Free Emergency Guide
Allergy to cow’s milk is the most prevalent
form of food allergy that primarily affects children. Most infants and babies
fortunately outgrow cow’s milk allergy during their second to third year of formula
milk intake.
Like most allergies, cow’s milk allergy is not
curable, but rather, it is treatable. In that sense, people and children born
with it should live with dairy-free diets all their lives to avoid cow’s milk
allergies.
A
close look at cow’s milk
Regular cow’s milk is composed of
carbohydrates or sugar, vitamins, water, minerals,
fat and proteins. It is the protein in cow’s milk that brings about or serves
as allergens that cause cow’s milk allergy.
Parents should also learn that breastfeeding
infants is not an assurance that the baby would not develop the allergy.
However, studies found that breastfed kids are less
likely to form food allergies of any kind.
Mothers pass along cow’s milk proteins to
their kids through breastfeeding. Thus, it would be more appropriate to say
that it is not the mother’s milk that incur reaction, but the proteins that are
mixed through the mom’s milk, which is attributed to the mother’s diet.
In some cases, some infants develop immunity
to cow’s milk allergy during their breastfeeding years, but surprisingly
develop cow’s milk allergy when they stop taking in mom’s milk for formula
milk.
Symptoms of cow’s milk
allergy
It should be easy to tell when an infant or a
kid has developed cow’s milk allergy. Parents should be very observant of their
children’s conditions so they can immediately seek professional and medical
help at the onset of the allergy.
Babies with cow’s milk allergy exhibit skin
rashes or eczema. Most cases, the
babies experience diarrhea, vomiting and abdominal cramps or abdominal pains.
Because babies can not talk or complain about
how they are feeling, parents should heed to their infants’ cries and
discomfort. Constant and regular visits to the kid’s pediatrician would be
really helpful.
However, it should also be noted that it is
not only cow’s milk allergy that causes rashes, eczema, diarrhea and abdominal
pain. In that regard, consultation to the pediatrician is needed so the parents
know the real disease discomforting the baby.
Early detection of cow’s milk allergy would be
very helpful because early modification and elimination of dairies in the kid’s
diet would be very beneficial and necessary over time.
Treatment
and prevention of cow’s milk allergy
Severe symptom of cow’s milk allergy need
special prescription medications from the doctor. Usually, to treat such cases,
antihistamines and epinephrine are administered to the patient.
Parents of children with cow’s milk allergy
should also keep supplies of those drugs in their medicine cabinets because
they would be necessary if ever the children would accidentally take in cow’s
milk.
Infants and babies will be switched to
hydrolystate or soy-based milk formulas from milk-based formulas. Remember, it
is the protein contained in cow’s milk that cause the allergy so switching to
another formula milk brand would not be helpful.
Mothers who breast-feed infants and babies
diagnosed with cow’s milk allergy should instead cut intakes or eliminate dairy
products in their diet so the cow’s milk protein would not be passed on to the
infants.
As general prevention measure, all formula
milk based on cow’s milk should be eliminated on the baby’s diet.
Source: http://www.healthguidance.org/authors/11/Charlene-J.-Nuble
Charlene J. Nuble