Different ways of dealing with food allergies
The elimination diet
For now, the only treatment for food allergy is avoidance diet of food identified by allergy testing. It is to eliminate all forms of food the food. It is a long process of education as we must learn to recognize the same masked allergens (in industrial preparations, for example), to decipher the labels to know what are some code or name, and also avoid drugs or cosmetics that may contain.
The labeling
The label is the identity card of a pre-packaged food. It identifies all the components that are listed in descending order after the word "ingredient." Ingredient is defined as a substance added intentionally. Indeed, it requires to be declared in the ingredients list all substances or derivatives of these substances in the list of 12 allergens mandatory labeling (Table 3). Reporting is mandatory regardless of the amount of food when it was used in the production of a foodstuff and is still present in the finished product, even in a modified form. Registration must be easily legible, clearly comprehensible and indelible.
Table 3. Foods mandatory labeling
- Cereals containing gluten (wheat, rye, barley, oats, spelled, kamut or their hybridised strains) and products made from these grains
- Crustaceans and shellfish products
- Eggs and egg products
- Fish and fish products
- Peanuts and peanut products
- Soybeans and soy products
- Milk and milk products (including lactose)
- Nuts that is to say: hazelnuts, brazil nuts, cashews, walnuts, almonds, pistachio nuts, Queensland, pecans and macadamia nuts all products based on these fruits
- Celery and celery products
- Mustard and mustard products
- Sesame seeds and products made from sesame seeds
- Sulphur dioxide and sulphites> 10 mg / kg (or 10 mg) expressed as SO2
The list is unique but can be changed over time. The European Commission is exempt temporarily, until November 2007, the labeling of food derived to demonstrate their lack of allergenicity (Official Gazette No. 219 of 20 September 2005). This is the case eg glucose syrup from wheat, lysozyme (produced from egg) used in wine, whey used in distillates for alcohol, oleosins mustard seeds or celery.
A precautionary labeling appeared with honors from the list of ingredients "may contain ...", "possible presence ..." without specifying the quantity contained in these products. It is possible that these new records represent only a risk of contamination of finished products by food. It would be incidental presence of the allergen should not be present or may present rarely or very low quantities. These new records make it impossible to consumption of these foods by allergic patients, and seriously complicates the choice of food.
Treatment of reactions
Antihistamines, corticosteroids, bronchodilators, adrenaline ... are drugs that treat the symptoms of the allergic reaction but have no effect on the allergy itself. Desensitization, effective for respiratory allergies is not yet applicable in the case of food allergies.
Convert care
Project Home Individualized (or PAI) is designed for children with severe food allergy to counter the allergic emergency that may arise in school structures and extra-curricular. It aims to facilitate the integration and academic success of children with allergies. It comes from official documents. Its implementation is done at the request of parents, the physician of Education, in consultation with the Warden, and follows the instructions of the allergist who determined to avoid foods and medications to administer allergic reactions.
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