Food allergy symptoms

Within minutes to 2 hours after ingesting allergenic foods, abnormal reactions in the skin, digestive tract, respiratory tract or systemic multiple systems occur rapidly. In severe cases, anaphylactic shock can be life-threatening.

Last week, the pediatric clinic picked up a 3-year-old girl. Her mother fed her half a freshly cut Tainong mango. Within ten minutes, her mouth turned red. The child kept rubbing her face and said, "Mom, it's itchy." The parents thought it was irritated by mango juice at first, so they wiped it with wet paper towels for a long time. However, half an hour later, the child's arms and neck had large wheals on her arms and neck, and her eyes were swollen into small slits. She rushed to the hospital. This is a very typical manifestation of IgE-mediated immediate food allergy.

However, it must be mentioned here that there are actually different opinions on the definition of food allergies in the academic community. In the current official guidelines of the World Allergy Organization (WAO), only IgE-mediated immediate reactions are classified as classic food allergies. However, many people say that delayed reactions such as "acne and bloating the day after eating milk" and "eczema occurs a day after eating seafood" are mostly in the category of food intolerance and are completely different from the pathogenesis of allergies. However, some clinicians advocate including non-IgE-mediated delayed allergy into statistics. For example, food protein-induced enterocolitis, which is common in infants and young children, often causes symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea 6 to 12 hours after eating allergenic milk. It can easily be misdiagnosed as ordinary gastroenteritis.

Talking back to the symptoms of immediate allergies that everyone is most likely to encounter, skin reactions are the most common. The first symptoms of seven or eight out of ten people are redness and itching of the skin, either wheals similar to mosquito bites, or patches of small red rashes. In severe cases, skin peeling and blisters may even occur.

There are also many people whose first reaction is in the digestive tract. Not long after eating, they feel numbness in the mouth and stiff tongue, followed by burning behind the sternum, stomachache, cold sweats, vomiting and diarrhea. I met a young man in the emergency department before. He knew that he was allergic to crabs. At a friend's party, he said, "Just eat one bite and it'll be fine." However, he didn't finish a crab leg. He was so painful that he couldn't stand as soon as he walked to the parking lot. When he was carried back by his friend, he was dehydrated. It took him two days to recover from the dehydration.

Another symptom that is easily overlooked is respiratory symptoms. After eating allergens, many people suddenly have a tight throat, hoarse voice, unstoppable coughing, and even feel like a stone is pressing on their chest and can't breathe. Don't think this is "choking". This is actually a sign of airway mucosal edema, which is much more dangerous than a rash. If edema blocks the airway, it can cause suffocation in a few minutes.

The most dangerous one is systemic anaphylactic shock. The symptoms mentioned above may appear at the same time. People will suddenly feel dizzy, unable to stand, hands and feet feel cold to the touch, blood pressure drops rapidly, and severe direct loss of consciousness. In this case, you must call 120 immediately, use epinephrine for first aid, and there is no delay for half a minute.

I have been in the allergy department for almost ten years, and the question I get asked most often is, "I was not allergic to this food before, so why am I suddenly allergic now?" In fact, people's immune status is not static. After staying up for most of the moon, having a bad cold just after giving birth, and hormone fluctuations during pregnancy, all It may cause the immune system to "recognize the wrong person" and attack originally harmless food proteins as intruders. There is no need to worry about "why is it me?" If you really have symptoms of suspected allergies, do a serum-specific IgE test or skin prick test. Once the allergen is identified, just avoid it.

There is another common misunderstanding. Many people think that "I have a mild reaction, it's just a rash, don't worry about it." Don't think like that. The severity of allergic reactions increases step by step. This time you may just have a few bumps on your arms, but next time you may have respiratory edema or even shock. Don’t try it on your own body. Don't take the chance that "it's okay to eat less." For people with severe allergies, even cookie crumbs stained with peanut powder or cake crumbs mixed with milk may cause fatal reactions.

Of course, it does not mean that once you are allergic, you can't touch it for the rest of your life. Nowadays, the academic community is also studying oral immune tolerance therapy, which starts with a very small amount of allergens and slowly increases the amount to allow the body to gradually adapt. Now some treatments for peanut and milk allergies have entered the clinical application stage. However, it must be reminded that this treatment must be carried out in a hospital with emergency conditions and under the full supervision of professional doctors. You must not try it at home as the risk is too high.

To put it bluntly, there is never a uniform template for the manifestations of food allergies. Everyone's reaction may be different, and even the same person may have different manifestations of allergies each time. If you suddenly experience unexplained discomfort after eating something, don't bear it, especially if you have a history of allergies before. It is safer to have emergency medicine with you.