Parsteiner Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Peanuts’

People who are susceptible to few or no allergies are fortunate. Most of us are allergic to something that is at the least annoying and at the most life threatening. When we come in contact with an allergen that gives us an allergic reaction it can manifest itself immediately or a few hours later.

It’s best to be aware of any acute allergy enabling you to take immediate steps to counteract any harmful effect. People with a family history of allergies, particularly those that are potentially life threatening should be extra cautious in avoiding certain foods and locales. This is especially true for children and babies.

Anaphylaxis causes death in about one thousand Americans annually. Anaphylaxis is simply a harmful allergic reaction. About 30,000 U. S. citizens suffer some sort of mild to serious anaphylactic reaction from the more than 12 million people who have a food allergy.

Allergies are signs that there’s an imbalance within the body. The symptoms tell you to either get treatment or the body will do all it can to correct the problem itself. Both children and adults endure at least a mild form of allergy.

Children lose two million school days each year due to problems with allergies. To further complicate the problem allergies can cause sleep loss, which leads to slow learning and performance. It’s the same with adults affecting their performance in the workplace.

Many allergies are attributed to food, which triggers an abnormal response in your immune system that protects your body from harmful viruses and bacteria. Food allergies are as varied as the foods you eat but there are eight foods that account for most. These include eggs, milk, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, wheat and seafood, both fish and shellfish.

An allergen not often considered is a tiny dust mite. Dust mites are animal-like spiders that eat, defecate and reproduce. The life span of the male is only about 30 days but a female dust mite can live up to twice that while laying more than one hundred eggs. The main cause of allergies from dust mites is the remains left from fecal matter. Not pleasant, but mites can be found in rugs, carpeting and other areas where dust accumulates. Symptoms from dust mite allergies can be similar to that of a common cold.

Allergies to latex are becoming more commonplace. Latex is rubber derived from the sap of the rubber tree in Africa and Southeast Asia. Rubber gloves are the main source of allergic reactions occurring mainly in health care workers but reactions can also be suffered in condoms and other medical devices.

Studies have shown that you’re more likely to have a latex allergy if you’re also allergic to avocados, kiwis, chestnuts or bananas. The exact cause of the latex reaction is not known.

Most people never outgrow any allergy they might have, particularly food. The extent of harm from allergies depends on the individual but can be severe and should not be taken lightly.

Millions of people all over the world suffer from allergies of different types. While such allergies could be caused due to multiple reasons, food is perhaps the most potent reason for people suffering from allergies. The physical system does not accept some particular type of food and these results in the person consuming such food developing allergic tendencies. For instance, some children develop allergy to peanuts. And at times there could be possibilities of developing allergic tendencies that are hereditary.

If one of your children is suffering from such allergic conditions and you are expecting a second child, you might well be concerned about preventing such tendencies in the yet to born. Good news for you is that there are ways to prevent such allergic tendencies that are turning out to be hereditary. Even if you may not completely cure it there are chances for you to prevent such tendencies in future. The first step in the right direction would be to find out whether you child is having some high risks. But how would you assess whether your child is running high risks? Some of the major risk factors that could develop food allergies are:

o Allergic disorders like eczema, high fever, or asthma that are results of such allergic tendencies.
o Such type of disorders prevalent among the family members.
o Having other type of allergies relating to food or formula.

Once you find out that your child is suffering with risks developing food allergies, the next step for you is to take preventive measures. The question for you again here would be what the preventive measures could be and how to implement them. American Academy of Pediatrics has come up with some pertinent suggestions in this regard that are as follows:

o Since breast feeding is the best feeding all mothers should make it a practice breast feeding the new born.
o No food supplements or solid foods other than breast feed should be used for the first six months after the birth of the child.
o With other foods, breast feeding should continue till the child is 12 months old.
o Food that creates allergic reactions in other children or members in the family should be avoided by the mother. At the same time during the nursing stage, eggs, cow milk, and fish should be avoided.
o Hypoalergenic formula like the Nutramigen or Alimentum may be used for supplementing the breast feeding.
o When the child is at least six months old, use of iron fortified rice cereals could be useful.
o The child should not be given milk or dairy products at least up to the age of 12 months.
o Eggs should not be given to child till such child is two years older.
o Avoid all allergy creating foods till the child is three years older.

One should not forget that there are multiple types of food that contains hidden components hiding the foods you might be avoiding. Muffin contains peanut flour and on the other hand margarine contains milk. Such food should also be in your “to be avoided” list.