Water is absolutely essential to the human body’s survival. A person can live for about a month without food, but only about a week without water.

During any normal day, fluid losses occur continuously, from skin evaporation, breathing, urine, and stool, and these losses must be replaced daily for good health. When your water intake does not equal your output, you can become dehydrated. Fluid losses are accentuated in warmer climates, during strenuous exercise, in high altitudes, and in older adults, whose sense of thirst may not be as sharp.

Let us find out some more important and inspiring reasons for drinking more water.

1. Drinking Water Helps Maintain the Balance of Body Fluids. Your body is composed of about 60% water. The functions of these bodily fluids include digestion, absorption, circulation, creation of saliva, transportation of nutrients, and maintenance of body temperature.

When you’re low on fluids, the brain triggers the body’s thirst mechanism. And unless you are taking medications that make you thirsty, you should listen to those cues and get yourself a drink of water, juice, milk or coffee — anything but alcohol. Alcohol interferes with the brain and kidney communication and causes excess excretion of fluids which can then lead to dehydration.

Water leads to increased energy levels. The most common cause of daytime fatigue is actually mild dehydration.

2. Water Can Help Control Calories. For years, dieters have been drinking lots of water as a weight loss strategy. While water doesn’t have any magical effect on weight loss, substituting it for higher calorie beverages can certainly help.

What works with weight loss is if you choose water or a non-caloric beverage over a caloric beverage and/or eat a diet higher in water-rich foods that are healthier, more filling, and help you trim calorie intake.

Food with high water content tends to look larger, its higher volume requires more chewing, and it is absorbed more slowly by the body, which helps you feel full. Water-rich foods include fruits, vegetables, broth-based soups, oatmeal, and beans.

Water helps to maintain healthy body weight by increasing metabolism and regulating appetite.

3. Water Helps Energize Muscles. Cells that don’t maintain their balance of fluids and electrolytes shrivel, which can result in muscle fatigue. When muscle cells don’t have adequate fluids, they don’t work as well and performance can suffer.

Drinking enough fluids is important when exercising. During exercise, fluids should be drunk at regular intervals to replace fluids lost by sweating.

Being dehydrated can severely hamper your athletic activities, slowing you down and making it harder to lift weights. Exercise requires additional water, so be sure to hydrate before, during and after exercise.

4. Water Helps Keep Skin Looking Good. Your skin contains plenty of water, and functions as a protective barrier to prevent excess fluid loss.

Dehydration makes your skin look drier and wrinkled, which can be improved with proper hydration. But once you are adequately hydrated, the kidneys take over and excrete excess fluids.

You can also help “lock” moisture into your skin by using moisturizer, which creates a physical barrier to keep moisture in.

5. Water Helps Your Kidneys. Body fluids transport waste products in and out of cells. Your kidneys do an amazing job of cleansing and ridding your body of toxins as long as your intake of fluids is adequate.

When you’re getting enough fluids, urine flows freely, is light in color and free of odor. When your body is not getting enough fluids, urine concentration, color, and odor increases because the kidneys trap extra fluid for bodily functions.

If you chronically drink too little, you may be at higher risk for kidney stones, especially in warm climates.

6. Water Helps Maintain Normal Bowel Function. Adequate hydration keeps things flowing along your gastrointestinal tract and prevents constipation. When you don’t get enough fluid, the colon pulls water from stools to maintain hydration — and the result is constipation.

Adequate fluid and fiber is the perfect combination, because the fluid pumps up the fiber and acts like a broom to keep your bowel functioning properly.

7. Water Helps in Preventing Many Serious Health Problems. Drinking adequate amounts of water can decrease the risk of certain types of cancers, including colon cancer, bladder cancer, and breast cancer. Water also reduces your risk of heart attack.

8. Water Helps Reducing Joint and Back Pain. For a majority of sufferers, drinking water can significantly reduce joint and/or back pain. Water cushions and lubes your joints and muscles.

