Recognizing a Food Allergy or Intolerance in Your Child

Food allergies and intolerances are often discussed at my school, as they can be the starting point for more major health issues later in life. Many unpleasant symptoms can be eliminated once food allergies or intolerances are addressed and dealt with. However, many parents are unaware of how to recognize a food issue in their child, and therefore they often go undetected and the kids grow up eating foods that are harming their bodies and their health.

There is a big difference between a food allergy and a food intolerance. Food allergies occur when your immune system reacts to foreign substances in the body. The resulting symptoms are caused by the chemicals made by the immune system as it tries extra hard to fight these foreign substances. This immune reaction is then triggered every single time these same foreign substances enter the body. Food allergies start in the first year of life in about 80% of cases. A food intolerance, on the other hand, is a reaction to food that does not involve the immune system at all. When someone has an intolerance, they can often tolerate small amounts of the food, but larger amounts can prompt symptoms. Intolerances are often caused by a lack of a particular enzyme needed to metabolize a specific nutrient or substance in a food. The best example is lactose (milk sugar). It is estimated that about 70% - 80% of all adults are lactose intolerant.

Some of the most common symptoms of a food allergy or intolerance include vomiting, excessive spitting up in infants, diarrhea or constipation, colic, sneezing, nasal congestion, wheezing, coughing, asthma, and any type of skin rash such as hives or eczema. Other less common symptoms can include puffiness in the face, sleeping issues, headaches, ear infections and ADD or ADHD.

The difficult part of diagnosing food allergies or intolerances based on symptoms alone is that they can show up within minutes of when the child consumes the food, or within days or even weeks. It may be hard to link a skin rash in your child to the grilled cheese sandwich they ate the weekend before at a birthday party.

Some of the most common foods that people are allergic to include cow’s milk and other dairy products, eggs, gluten (wheat), peanuts and tree nuts (walnuts, pecans, cashews, pistachios, hazelnuts and almonds), beans, soybeans and other soy products, fish and shellfish. Other slightly less common causes of food allergies or intolerances include citrus fruits, food additives, pesticides, and mushrooms.

If you suspect your child may have a food allergy or intolerance, try eliminating that particular food from their diet for 1 month to see if symptoms go away. It is very important that allergies and intolerances are detected early on to prevent more permanent damage to the child. A specialized doctor or nutritionist can help you figure out how to eliminate certain foods and what to watch for.

Simple Food Allergy Test

I recently came across this quick self-test for determining whether or not you are allergic to a particular food. I haven’t tried it myself, but it comes from a very credible source. This can be an easy way to test kids for common food allergies such as dairy or gluten.

When you are having an allergic reaction to a food, your pulse rate will increase after eating the food. Therefore, by taking your pulse before and after eating the food, you can find out if you are allergic. The process is below.

Sit down and relax for a few minutes. Once you are completely relaxed, count the number of beats in your wrist for 60 seconds. Normal pulse varies by age, but should look something like this:

• Newborn infants: 100 – 160 beats per minute

• Children 1 – 10 years: 70 – 120 beats per minute

• Children over 10 years: 60 – 100 beats per minute

• Adults: 60 – 100 beats per minute

• Well-trained athletes: 40 – 60 beats per minute

After you get your 60-second pulse, eat the food you suspect you may be allergic to. Wait 20 minutes, and then take your pulse again. If your pulse rate has increased more than 10 beats per minute, you may be allergic to that food. Eliminate it from your diet for one month, and then redo this test to see if you get a similar result.

Juicing for Allergies

Juicing has become big recently. Not only are people juicing more at home, but juice bars are popping up all over the place, and smoothie places are beginning to serve freshly-squeezed fruit and vegetable juices as well. Some people juice daily – it’s sort of like their multivitamin for the day. I’m more of an irregular juicer – I have a book called The Juicing Bible, but it’s more like a juice doctor for me. It has a juice remedy for any condition – hangovers, stress, allergies, indigestion, nerve support, and adrenal fatigue, among others.

Juicing is a way of separating the liquid of a fruit, vegetable or herb from the solids. The enzymes, phytochemicals, vitamins A, C and E, iron, copper, magnesium, potassium, sodium and iodine found within a whole fruit or vegetable are often times trapped inside the indigestible fiber and therefore are not wholly absorbed by the body when eaten. However, when juiced, these nutrients become extremely available to us and will enter our cells within 10-15 minutes after we drink the juice. Juicing is particularly helpful when we need to save our energy, such as when we are recovering from a sickness or right before or after a workout. This is because it takes very little energy to digest juices, yet we still get tons of nutrients from them.

Juicing has a detoxifying and cleansing effect on our digestive tract and colon. This helps increase nutrient absorption and jump-start our metabolism. Many believe that one glass of fresh fruit and vegetable juice daily can help boost immunity, increase energy, strengthen the bones, clear up the skin and lower our overall risk for disease. Obviously it is also important to consume whole fruits and vegetables, in addition to the juice. Both will work together to create a well-balanced diet.

The pulp of the juice can be saved and used for baking or smoothies, or it can be composted.

Since summer allergies are in full effect, I thought I’d provide some allergy juicing tips today. Asthmatic symptoms are caused by inflammation. Inflammation is the body’s response to an injury – it's way to begin the healing process. Allergies tend to reflect chronic inflammation, and certain foods can reduce this inflammation greatly. Healing foods for allergies include apples, blueberries, grapes, mangoes, oranges, raspberries, strawberries, asparagus, beets, carrots, onions, red and green bell peppers, spinach and watercress. The flavonoids and antioxidants in these foods help promote a proper immune response to the environment. Essential fatty acids from foods like fish, flax and walnuts are also anti-inflammatory and can help with allergy discomfort.

Allergy Juice

3 beets, with greens

1 apple

½ cup berries

1 cup spinach

Parsley

I decided to make this juice today because we’ve gotten so many beets lately from our CSA. I’ve made beet soup, beet salads, and beet slaw, so I think it’s time to juice a few.

Tomorrow I’ll provide a few more easy juicing recipes, including our favorite around here, the Hangover Helper!