Allergies And Milk
Michael Marcus, MD Pediatric Pulmonary
www.DrMDK.com
Maimonides Medical Center
Fellowship:Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
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Step 1:
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Allergy Detection
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How would you know if a kid's allergic to milk?
If a child is allergic to milk, then the first thing that we would see is that the patient would have similar symptoms whenever they're drinking milk. Since milk is a common ingestion on a daily basis therefore, we would see the symptoms of allergies occur on an almost daily basis as well. Allergy symptoms could be skin rash such as eczema, could be runny nose and congestion, or may even be wheezing such as asthma.
The next test we would try is skin testing to see if the milk was the cause. If the skin testing wasn't tolerated by the child, blood tests would be possible. We would then eliminate milk from the diet, use a substitute, and then rechallenge the child with milk at some point about three to six months later, just to be certain that the testing truly diagnosed a pure milk allergy.
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Step 2:
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Myth of Fact
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Some people feel that when a kid has a cold, if he's drinking milk the mucus gets thicker, and any kid.
Is that possibly true or not true?
It is variable. There are some children where the milk fat can actually increase the secretions as they drink it. There are many children who tolerate milk perfectly well with no increase in their secretions from their ingestion. So what I generally recommend to parents is "know your child". Give your child milk during a cold and see what happens.
If the secretions seem to be thicker or more uncomfortable to the child then eliminate milk for a day or two. However, don't do this for a long period of time.