Tips to Help You Drink More

If you think you need to be drinking more, here are some tips to increase your fluid intake and reap the benefits of water:

• Have a beverage with every snack and meal.
• Choose beverages you enjoy; you’re likely to drink more liquids if you like the way they taste.
• Eat more fruits and vegetables. Their high water content will add to your hydration. About 20% of our fluid intake comes from foods.
• Keep a bottle of water with you in your car, at your desk, or in your bag.
• Choose beverages that meet your individual needs. If you’re watching calories, go for non-caloric beverages or water.

 

Level of Water for Adults

For healthy sedentary adults living in temperate climates:

Men: 125 oz (3.7 liters) of water per day from all dietary sources
Women: 91 oz (2.7 liters) of water per day from all dietary sources

For most people, this amount of water per day is a lot more than they normally drink. The requirement for men is roughly 1 gallon per day. How many of you men out there drink this much water every single day? For the women, 91 ounces is roughly 3 quarts.

However, an exercising athlete can lose enormous quantities of body water through perspiration. The recommendations listed above don’t apply to endurance athletes.

How Much You Need to Drink Water

The optimum amount of water you should drink depends on your body weight. The fatter you are, the more you need to drink.

Take one-half of the amounts of your weight in pounds and convert that to ounces and that is how many ounces you should be drinking. Thus, if you weigh 128 pounds, you should be drinking 64 ounces a day. If you weigh 300 pounds, you need to drink 150 ounces a day. You can’t just categorize any liquid consumption as being adequate to meet the recommended amount– for example, coffee is a diuretic and causes you to lose water, so you wouldn’t want to try meeting your daily water requirements with large quantities of that.

Diagnosing Allergies

Some allergies are fairly easy to identify because the pattern of symptoms following exposure to certain allergens can be hard to miss. But other allergies are less obvious because they can masquerade as other conditions.

If your child has cold-like symptoms lasting longer than a week or two or develops a “cold” at the same time every year, consult your doctor, who will likely ask questions about the symptoms and when they appear. Based on the answers to these questions and a physical exam, the doctor may be able to make a diagnosis and prescribe medications or may refer you to an allergist for allergy skin tests and more extensive therapy.

To determine the cause of an allergy, allergists usually perform skin tests for the most common environmental and food allergens.

If reactions to a food or other allergen are severe, a blood test may be used to diagnose the allergy so as to avoid exposure to the offending allergen. Skin tests are less expensive and more sensitive than blood tests for allergies. But blood tests may be required in children with skin conditions or those who are extremely sensitive to a particular allergen.

Even if a skin test and/or a blood test show an allergy, a child must also have symptoms to be definitively diagnosed with an allergy. For example, a toddler who has a positive test for dust mites and sneezes frequently while playing on the floor would be considered allergic to dust mites.

Treating Allergies

There is no real cure for allergies, but it is possible to relieve symptoms. The only real way to cope with them is to reduce or eliminate exposure to allergens. That means that parents must educate their kids early and often, not only about the allergy itself, but also about what reaction they will have if they consume or come into contact with the allergen.

Informing any and all caregivers (childcare personnel, teachers, extended family members, parents of your child’s friends, etc.) about your child’s allergy is equally important.

If reducing exposure isn’t possible or is ineffective, medications may be prescribed, including antihistamines (which you can also buy over the counter) and inhaled or nasal spray steroids.

In some cases, an allergist may recommend immunotherapy (allergy shots) to help desensitize your child. However, allergy shots are only helpful for allergens such as dust, mold, pollens, animals, and insect stings. They’re not used for food allergies, and someone with food allergies must avoid that food.

Tips to avoid Airborne Allergens –

Here are some things that can help kids avoid airborne allergens:

1.         Keep family pets out of certain rooms, like your child’s bedroom, and bathe them if necessary.

2.         Remove carpets or rugs from your child’s room (hard floor surfaces don’t collect dust as much as carpets do).

3.         Don’t hang heavy drapes and get rid of other items that allow dust to accumulate.

4.         Clean frequently.

5.         Use special covers to seal pillows and mattresses if your child is allergic to dust mites.

6.         For kids allergic to pollen, keep the windows closed when the pollen season is at its peak, change their clothing after they’ve been outdoors, and don’t let them mow the lawn.

Keep kids who are allergic to mold away from damp areas, such as basements, and keep bathrooms and other mold-prone areas clean and dry.

