More children are being diagnosed with allergies to common foods such as milk, eggs and peanuts than ever before, but surprisingly, up to this point experts have not always agreed on exactly how to diagnose a food allergy. So, some experts say, a stunning 90% of so-called food allergies may not even be allergies at all — rather than having full-blown immune-based reactions to foods (i.e., an allergy), many children may simply have food sensitivities.
In December 2010, the National Institute on Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), working with more than 30 other professional, government and advocacy organizations, released new recommendations to help standardize the testing and diagnosis of potential food allergies and sensitivities. Teasing apart the difference between the two involves a series of increasingly specific tests. As we reported last month:
In order to diagnose a food allergy, the guidelines advise, ideally, confirming the presence of four factors: a report from the patient (or from the parent, in the case of children) of an adverse reaction such as a rash, intestinal difficulties, difficulty breathing or other reactions after consuming a particular food; a blood test that measures antibodies indicating an allergic immune reaction, a skin prick test with the allergen that shows an adverse reaction; and finally, the gold standard, a positive oral challenge test, in which the patient ingests a small amount of the food allergen.