One of the most beloved and often used vegetables is potatoes. Most people love lush mashed potatoes and not very healthy, but tasty fried potatoes. And how good baked potatoes are! ..
This vegetable is recommended for allergy sufferers as part of a hypoallergenic diet. It is difficult to imagine that in some people this product causes a negative reaction. It is not surprising that many parents are interested in whether a child is allergic to potatoes. Unfortunately, experts answer this question in the affirmative, although this happens quite rarely.
Useful properties of potatoes
It is no coincidence that this culture is introduced into the lure of the baby in the first year of life. This is a very useful product. It contains many minerals, vitamins, as well as amino acids, carbohydrates, magnesium and calcium, fiber and phosphorus. The composition of potatoes includes proteins that are necessary for the construction of cells in our body. However, they do not contain cholesterol - they are more useful than animal proteins.
B vitamins are also rich in potatoes. Among them - B, B9, B6, B3, B2. No body system can fully function without them. The body can not accumulate them - they must constantly come from the outside. Potatoes are ideal for this.
Riboflavin (vitamin B 2 ) is an active participant in metabolism and the formation of red blood cells. With a lack of vitamin B, 3 people suffer from insomnia and irritability. It is indispensable in energy metabolism. It is difficult to overestimate the benefits of calcium for a growing organism. It contributes to the correct formation of the skeleton and teeth of the baby. Phosphorus, which is part of the root crop, is necessary for the functioning of the kidneys and central nervous system. And finally, an indispensable helper in the work of the intestine is fiber. She prevents the development of diabetes. So why is such a useful product in some, albeit rare cases, causes an allergy?
Why does pathology arise?
The causes of an allergy to potatoes in a child are:
- potato starch;
- tuberin protein;
- penton protein.
Tuberin and penton are dangerous proteins that provoke allergy manifestations. With a predisposition to this disease, a negative reaction can occur even from a very small amount of product. Chips, for example, are also potentially dangerous.
You must be careful not only to dishes prepared from potatoes, but also to those that contain vegetables from the nightshade family - eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, etc. They can also provoke negative reactions.
Quite often, children up to a year are susceptible to this pathology. This is due to their physiological characteristics, which we talked about above. Often, an allergic reaction is caused by milk formulas containing starch. In the child’s body, it accumulates, is difficult to digest.
Often, parents first find out how allergies to potatoes manifest in children when a baby is 4.5-5 months old. During this period, this product is introduced into the baby’s diet as complementary foods. Potatoes should be dosed, starting with 1/2 teaspoon. In this case, you must carefully monitor the reaction of the baby's body.
It is important to know that allergies also occur without eating potatoes. This can happen while peeling a raw vegetable when a child is nearby.
Potato Allergy Symptoms
They practically do not differ from the manifestations of pathology in adults, although there are also features. Allergists distinguish between immediate reactions that develop within the first 20 minutes after contact with the product, and delayed when signs of allergy appear on the second or third day after contact. Such a reaction of the body is characteristic only for children whose organisms are not quite adapted to external factors.
From the digestive tract:
- flatulence;
- spitting up;
- diarrhea, constipation;
- nausea, vomiting.
On the part of the skin:
On the part of the respiratory system:
- dyspnea;
- asthma;
- sneezing
- cough;
- runny nose.
How to identify allergies?
If you suspect a food allergy, parents need to keep a food diary and add products to it after each feeding the baby, as well as the reaction of the child's body. If we are talking about a baby on breastfeeding, then the diary is made by the products that mother eats. This is necessary in order to identify and exclude a product that causes allergies.
If an allergy to potatoes in a child occurs before the age of three, doctors believe that the disease will recede with age. This is because the babies have not yet fully formed the immune system and gastrointestinal tract. To determine the allergen and diagnosis, doctors sometimes recommend a food provocation method. First, potatoes are excluded from the diet for several weeks, and then they are returned to the menu again. All this time, the child is under the supervision of a doctor who records the absence or presence of allergic reactions. Parents should know that this method is quite dangerous, as it can provoke anaphylactic shock.