The good news is that only a very small group of kids will experience severe or life-threatening allergies. With proper diagnosis, preventive measures, and treatment, most kids can keep their allergies in check and live happy, healthy lives.

I am writing this article in continuation of my earlier post about ‘Allergies in Children – Why, Who is prone and Which all types?’

 It’s so important to detect the allergy symptoms soon. The physician will be surely there to confirm the allergy but as a parent you should at least be informed about the symptoms of possible allergies in children. Allergy symptoms in children often resemble the signs that indicate they are tired or catching a cold. It is important then, that you know what the common allergies are for children, what may trigger these allergies, and what to do if your child has an allergic reaction to something.

The type and severity of allergy symptoms vary from allergy to allergy and child to child. Symptoms can range from minor or major seasonal annoyances (for example, from pollen or certain molds) to year-round problems (from allergens like dust mites or food). Because different allergens are more prevalent in different parts of the world, allergy symptoms can also vary depending on where you live. For example, peanut allergy is unknown in Scandinavia, where they don’t eat peanuts, but is common in the United States, where peanuts are not only a popular food, but are also found in many of the things we eat.

Allergy or Sickness?

 The most common and least dangerous allergy symptoms include red and itchy eyes, dark circles under the eyes, stuffy or runny nose, and general fatigue. Unfortunately, these are the same symptoms children display when they are starting to get sick. One way to tell if any of these symptoms is an indication of a virus or an allergy is to notice how quickly the symptoms appear. If a child is exposed to an allergy trigger, the reactive symptoms will become visible almost immediately or within a few hours. In addition, if the child does not have a fever, you should consider the possibility of an allergy.

 Triggers of Allergy Symptoms in Children

 Some obvious triggers are food, pet dander, indoor airborne inhalants such as dust or mold, and outdoor pollens. In these cases, you can often see, or at least identify the cause and connect it to the subsequent symptoms. Sometimes, however, it is more difficult to identify the cause of the symptoms because you may not even be aware that your child has been in the vicinity of the trigger.

Here  I am trying to consolidate the symptoms of common allergies which are triggered by different allergens.

Airborne Allergy Symptoms

Airborne allergens can cause something known as allergic rhinitis, which occurs in about 15% to 20% of Americans. It develops by 10 years of age and reaches its peak in the early twenties, with symptoms often disappearing between the ages of 40 and 60.

Symptoms can include:

• Sneezing
• Itchy nose and/or throat
• Nasal congestion
• Coughing

These symptoms are often accompanied by itchy, watery, and/or red eyes which are called allergic conjunctivitis. (When dark circles are present around the eyes, they’re called allergic “shiners.”) Those who react to airborne allergens usually have allergic rhinitis and/or allergic conjunctivitis. If a person has wheezing and shortness of breath, the allergy may have progressed to become asthma.

Itchy nose is also one of the symptoms usually observed. When a child has a cold, the nose will be stuffy or runny, but usually not accompanied by an itch. If your child is rubbing his nose often, you can be fairly certain that the stuffiness is due to an allergy. Allergies that cause this particular symptom are usually a reaction to airborne allergens such as dust or pollen.

Food Allergy Symptoms

The severity of food allergy symptoms and when they develop depends on:

1. How much of the food is eaten
2. The person’s sensitivity to the food

Symptoms of food allergies can include:

• Itchy mouth and throat when food is swallowed (some kids have only this symptom — called “oral allergy syndrome”)
• Hives (raised, red, itchy bumps)
• Eczematous rash
• Runny, itchy nose
• Abdominal cramps accompanied by nausea and vomiting or diarrhea (as the body attempts to flush out the food allergen)
• Difficulty breathing
• Shock

 

Insect Venom Allergy Symptoms

Being stung by an insect that a child is allergic to may cause some of these symptoms:

• Throat swelling
• Hives over the entire body
• Difficulty breathing
• Nausea
• Diarrhea
• Shock

 

Depending on how severe is the allergy the kind of symptoms varies. Below are the symptoms listed as per severity of the symptoms?

