A baby's immune system is completely weak when they are born. The baby gets all the nutrients from the mother's milk. The same applies to antibodies that help the baby cope with all sorts of infections and colds. The only thing that a product filled with beneficial flora cannot handle is allergies.
What is an allergy?
The definition of an allergy implies various reactions of the immune system in the form of skin rashes, mucosal edema, itching, shortness of breath, rhinitis and anaphylactic shock.
It must be said that more than 50% of the world's population suffer from various types of allergic reactions. It can be either a banal food intolerance, or a reaction acquired over time to plant pollen, any detergents or animal hair.
Causes of occurrence
When a foreign body enters the body, the entire immune system is activated to fight the "disturber". Ready-made antibodies try to block the allergen by covering it with a membrane. Thus, IgE, IgG4 antibodies appear in the body. When allergens interact with theseantibodies release histamine and other mediators that cause an immediate allergic reaction. In total, there are four types of antibodies, respectively, capable of causing four types of allergies.
The list of allergens is quite wide, and each has its own causative agent of an undesirable reaction. These could be:
- citrus fruits (oranges, lemons, tangerines);
- dust mites;
- pet hair;
- egg yolk or white;
- flower and plant pollen;
- potato starch;
- nuts;
- red pigment in fruits and vegetables (lycopene and anthocyanin).
Some also have intolerance to animal proteins - cottage cheese, meat, milk.
In addition, the appearance of allergies is associated not only with food consumption, but also with environmental factors: air pollution, water pollution, increased radioactive background, etc.
It has also been proven that allergies are inherited. So, rashes and peeling that occur on the baby's body are associated with the production of IgE antibodies, which give an immediate reaction to the antigen that has entered the body. This reaction is called "atopy" and is hereditary, but it can manifest itself at different ages.
What can you be allergic to?
In order to determine the list of allergens that threaten the he alth of a child or an adult, doctors suggest doing allergy tests. In this way, all antigens that can cause unwanted reactions can be excluded within a week.
The modern method of skin allergy tests allows you to do no more than fifteen tests in one session. To conduct this study, small scratches are made on the patient's forearm with a sterile scarifier, into which a powder is introduced - an allergen. Already in the first 15 minutes, the reaction of the body will show whether one of the reagents is an antigen for the test person.
Redness, hyperemia, itching - these are the results that the doctor is waiting for. But the disadvantage of such testing is the possible falsity of positive results. In addition, scarification skin tests can cause a deterioration in the patient's condition. These tests should not be performed on children under three years of age who have fever or other infections.
Immunoblotting
Another method of testing allergens helps to check what you may be allergic to by drawing blood from a vein. Such an analysis gives a detailed picture of the presence of antibodies in the body and their reaction to one or another antigen.
The uniqueness of the method lies in the fact that the resulting biomaterial is divided into fractions, and then applied to a special paper plate with ready-made antigens. After a while, if they react, then blackouts appear on the panel in places with the desired antigen.
This method is 99% correct and the most accurate to date.
What is a pediatric allergen panel?
Pediatric allergen panel testing also requires blood sampling. For nowmoment such analysis is the most accessible and safe. It can be carried out even for children from 6 months.
The analysis is done within a week. For emergency cases, a quick decoding of the results in just two days is provided. Screening is carried out only in a specialized laboratory by qualified specialists.
The Pediatric Allergen Panel provides antigen testing for over 12 of the most common allergies.
How to prepare for the test
To conduct an analysis, you need to donate blood on an empty stomach in the morning. If the patient is taking any drugs, it is worth visiting a specialist and asking them to cancel them a week before the scheduled blood draw.
Adults about to be tested should give up bad habits (smoking, drinking alcohol) three days before testing. Children who have received a routine vaccination can only donate blood three months after vaccination.
Before the procedure, the attending physician must conduct an oral survey or questionnaire of the patient, his close relatives and people with whom he lives. Thus, the primary selection is carried out, and the doctor can cross out some allergens that are not found in the daily life of the patient.
The advantage of the mentioned survey is accurate information about hereditary diseases, drugs ever taken by relatives, bad habits and dietary norms.
How to understand your results
The pediatric allergen panel is filled with thosesubstances that can cause a reaction in a patient. What exactly it will be, the doctor finds out during the questionnaire.
The indicators obtained are divided from the lowest to the critical:
- 0, 36-0, 8 - low;
- 0, 8-3, 6 - medium;
- 3, 6-17, 6 - moderately high;
- 17, 6-51 – high;
- 51-100 - very high;
- more than 100 - critical.
It is worth remembering that the sooner a correct diagnosis is made, the sooner doctors can prescribe adequate therapy. The correctness of the results depends entirely on the patient. After all, if he follows the recommendations of a specialist, the end result will not be long in coming.
First of all, the pediatrician will prescribe a diet that excludes all foods that give a reaction of more than 0.9% interaction with the antigen. If severe skin rashes and itching are present, the pediatrician may prescribe oral antihistamines (or syrup if the child is under 2 years old), as well as ointments that will reduce itching and redness.
It is worth remembering that it is not always the cause of a rash or itching that is an allergy. Improper nutrition, dry food, a lot of fatty and fried foods can lead to malfunction of the gastrointestinal tract and liver.
If the pediatric allergen panel has not yielded results, it is worth contacting a gastroenterologist and undergoing a full examination with him. Banal dysbacteriosis can also give unpleasant consequences in the form of a rash, itching, peeling.
