The sugar group is too diverse to combine all its elements into a common allergen, therefore the expression “sugar allergy” is inaccurate and cannot exist as a diagnosis.
Truth and myth
Could there be an allergy to sugar? Allergy is the response of the immune system to the penetration of substances perceived by it as hostile agents. At the same time, the protective functions of the body are synthesized by special cells - antibodies, which interact with foreign elements and excite a reaction that is familiar to everyone by common allergic signs. It is not any substance that can provoke the process of antibody isolation, but only a protein compound. So, in the group of pure sugars this element is not, and the carbohydrate there is not able to activate the immune defenses.
However, substances of a pure group have nothing to do with store sweets, including lump sugar,. The product that enters the stores goes through many stages of cleaning, is exposed to preservatives, perfumes, and coloring pigments that are responsible for the “snow-white” product. All this can cause sugar intolerance and cause symptoms up to anaphylactic shock.
So can there be sugar allergy in the real sense of the word? A true allergy, the culprit of which can be ordinary sweet sand or lump sugar, is a very rare phenomenon that occurs due to a lack of sucrose enzyme. It can be congenital, acquired or transient.
Causes of an allergic reaction
Intolerance, or an allergy to sugar, in a child occurs when synthesis failure or disruption of certain enzymes occurs in the baby's body. Refusal of sugars can be congenital pathological in nature or be a consequence of an illness. Almost half of the cases of sugar allergy in newborns are due to genetically inherited transmission from immediate relatives.
Congenital allergy refers to manifestations of a primary nature and is detected at an early age of the baby - even before the age of one. Tolerance of this type does not include the transient reaction of sugar rejection in the first few months after the birth of the child, if the symptoms do not last more than five days.
The causes of sugar intolerance are:
- the presence of helminthic invasions in the body;
- antibiotic treatment, especially if therapy was continued for long courses;
- violation of intestinal motility or inflammatory processes in the digestive tract in a chronic course.
The last point of the cause of sugar intolerance, if it does not belong to anomalies in the development of the body, is more often observed in adult children of preschool and school age.
Reaction to milk sugar
Protein is the main component of a dairy product that enters the baby's body in large quantities every day. At the frequency with which breastfeeding usually occurs, this substance is simply not able to get out of the body, because it forms accumulations in the digestive tract.
This is the norm with the optimal development by the baby’s body of all the necessary enzymes for protein breakdown, but it also happens that the baby’s body can’t cope. The fermentation process that has begun when ingestion of sugar elements is intensified, there are signs that are often mistaken for an “allergy” to sugar in a child with HS - colic in the abdomen, gas formation, regurgitation.
Another reason is the absence or decrease in the activity of a special enzyme responsible for the absorption of lactose - lactase. Sugars contained in milk enter the intestine without first splitting into the simplest elements, one of which is lactase, and already in the stomach begin to change under the influence of acidic flora. The baby is anxious immediately after feeding - a strong, sour eructation appears, diarrhea opens. One of the complications of rejection of milk sugar may be a delay in the physical development of the baby.
Types of skin reaction
A child’s “allergy” to sugar can be recognized by the main feature that accompanies almost all manifestations of a reaction to sweets - a rash that forms a fusion up to several centimeters or scattered throughout the body as separate points. As a rule, the child begins to actively comb the body, so some areas covered with a rash quickly turn into wounds.
Not always "allergy" to sugar is manifested as an immediate response of the child's body to irritation. Less often, the reaction develops in a gradual manner, with increasing symptoms. Therefore, two forms of intolerance are distinguished:
- immediate - that is, giving out a complete clinical picture already in the first hours after the use of prohibited products;
- slow - revealing within a few days.
With a delayed reaction, it is important to differentiate sugar intolerance from an allergy to other food and non-food irritants.
The clinical picture of the skin reaction
According to the degree of complexity of the manifestations, sugar intolerance is divided into the following symptoms, noticeable on the skin:
- simple rash, represented by separate point elements or localized fusions (with or without itching);
- urticaria - can be of several types by the nature of the rash, but invariably accompanied by swelling, severe itching;
- Quincke's edema is one of the most critical reactions of an allergic reaction, characterized by extensive swelling of the facial region and in the genital area, shortness of breath, redness of the skin;
- anaphylactic shock is an extreme, pre-lethal form of allergy manifestation, in which a person falls into a swoon and dies in the absence of medical care.
Depending on the signs of sugar intolerance, a decision is made on emergency measures and on the required conditions for their provision.
Diagnostics
In a newborn child, a sugar allergy can be preliminary confirmed by the mother, who tells the doctor such characteristic signs of the clinical picture as frequent loose stools, profuse regurgitation, and symptoms of an acute abdomen. However, to clarify and isolate the allergen, certain tests will be needed, which include:
- allergen elimination method (transferring a child to lactose-free mixtures);
- skin test (introduction of the pathogen of allergies into the body, through a small scratch on the child's forearm);
- blood test for IgE antibodies;
- study of feces.
For children who can control the amount of expired air (usually from the age of 3), they measure the concentration of hydrogen particles on the exhale - a test that is carried out in two stages - before taking lactose and after consuming a small amount of milk.