Mild Allergy Symptoms

Mild allergy symptoms can include:

•           Rash

•           Itchy, watery eyes

•           Congestion

Mild allergic reactions do not spread to other parts of the body.

Moderate Allergy Symptoms

Moderate allergic reactions can include symptoms that spread to other parts of the body, including:

•           Itchiness

•           Difficulty breathing

Severe Allergy Symptoms (Anaphylaxis)

Anaphylaxis is a rare, life-threatening emergency in which the body’s response to the allergen is sudden and affects the whole body. In rare instances, if the sensitivity to an allergen is extreme, a child may experience anaphylaxis (or anaphylactic shock) — a sudden, severe allergic reaction involving various systems in the body (such as the skin, respiratory tract, gastrointestinal tract, and cardiovascular system).

Allergy symptoms may begin with sudden itching of the eyes or face and within few minutes progress to more serious symptoms, including:

• Varying degrees of swellings that can make breathing and swallowing difficult (particularly of the face, throat, lips, and tongue in cases of food allergies)  
• Rapid drop in blood pressure
• Abdominal pain
• Cramps
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Mental confusion or dizziness    
• Unconsciousness
• Hives
• Tightness of the throat
• Hoarse voice
• Lightheadedness

Severe symptoms or reactions to any allergen, from certain foods to insect bites, require immediate medical attention. Also, if there is swelling anywhere around the mouth, such as lips or tongue, you can know that there is danger.

Anaphylaxis can happen just seconds after being exposed to a triggering substance or can be delayed for up to 2 hours if the reaction is from a food. It can involve various areas of the body.

Fortunately, though, severe or life-threatening allergies occur in only a small group of kids. In fact, the annual incidence of anaphylactic reactions is small — about 30 per 100,000 people — although those with asthma, eczema, or hay fever are at greater risk of experiencing them. Most anaphylactic reactions — up to 80% — are caused by peanuts or tree nuts.

Keep the details in mind and Take care !

Everyone is looking for that secret little pill or drink that will make losing weight more effective and easy. Let me firstly tell you that only through proper diet and exercise will losing weight and keeping the weight off really work. Many people question if green tea should be used as a dietary supplement in boosting one’s weight loss and helping suppress one’s hunger.

Green Tea is very beneficial for health as it has undergone minimal oxidation during making. This tea basically originates from China, however now it has become extremely popular in many other Asian and European countries because of its proclaimed herbal qualities. Doctors even claim that regular consumption of green tea helps in minimizing the risk of heart disease and many kinds of cancer. However, the most widespread use of Green tea is done to treat obesity.

If you check the contents of many popular diet pills, you’ll see “green tea” or “green tea extract” listed as one of the ingredients. The reason diet pills use green tea is that the green tea helps you lose weight. Of course it won’t be “20 pounds in one week” or other nonsense that marketing companies like to claim, but green tea has been scientifically proven to burn calories and block fat absorption. Green tea is a decent fat burner and can be found in many over the counter supplements today.

How does green tea work and will it be effective in your weight loss goals?

• Green tea is a Power Antioxidant. Some researchers have suggested that green tea is 200 more times effective than vitamin E. That’s right, 200 more times effective in burning fat for weight loss.
• Green tea may be used as a Sugar Regulator also known as a glucose regulator. What this means in a sense is that taking green tea slows down the rise in blood sugar following a meal.
• One is that green tea has helped aid weight loss by increasing the heart rate, causing a Greater Calorie Burn. Green tea may also inhibit fatty acid synthase. What this means is that green tea takes the fatty acid synthase and turns the carbs into fat. There have been studies conducted on animals that show that this breakdown of fatty acid synthase can lead to weight loss.
• Green tea has also been shown to burn fat and Lower LDL levels (that’s “bad” cholesterol) as well as Triglyceride levels.

Food (including sugar and fat) is synthesized into a substance called “triglyceride” in the liver and small intestine. It is then carried into the bloodstream to other tissues in the body. Triglyceride is used as source of energy for life support and physical activities, and is very necessary. The problem comes about when there are excess amounts of triglyceride, because then it’s turned into fat which subsequently causes obesity.