If the child shows symptoms of potato allergy (in the photo below you can see one of them - a rash on the baby’s body) after taking the minimum amount of this product, you need to contact a pediatrician and describe in detail the reaction of the body.
Pathology diagnostics
An allergist will prescribe a child over five years of age carrying out an allergoscreening of the blood - the diagnosis of special lgE, for which the following tests are done:
- skin allergy test;
- blood test ELISA or CAP-RAST.
Cross allergens
The vast majority of parents are worried when a child’s reaction to an exacerbation of an allergy to potatoes begins to reveal food reactions to other vegetables. Therefore, one should be aware of such a concept as “cross reactions”. If a child develops symptoms of an allergy to potatoes, parents should use caution in the nutrition of their children foods that, along with this crop, cause a negative reaction. These include:
- Tomatoes
- eggplant;
- pears
- apples.
Cross-linked with potatoes are birch allergens. Prevention of further exposure to the irritant and the weakening of signs of pathology can be achieved with antihistamines, the dosage and timing of which are prescribed by a pediatrician or allergist. We will talk about this later.
Treating a child with potato allergies
Any type of allergy in the treatment involves the exclusion of contact with the allergen in the first place. Therefore, when confirming the diagnosis, dishes based on or even with a slight potato content are excluded from the child’s diet. Despite the fact that many drugs used to treat negative reactions of the body are used in therapy for both adult patients and children, self-medication is strictly prohibited.
We mentioned that a child’s potato allergy is quite rare. That is why medicines should be selected by an experienced doctor who will monitor the progress of treatment.
In the acute form of pathology, it is necessary to quickly remove the remaining allergen from the body. For this, enterosorbents are used, for example, activated carbon. Further therapy depends on the condition of the patient and the intensity of the manifestations of the disease.
Antihistamines for babies
The smallest patients can be assigned:
- "Fenistil" in drops. A baby up to a year, as a rule, is prescribed 3-10 drops three times a day. With mild symptoms, the number of doses is reduced to two per day.
- Zirtek (drops). A day, the baby is given 5 drops once a day.
- "Suprastin" (tablets). This medication is effective in quickly resolving allergy symptoms. Breasts are prescribed! / 4 tablets 2 times a day.
Preparations for children over one year old
Until the age of six, antihistamines are prescribed in drops or in the form of a syrup. Medicines in this form are perfectly absorbed by the child's body, they have a sweet or neutral taste, so children, as a rule, take them without problems. In addition to the listed antihistamines, to eliminate the signs of the disease in children after a year, the following can be prescribed:
- "Parlazin" (drops). Recommended for children over two years old. The drug is prescribed to take twice a day for 5 drops.
- Gismanal (syrup). Assign after reaching the age of two. In accordance with the body weight of the child, the dosage is calculated - 2 mg per kilogram of weight. The drug is taken for a week once a day.
- Claritin (syrup). It is also prescribed after two years of age. If your child weighs less than 30 kg, the intake of syrup is limited to 5 ml once a day. If its weight exceeds the specified weight, the dosage is increased to 10 ml.
If anaphylactic shock occurs, immediately call the ambulance team.
Disease prevention
In case of an allergy in a child to potatoes (a photo of the symptoms you can see in this article), the exclusion of the root crop from the diet may be the best prevention. If symptoms of pathology are detected at the age of 4.5 months, it is necessary to abandon the use of this vegetable as a complementary food. Once again, you can try to introduce potatoes into the baby’s diet only after a year. At the same time, tubers grown without pesticides should be used for cooking. If the symptoms of the pathology reappeared, the use of this culture should be abandoned until the age of three. In this case, it is necessary to consult with a pediatrician, to conduct an examination with an allergist.
It is necessary to adhere to traditional preventive measures that prevent the occurrence of an allergy to food allergies:
- Keep your baby breast-fed for as long as possible.
- Strictly observe the rules for the introduction of complementary foods prescribed by the pediatrician.
- Treat your child for infectious diseases in a timely manner.
- Strengthen the baby's immunity.
It is very important not to miss the first symptoms of the disease and begin treatment of the pathology in time, preventing its further development.