Do I need to go to the hospital for food allergies?

There is really no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. It depends on the degree of allergy and the specific situation. You can’t waste medical resources by going to the emergency room for every situation, and you can’t hold on to it and delay life-saving opportunities.

To put it bluntly, food allergy is when your immune system accepts death and treats the originally harmless food as an invading foreign enemy, and launches an attack. Sometimes the attack is small in scale, just a local reaction, which can be suppressed by taking some medicine. If the immune system goes crazy and launches a full-scale attack, it must be controlled by a doctor. I came across two completely opposite examples a while ago. One was a nephew who was in elementary school and secretly nibbled two mouthfuls of mango. The corner of his mouth became red and he kept scratching it. His mother was so anxious that she rushed to the hospital with her arms. I stopped and gave him half a tablet of loratadine for children, and applied it with a cold towel. It went away in 20 minutes. There was no need to go to the hospital and wait in line for most of the day. Another colleague accidentally ate a salad mixed with chopped peanuts during team building last year. At first, he just felt his throat was a little tight. He thought he was choking, so he drank two mouthfuls of water and ignored it. Within five minutes, his whole face was swollen into a bun and he couldn't speak. Everyone hurriedly called 120 and sent him to the emergency room. The doctor said that if he arrived later, the laryngeal edema would block the airway, and something serious might happen.

You may also be worried, so how do you decide whether to go or not? Nowadays, many people have two extreme attitudes towards food allergies. Either they think they are allergic and just get an itchy rash for a while and then get over it, or they run to the hospital whenever their skin becomes red. In fact, you can make a preliminary judgment first. If you have difficulty breathing, a tight throat, dizziness and difficulty standing, or vomiting and diarrhea that cannot be stopped, do not hesitate to call 120 immediately. This kind of severe allergic reaction progresses very quickly and can develop into shock in as fast as ten minutes. You cannot handle it at home. If you delay for one more minute, you will be in danger.

If you only have some local symptoms, such as red and itchy skin after contact with food, or a few scattered small rashes, but no other general discomfort, and you have had a similar history of mild allergies before, you can take commonly used antihistamines and observe them first. If the symptoms slowly subside within an hour or two, there is no need to go to the hospital. Of course, if after observation, the symptoms become more and more severe, and you even start to feel chest tightness and palpitation, then you still have to go.

By the way, there is another situation where I suggest you try to take the time to go to the hospital. This is when you have a food allergy for the first time. Even if the symptoms are very mild, it is best to go to the allergy department to check the specific allergens and find out which ingredient you are allergic to. It is like finding out the "forbidden zone" of the body in advance so that you can avoid it next time. After all, some allergic reactions will change with the body condition. This time it is just a slight redness. Next time if you encounter it when your immunity is low, the reaction may be severe. If you have been diagnosed with severe food allergies, it is best to keep an epinephrine auto-injection pen with you. If you accidentally eat it, give yourself an injection first before going to the hospital, which can buy the most precious golden time for subsequent treatment.