That’s where green tea comes in. It contains high amounts of polyphenols which activate the enzyme that is responsible for dissolving excess triglyceride. In the long run, this means that green tea effectively aids in burning fat.

• Now, not to raise one’s hopes that just taking green tea alone will allow for weight loss, it is important that we remember we must exercise in order to effectively take the weight off. Green tea’s true effects are very minimal at best and the effects can truly only be seen with the right diet and exercise program.
• Green Tea Helps You Exercise Longer. Everyone knows how important exercise is to losing weight. It burns calories, increases your energy, and builds muscle which in turn boosts your metabolism even higher. The catechin polyphenols in green tea appear to stimulate the use of fatty acids by liver and muscle cells. This subsequently reduces the rate that carbohydrates are used and allows for more endurance and longer exercise times. More endurance means more exercise, which means more calories burned, and it all adds up to more pounds lost for you.

The next question you probably have is how green tea works as power antioxidant and glucose regulator possible. Well, let me explain. Green tea slows down the process by amylase which is a digestive enzyme. This enzyme is important because this enzyme breaks down the carbs that can cause your blood sugar to peak after having a meal

How To Use Green Tea?

In order to derive the benefits from Green Tea, you need to use the green tea in a proper way. On a general you should use 2.25 grams of tea per 150 gm of water, or about one teaspoon of green tea per cup water. Green Tea is preferably brewed in an earthen pot with its lid covered. Timings for brewing Green tea depend upon the quality of the tea. High quality tea needs to be brewed for less time while low quality tea require a little more time to brew.

How Much Of Green Tea Is Enough?

Now when you have understood all the benefits of Green tea and its use, the million dollar question is that how much of green tea should you use daily? Now different scholars answer it differently. Some Chinese homeopathic practitioner asks to consume about 10 cups a day while many other tell to limit the use to 2 to 3 cups a day. On an average, extracts of all the results say that it is best to consume about 4 to 5 eight ounce cups of green tea per day for maximum weight loss and health benefits..

I advise that you always consult with a doctor before beginning any type of diet or exercise regimen. As with any supplement, there are risks. With green tea, the biggest risk is increased heart rate or feeling shaky. If this occurs, stop taking green tea or limit the amount of green tea you are taking and consult a doctor. All the best !!!

An allergy is an overreaction of the immune system to a substance that’s harmless to most people. But in someone with an allergy, the body’s immune system treats the substance (called an allergen) as an invader and reacts inappropriately, resulting in symptoms that can be anywhere from annoying to possibly harmful to the person.

In an attempt to protect the body, the immune system of the allergic person produces antibodies called immunoglobulin E (IgE). Those antibodies then cause mast cells and basophiles (allergy cells in the body) to release chemicals, including histamine, into the bloodstream to defend against the allergen “invader.”

It’s the release of these chemicals that causes allergic reactions, affecting a person’s eyes, nose, throat, lungs, skin, or gastrointestinal tract as the body attempts to rid itself of the invading allergen. Future exposure to that same allergen (things like nuts or pollen that you can be allergic to) will trigger this allergic response again. This means every time the person eats that particular food or is exposed to that particular allergen, he or she will have an allergic reaction.

Who Gets Allergies?

The tendency to develop allergies is often hereditary, which means it can be passed down through your genes. However, just because you, your partner, or one of your children might have allergies doesn’t mean that all of your kids will definitely get them, too. And someone usually doesn’t inherit a particular allergy, just the likelihood of having allergies.

But a few kids have allergies even if no family member is allergic. A child who is allergic to one substance is likely to be allergic to others as well.

How the Allergies Progress in Children?

Allergies present in different ways in different age groups. In infants and young children, allergic disease occurs as atopic dermatitis (eczema) or as food allergies. Children with atopic dermatitis are at increased risk of developing allergies and asthma, which are more likely to occur in the toddler years to school-age. This pattern of progression from one form of allergic disease to another is referred to as the “atopic march”. Atopic is a term that physicians use to mean that someone is allergic to various things (foods, environmental triggers such as pollens, molds and pet dander, for example).

