristalsis and immediately begin to actively act in all body systems.
Fans of traditional methods of treating and preventing lactose intolerance put fructose instead of sugar. The benefits and harms of this substance are often talked about, but it is still widely used in most cases when the use of classic sugar is not possible for he alth reasons.
For children, fructose is best consumed in its original form. The following foods are high in this substance:
- pears and apples;
- persimmon, dates;
- currants, grapes;
- all types of cabbage.
If the baby notices low digestibility of breast milk, then the mother should think about using fructose instead of sugar. The benefits and harms of such a replacement can be assessed after the first 2-3 feedings. A drug bought at a pharmacy should be taken with caution by both children and a young mother - in an amount not exceeding 30 g per day.
Natural sugar substitutes
How to replace a product with maximum benefit for a child in case of an allergy to sugar? If sweeteners in the form of pharmaceutical preparations are not even considered by the mother, first of all, attention should be paid to honey. Add it to the baby's diet gradually, starting with hypoallergenic varieties and then diversifying the serving of sweets with an increase in the volume of a single serving.
Slightly more controversial in the reaction to sucrose is wedge syrup, which can also be found in the form of solid crystals. The product contains sucrose in ultra-small amounts (5 g of the substance in 100 ml of syrup), therefore it belongs to the diet, but it must be introduced into the diet as carefully as honey.
Children's menu recommendations
The later a child learns the taste of sugary treats, the better for his he alth. Previously, pediatricians recommended introducing a child to store-bought sweets no earlier than the age of three, now they are asking to wait at least up to a year. observed in the lastThe decade-long downward trend in he althy immunity in preschoolers largely depends on how often parents, when organizing their child's meals, neglect he althy delicacies in favor of public ones.
Are the sweeteners in popular food brands harmful? It's hard to believe, but by excluding only five types of products from the diet of a young child, you can eliminate several kilograms of sugar from his annual consumption! Here is the short list:
- shortbread and sweet puff pastry;
- modern bright flavored caramels and milk chocolate;
- all kinds of sparkling water;
- chips, corn sticks and sweet cereals;
- pastry creams.
It is impossible to completely refuse sweets to a child, therefore, having removed obviously harmful foods, they should be immediately replaced with he althy ones. We also included sweets necessary for the he alth of the baby in five groups:
- dried fruits (washed);
- natural homemade sugar free yoghurts;
- muesli;
- dark chocolate with at least 72% cocoa;
- fruits in season.
Useful natural juice, especially freshly squeezed, must be diluted with water by half and only then given to the child. This does not apply to juices bought in a store - the concentration of modified sugar in them is so high that the product can no longer be adjusted.
Preventing the development of allergies in a child
Maternal nutrition during gestation largely determines the degreethe child's susceptibility to certain foods after birth. If a pregnant woman consumes an excessive amount of glucose or experiments with various sweeteners without medical prescription, this is likely to affect the formation of enzymes in the baby's body.
In some cases, when diagnosing a true allergy to the simplest elements of sugar in children over three years old, it is possible to develop an adaptation to the allergen. This is a rather lengthy process that occurs under the control of an allergist and is accompanied by periodic tests. A successful outcome of therapy is the result when the child stops responding to the allergen when consumed in moderate doses.
