Adverse reactions to foods are relatively common in both children and infants. When severe reactions such as anaphylaxis occur immediately after ingestion, it is usually not difficult to identify the offending food. Anaphylaxis, with respiratory and cardiovascular collapse, is the most severe reaction following ingestion. In young children, other reactions such as colitis may occur. 

In infants, food allergies may cause colic, vomiting, feeding problems, or growth failure. Most food allergies in young children resolve with time, although allergies to peanuts, which can be particularly severe, often remain for life. Food protein-induced proctocolitis and enterocolitis are food reactions that primarily affect infants, commonly caused by sensitivity to cow’s milk protein.

Infants have dysphagia, vomiting, and abdominal pain, often caused by sensitivity to various food proteins. Food reactions are difficult to diagnose because reliable tests are not widely available.

Please take your children or infants to the clinician for food skin testing. Adverse reactions resulting from food poisoning, pharmacologic effects, and gastrointestinal (GI) disorders must be ruled out. Skin tests for foods can be performed to confirm food allergies. Food skin testing or RAST has relatively low specificity, in that positive tests may occur in patients not experiencing allergic reactions to the particular food.

Skin tests or RAST are of limited value for diagnosing food protein-induced proctocolitis and enterocolitis. A more definitive, although more time-consuming, test for food allergies and food intolerance is the double-blind placebo-controlled food challenge in which the patient is given increasing oral doses of the suspected food in a blinded fashion. Once food allergies have been identified, the treatment is dietary avoidance of the offending food or foods.

Anaphylaxis is an acute, severe, life-endangering situation caused by an immunologic reaction. Peanuts and tree nuts are the foods most likely to cause severe anaphylaxis. Virtually any foreign substance, including foods or latex-associated proteins, and therefore induce an anaphylactic reaction