Parents, Schools Should Be Prepared To Deal With Kids' Food Allergies
To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.
Then come back here and refresh the page.
Childhood food allergies are on the rise, and while researchers are still unsure why that is so, doctors are reminding parents to be prepared as school is back in session. NY1's Health reporter Kafi Drexel filed the following report.According to the Centers for Disease Control, 90 percent of food allergies stem from some of the items people eat most, including milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, wheat, soy and, of course, tree nuts and peanuts.
Dr. Majorie Slankard of Columbia Medical Center and ColumbiaDoctors Eastside has definitely seen an uptick among kids.
"The incidence of peanut allergy actually doubled from 1997 to 2002. The incidence now is listed up to possibly 1.8 percent of all children. That's a lot of kids," says Slankard.
About three million children nationwide have food allergies overall, at latest count. With kids eating most of their snacks and meals during the school day, Slankard says it is important families have a plan, beginning with recognizing symptoms.
"Some children will feel it. They'll get lip swelling, break out in hives, have what's called 'eczema' or 'atopic dermatitis.' But others, their nose will just get more runny or congested, or they'll even wheeze and have asthma without any reaction on the skin," says Slankard. "Also, there's all kinds of intestinal reactions that occur."
Most schools already have policies in place to protect students from reactions, so parents should make sure everyone is on the same page.
Emergency plans often include leaving Benadryl and other medications, usually with the school nurse, and making sure adrenaline injections are available in the form of an Epipen, Twinject or other generic version in case of a severe reaction.
Children and responsible adults should know how to use those injections.
"It is injected by a swinging motion into the upper, outer thigh. The goal is to inject this into a muscular area," says Slankard. "So you swing and inject it into the upper, outer part of the thigh, then you hold it in place for at least 10 seconds. Within five minutes there may start to be relief of symptoms and the person may start to feel a little hyper or jittery. If they feel that, you know they got their medications."
Undiagnosed problems should always be brought to the attention of an allergist or pediatrician.