by Jessica Sullivan

Created on: June 27, 2007   Last Updated: January 31, 2012

Nothing is scarier than knowing that your child could have a deadly reaction to something as basic as food. According to the ASCIA, an Australian group of Clinical Allerigsts and Immunologists, there are several steps that can be taken to help minimize the risk of having a child with food allergies.

Before exploring how to prevent food allergies, it's important to understand how allergies work. Imagine you are allergic to tree nuts and have just chomped down on a handful of almonds. Your immune system will be unable to identify these molecules, and will begin attacking them. Because your immune system doesn't know how best to go about eradicating the invaders, it overreacts, causing an overproduction of the antibody IgE and the release of histamines. These are what cause the symptoms of an allergic reaction, which can range from a mild rash to full anaphylactic shock.

To stop an allergic reactions, you can take an antihistamine. This slows down the release of histamines and thus ends the allergic reactions. While people who are severely allergic to substances will often use an epi pen, this injection of epinephrine will not stop the allergic reaction, and instead only prevents your heart from stopping and your throat from fully swelling until the antihistamines kick in.

So, to what extent can child food allergies be prevented? Unfortunately, many of a child's future allergies are determined by genetics. If you or your relatives have food allergies, it's wise to see an allergist before giving birth. He or she will be able to help you determine whether your child is at risk for developing a potentially life threatening allergy.

Of course, just because you don't have alleriges doesn't mean your child won't either. In fact, genetics is only a part of the picture when it comes to child allergies, and as a result, there are preventative measures that can be taken to diminish the risk that your child will be affected by food allergies.

For many, many reasons, food allergies being one of them, it's important to breast feed whenever possible. Giving your child cow's milk before the age of six months can lead to dairy allergies, and while lactose intolerance is not an allergy per se, infants fed only on rice or soy milk are more likely to be lactose intolerant.

By providing your new born with breast milk, you will not only diminish the chance that they will be plagued with a dairy allergy, but you will also expose them to small quantities of whatever potential allergens

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