Typically Atopic Dermatitis is the earliest manifestation of allergies, is seen in 10 to 20 percent of all children, and frequently seen during infancy. Atopic dermatitis, or eczema, is characterized by itching, with rash formation at the sites of scratching. The rash is typically red and dry, may have small blisters, and can flake and ooze over time.

In infants and very young children, this rash involves the face (especially the cheeks), chest and trunk, back of the scalp and may involve the arms and legs. This distribution reflects where the child is able to scratch, and therefore usually spares the diaper area. The location of the rash changes in older children to classically involve the skin in front of the elbows and behind the knees. Food and environmental allergies have been shown to worsen atopic dermatitis.

Common Airborne Allergens

Some of the most common things people are allergic to are airborne (carried through the air):

Dust mites are one of the most common causes of allergies. These microscopic insects live all around us and feed on the millions of dead skin cells that fall off our bodies every day. Dust mites are the main allergic component of house dust, which is made up of many particles and can contain things such as fabric fibers and bacteria, as well as microscopic animal allergens. Dust mites are present year-round in most parts of the United States (although they don’t live at high altitudes), and live in bedding, upholstery, and carpets.

Pollen is another major cause of allergies (most people know pollen allergy as hay fever or rose fever). Trees, weeds, and grasses release these tiny particles into the air to fertilize other plants. Pollen allergies are seasonal, and the type of pollen a child is allergic to determines when symptoms will occur. For example, in the mid-Atlantic states, tree pollination begins in February and lasts through May, grass from May through June, and ragweed from August through October; so people with these allergies are likely to experience increased symptoms during those times.

Pollen counts measure how much pollen is in the air and can help people with allergies determine how bad their symptoms might be on any given day. Pollen counts are usually higher in the morning and on warm, dry, breezy days, whereas they’re lowest when it’s chilly and wet. Although not always exact, the local weather report’s pollen count can be helpful when planning outside activities.

Molds, another common allergen, are fungi that thrive both indoors and out in warm, moist environments. Outdoors, molds may be found in poor drainage areas, such as in piles of rotting leaves or compost piles. Indoors, molds thrive in dark, poorly ventilated places such as bathrooms and damp basements, and in clothes hampers or under kitchen sinks. A musty odor suggests mold growth. Although molds tend to be seasonal, many can grow year-round, especially those indoors.

Pet allergens from warm-blooded animals can cause problems for kids and parents alike. When the animal — often a household pet — licks itself, the saliva gets on its fur or feathers. As the saliva dries, protein particles become airborne and work their way into fabrics in the home. Cats are the worst offenders because the protein from their saliva is extremely tiny and they tend to lick themselves more than other animals as part of grooming. Pet allergens are also present in dander, hair, and urine.

Cockroaches are also a major household allergen, especially in inner cities. Exposure to cockroach-infested buildings may be a major cause of the high rates of asthma in inner-city kids.

Common Food Allergens

The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology estimates that up to 2 million, or 8%, of kids in the United States are affected by food allergies, and that eight foods account for most of those food allergy reactions in kids: eggs, fish, milk, peanuts, shellfish, soy, tree nuts and wheat.

Cow’s milk (or cow’s milk protein). Between 1% and 7.5% of infants are allergic to the proteins found in cow’s milk and cow’s milk-based formulas. About 80% of formulas on the market are cow’s milk-based. Cow’s milk protein allergy (also called formula protein allergy) means that the infant (or child or adult) has an abnormal immune system reaction to proteins found in the cow’s milk used to make standard baby formulas, cheeses, and other milk products. Milk proteins can also be a hidden ingredient in many prepared foods.

Eggs. One of the most common food allergies in infants and young children, egg allergy can pose many challenges for parents. Because eggs are used in many of the foods kids eat — and in many cases they’re “hidden” ingredients — an egg allergy is hard to diagnose. An egg allergy usually begins when kids are very young, but most outgrow the allergy by age 5. Most kids with an egg allergy are allergic to the proteins in egg whites, but some can’t tolerate proteins in the yolk.

Seafood and shellfish. The proteins in seafood can cause a number of different types of allergic reactions. Seafood allergy is one of the more common adult food allergies and one that you don’t always grow out of.

