When Food Bites Back

Is It a Food Allergy?

By Laurie Dove

When Ruth Ann Guhr learned that her 2-year-old granddaughter had frequent bouts of diarrhea, she immediately thought "food allergy."

Thirty years earlier, her own son had experienced the same symptom after drinking cow's milk. History seemed to be repeating itself.

However, with the gains in research and allergy understanding made during the past few decades, the Guhrs, of Potwin, Kan., soon discovered that their granddaughter, Ashley, was not allergic to cow's milk. She was intolerant.

It's a common mistake, says Dr. Jon Jones, an emergency medicine physician in Wichita, Kan.

"Lactose intolerance is not really a food allergy," Jones says. "It can be difficult for parents and grandparents to understand and to recognize the difference."

Lactose intolerance, like Ashley's, is a common example of food intolerance caused by lacking an enzyme needed to digest milk sugar. When the child eats milk products, symptoms such as gas, bloating, abdominal pain and diarrhea can occur.

A food allergy, however, occurs when the immune system reacts to a certain food. The result can be hives, asthma or other more serious allergic reactions.

Jones says the immune system mistakenly believes certain foods to be harmful. In its effort to protect the body, the immune system creates antibodies. When a child eats certain foods, the immune system releases massive amounts of chemicals and histamines to protect the body, triggering allergic reactions that can affect the skin, gastrointestinal tract and respiratory and cardiovascular systems.

The majority of the toddlers Jones cares for in the emergency room have allergic reactions ranging from vomiting to a skin rash covering the entire body.

Want to see more?

• View an informational Webcast hosted by Joan Lunden and the AAAAI
• The Food Allergy Network
• Fatal Food: When Your Child Has a Peanut Allergy
• When Milk Doesn't Do a Body Good
• Food Allergies: Protecting Your Allergic Child at Daycare
• April Showers, May Flowers -- and Allergies
• Recipes Today Food Allergy Discussion Board