Drug treatment
An allergy to the components of cane sugar or sugar beet, differentiated from lactose intolerance, is stopped by antihistamines with a parallel rejection of products that provoke an immune response. The course of treatment with such drugs as Suprastin, Zodak, Kzisal is designed for two weeks of continuous use of the drug. The use of enterosorbents to cleanse the intestines of decay products and toxins released into the body from activated sugar or white coal, Lactofiltrum, Smecta, is also included in the scheme of therapy for a child’s sugar allergy.
Lactose rejection, it is not possible to eliminate the means against allergies, because most often they just practice refusing food products that require the functioning of a defective enzyme.
Diet treatment
It is difficult to adjust the baby’s diet in such a way that lactose or other simplest sugar components, which the baby may develop an allergy to, do not get into it. If the detected problem is sucrose, then the baby must be breastfed for the first year of her life, and at the beginning of complementary feeding, analyze the composition of each jar of the finished product.
Children older than infants are prescribed a diet:
- excluded from food: viscous cereals, potatoes, corn, jelly and any products that use large amounts of starch as a thickener;
- are included in the diet without fail: lean soups, crumbly cereals, fatty vegetable oils;
- preference is given to all citrus fruits, fresh herbs, spinach, cherries and all berries and fruits, where fructose is a natural sweetener;
- Vitamin C is recommended daily.
Since the treatment of sugar allergies takes a narrow position, only one allergen is excluded from the diet. Nutritional restrictions for lactose intolerance will not affect patients with a reaction to sucrose, and vice versa.
Adjustment of milk sugar allergy in HB
In cases when it comes to breastfeeding, the rejection of which will affect the health of the baby, the child is prescribed the lactase enzyme in the form of separate preparations. Powders are dissolved in a single-serving portion of expressed breast milk and given to the baby according to the feeding schedule.
Many mothers justifiably do not want to refuse the baby physiological feeding, which positively affects the mental state of the newborn, therefore they dilute the lactase enzyme in a small amount of expressed milk. First, when feeding a child, they give fermented food, then - until the diet is replenished - they are applied to the breast.
An alternative to sugar for allergies is fructose
How to use sweeteners and are they harmful? To add to food for children, nutritionists recommend using only natural sweeteners - they are completely absorbed into the intestinal wall, do not violate peristalsis and immediately begin to act actively in all body systems.
Fans of traditional methods of treatment and prevention of lactose intolerance put fructose instead of sugar. The benefits and harms of this substance are often spoken about, but it is still widely used in most cases when the use of classical sugar is impossible due to health reasons.
Fructose is best consumed by children in their original form. The high content of this substance is noted in the following foods:
- pears and apples;
- persimmon, dates;
- currants, grapes;
- all kinds of cabbage.
If a baby has low digestibility of breast milk, then mother should think about consuming fructose instead of sugar. The benefits and harms of such a replacement can be assessed after the first 2-3 feedings. The drug purchased at the pharmacy, both children and a young mother should be taken with caution - in an amount not exceeding 30 g per day.
Natural Sugar Substitutes
How to replace a product with maximum benefit for a child with a sugar allergy? If mom does not even consider sweeteners in the form of pharmacy drugs, first of all you should pay attention to honey. Add it to the baby’s diet gradually, starting with hypoallergenic varieties and then varying the flow of sweets with an increase in the volume of a single serving.
A slightly more controversial reaction to sucrose is wedge syrup, which can also be found in the form of solid crystals. The product contains very small amounts of sucrose (5 g of substance in 100 ml of syrup), therefore it belongs to dietary, but you need to enter it into food as carefully as honey.
Recommendations for the children's menu
The later the child learns the taste of sugar-containing treats, the better for his health. Previously, pediatricians recommended acquainting a child with store sweets no earlier than three years of age, now they are asking to wait at least up to a year. The tendency towards a decrease in healthy immunity observed in preschool children in the last decade largely depends on how often parents, when organizing their child’s nutrition, neglect useful goodies, choosing in favor of the generally accessible ones.
Are sweeteners that make up popular food brands harmful? It is hard to believe, but excluding from the diet of a young child only five types of products, you can delete several kilograms of sugar from its annual consumption! Here is a short list:
- products from shortbread and sweet puff pastry;
- brightly flavored modern caramels and milk chocolate;
- all kinds of sparkling water;
- chips, corn sticks and sweet cereal;
- pastry creams.
It is impossible to completely refuse a child sweet, therefore, having removed obviously harmful products, they should immediately be replaced with useful ones. We also included sweets necessary for the baby’s health in five groups:
- dried fruits (washed);
- natural homemade sugar-free yogurts;
- muesli;
- dark chocolate with a cocoa content of at least 72%;
- fruits appropriate to the season.
Useful natural juice, especially freshly squeezed, must be diluted with water by half and only then given to the child. This does not apply to juices purchased at the store - the concentration of modified sugar in them is so high that the product can no longer be adjusted.
Prevention of the development of allergies in a child
Maternal nutrition during gestation largely determines the degree of susceptibility of the child to certain foods after birth. If a pregnant woman consumes glucose in an excessive amount or experimentes with various sweeteners without medical prescription, this is likely to affect the enzyme formation in the child's body.
In some cases, when diagnosing a true allergy to the simplest elements of sugar in children older than three years, it is possible to develop adaptation to the allergen. This is a fairly lengthy process that occurs under the supervision of an allergist and is accompanied by periodic testing. A successful outcome of therapy is the result when the child ceases to respond to the allergen when consumed in moderate doses.