Peanuts and tree nuts. Peanuts are one of the most severe food allergens, often causing life-threatening reactions. About 1.5 million people in the United States are allergic to peanuts. (Peanuts are not a true nut, but a legume — in the same family as peas and lentils, although people with peanut allergy don’t usually have cross-reactions to other legumes). Half of those allergic to peanuts are also allergic to tree nuts, such as almonds, walnuts, pecans, cashews, and often sunflower and sesame seeds. Like seafood allergy, peanut allergy is one you don’t always grow out of.

Soy. Like peanuts, soybeans are legumes. Soy allergy is more prevalent among babies than older children; about 30% to 40% of infants who are allergic to cow’s milk are also allergic to the protein in soy formulas. Soy proteins, such as soya, are often a hidden ingredient in prepared foods.

Wheat. Wheat proteins are found in many of the foods we eat — some are more obvious than others. As with any allergy, an allergy to wheat can happen in different ways and to different degrees. Although wheat allergy is often confused with celiac disease, there is a difference. Celiac disease is caused by sensitivity to gluten, which is found in wheat, oat, rye, and barley. It typically develops between 6 months and 2 years of age and the sensitivity causes damage to the small intestine in a different way to the usual allergic reaction.

Nuts are a common allergen among children and they can cause one of the more severe, even life-threatening allergic reactions known as anaphylaxis. Only about 6 percent of all children have clinically diagnosed food allergies. This number is rather small, but food intolerance, which presents itself much like a food allergy, adds to the public perception that this is a major issue. While the medical difference is quite different, the solution to a food allergy and intolerance is to remove the culprit food from you or your child’s diet.

Food allergies can be very dangerous and early detection is critical to managing them and the health of your child. Any family history of food allergies should be discussed between you and your spouse and with your healthcare provider prior to introducing solid foods to your baby. Food allergies or food intolerances can occur even if there is no previous family history of such. As you introduce your child to new foods, you should present them one at a time and watch for any changes in your child’s appearance or behavior. Some common symptoms of food allergies/intolerances include:

* Rashes or eczema, especially on the face

* Diaper rash

* Hives

* Runny nose, watery eyes or sneezing

* Diarrhea, gas or vomiting

* Irritability

* Temperament changes

* Puffy eyes

* Nasal congestion

One way to prevent food allergies is not to introduce commonly-known allergenic foods until later in your baby’s life, at one, two or even three-years-old. This approach is referred to as “delayed introduction.” The foods that children react to are those foods they eat often. The most common food allergens that cause problems in children are eggs, milk, peanuts, soy and wheat. A few more allergic foods include:

* Artificial colors and preservatives

* Berries

* Chocolate

* Citrus fruits

* Tomatoes

* Yeast

Fortunately, most allergic reactions in babies are temporary and the culprit foods can usually be reintroduced when the child is older. Food allergies can be very serious, so it is important to follow the advice that is given to you by a healthcare professional.

Other Common Allergens

Insect stings. For most kids, being stung by an insect means swelling, redness, and itching at the site of the bite. But for those with insect venom allergy, an insect bite can cause more severe symptoms. Although some doctors and parents have believed that most kids eventually outgrow insect venom allergy, a recent study found that insect venom allergies often persist into adulthood. An allergy evaluation is needed if wheezing and other signs of anaphylaxis are present after an insect sting or bite.

Medicines. Antibiotics — medications used to treat infections — are the most common types of medicines that cause allergic reactions. Many other medicines, including over-the-counter medications, can also cause allergic reactions. If you suspect a medicine allergy, talk to your doctor first before assuming a reaction is a sign of allergy.

Chemicals. Some cosmetics or laundry detergents can cause people to break out in an itchy rash. Usually, this is because someone has a reaction to the chemicals in these products. Dyes, household cleaners, and pesticides used on lawns or plants can also cause allergic reactions in some people.

Some kids also have what are called cross-reactions. For example, kids who are allergic to birch pollen might have reactions when they eat an apple because that apple is made up of a protein similar to one in the pollen. Another example is that kids who are allergic to latex (as in gloves or certain types of hospital equipment) are more likely to be allergic to kiwifruit, water chestnuts, or bananas.